Canadian Occupational Interest Inventory
(COII)Mihai JIG ĂU
Institute of Educational Sciences, BucharestHistory
This inventory of occupational interests (Canadian Occupational Interest Inventory –
COII) is based on a number of five bipolar factors identified by Cottle (1968). The basic
idea of the inventory is that within each factor (bipolar interest group) there are pairs of
reciprocally excluded trends. Thus, within the first Factor (opposition: preference for
activities with Things – preference for activities with People), it is assumed that subjects
clearly interested in activities such as handling and/or using objects cannot be equally
interested in interactions and/or communication with people.
Theoretical background
Psychological tests or inventories of interests yield one of the following:
- Raw scores: direct result, with no reference to other scores or norms.
- Normative scores: by comparing an individual score against the one obtained
by a sample group, that is the external criteria (e.g. part of the population
employed in a certain field against the entire working population).