Kuder created items intending to measure the elements considered important, desirable
and required in certain occupations, through investigation of clients’ system of interests.
In a statistical analysis of answers it can be verified to what extent the items truly
discriminate certain group criteria specific to certain occupations.
For instance, items such as:
- “repairing the car in the week-end;
- putting a watch together;
- changing the fittings of a leaking faucet;
- fixing a bicycle”, etc.
are considered significant in differentiating people of Mechanical interests from those
who have no interests of the sort.
Kuder also states that when people choose one of these items, they have the tendency to
choose others from the same category and the other way around. This gives us an insight
with respect to the interests systems polarization: when a certain area is chosen, some
others are rejected (Cottle, 1968).
Method presentation
Each item of Kuder’s survey is made up of a set of three sentences connected to activities
specific to the occupational field under investigation. Only two of the three statements
require an answer: the best liked and the most disliked are chosen.
Below is an example:
I like best I dislike most
A Repairing a faulty watch ○ A ○
B Book-keeping ○ B ○
C Painting a picture ○ C ○
As it can be seen, unlike the Strong inventory (SVIB) – which compares clients’ answers
to answers given by individuals successful in and satisfied with certain occupations – the
KPR survey requires marking the preference or the dislike, offering an image of areas of
personal interest, materialized in elements necessary in certain occupations.
In the two cases, after administering the interest inventory, the counsellor could say:
- in the case of the Strong inventory (SVIB): “your system of interests is
similar to that of a successful architect”; - in the case of the Kuder survey (KPR): “your interests point to social services
and business, while they are far from mechanics and music”.