Vocational card sorting technique represents an approach to career exploration in the
context of career counselling, requiring active involvement on the part of the counsellor
and on the part of the client.
Card sorting was first used as a research method. Tyler (1960) used the respective
technique in the study of individuality, and the data obtained encouraged him to use it as
a counselling method and not just as a personality evaluation tool. In his paper published
in Journal of Counseling Psychology, Tyler started from the premise that individuality is
given by the choices people make and the way these choices are organized. The method
to investigate this hypothesis consisted in three stages, to this day underlying the
procedure of card sorting in career counselling.
In the first stage, subjects were confronted with 100 cards showing occupations, leisure
activities, community activities, etc. and were asked to place them in the following
categories: “I would not choose”, “I would choose”, “Indifferent”. On eliminating the
items under “Indifferent”, in the second stage subjects were requested to subdivide the
categories “I would not choose”, “I would choose” into occupations, according to their
common aspects. Thus, subjects were required to group occupations they rejected for a
certain reason and those they rejected for another reason in different subcategories. The
third stage consisted in questioning subjects with respect to the themes / criteria used in
grouping and the reasoning behind the choices (what each category represents, what the
elements in the same group have in common, what differentiates them, which
subcategories are more important, etc.).
Tyler considered this is the procedure to yield the uniqueness of the person involved in
the process of career choice. Unclear though the validation the technique was, the data
resulting from testing the subjects in two successive moments strengthened the belief
regarding the usefulness of the method in identifying individuality. The overlapping
percentage in case of occupational choice was 61%, and in case of leisure activities 54%.
The conclusions of the study showed that card sorting is also efficient as a component of
counselling and not just as a personality evaluation method.
Tyler’s card sorting technique was later refined and enriched by Dolliver (1967). He
recognized the qualities of the method and considers card sorting a form of structured
interview, despite having more in common with tests or inventories.
Dolliver research supplied further examples of the use of card sorting laying a particular
stress on the role of the counsellor in stimulating the integration of information obtained
from card sorting. Adding stages such as occupation hierarchy according to the client’s
preference and ordering reasons for choice by their importance, Dolliver reduced the gap
between card sorting and clinical intervention, stressing on the holistic approach to career
exploration. In this context, the psychometric properties specific to classical evaluation
instruments lose their worth and aspects such as exploratory validity gain greater weight
(Tittle, 1976), alongside the capacity to stimulate the career exploration. In his work,
Dolliver argues that card sorting is a structured interview technique especially targeting
the reasons for which a subject makes certain choices, and in this context the concepts of
reliability and validity have different meaning and contents compared to the context of a