Part I _________________________________________________________________________________Figure 1: Holland’s hexagon of personality types. (After Holland, A Theory of Vocational Choice, 1959.)
He used this diagram to explain that people tend to resemble one type primarily, but they
may also have aspects of one or more adjacent types. Each personality type tends to have
aspects of the types on the adjacent sides of the hexagon, but little in common with the type
on the opposite side.! erefore, for example, a person might be primarily Realistic, with
an additional but smaller resemblance to the Conventional type. Such a person would be
described by the two-letter code RC and might be well suited to work as a Boilermaker or a
Roofer (both coded RC).! is person would have little in common with a Social personality
type and likely would not be very happy or productive as a Special Education Teacher (coded
SA). But this person could get along well with both Realistic and Conventional personalities
and, to a lesser extent, with Investigative personalities.Although Holland originally applied this model to academic advising, he soon extended it
to the larger question of career choice. Since then, hundreds of researchers and practitioners
have investigated the RIASEC framework and have applied it to real-life decisions and
situations. Researchers have even found it useful for predicting who will have the most traffi c
accidents or what kinds of drug abuse people are likely to engage in. More relevant to the
theme of this book, however, is the fact that a number of career decision-making assessments
have been developed to help people determine what personality type best describes themHolland went further by arranging these six personality types on a hexagon:Realistic Investigative
Conventional Artistic
Enterprising Social