test. High reliability is negative in counselling since an interview technique is valid when
it more rapidly leads to identifying more important counselling topics, which are often
different from the ones presented by the client in the beginning.
Method presentation
In general, the technique uses three sets of cards, realized so that they can be easily
handled, and the career exploration task should be easy for the client (Slaney, 1978, 1983;
Slaney and MacKinnon-Slaney, 1990, 2000).
The first set consists of 6 cards (size 5 x 8 cm) labelled according to Holland vocational
personality types with a short description for each type.
The second set includes:
a. 3 cards (4 x 6 cm) representing the categories: “I have great interest in these
activities”, “I have little or no interest in these activities” and “I dislike
these activities” ;
b. 23 cards (4 x 6 cm) for interest areas such as: social services, religious
activities, science, politics, law.The third set of cards is made up of:
a. 3 cards (5 x 8 cm) representing the categories “I may choose”, “unsure” and
“I would not choose” ;
b. 107 cards (3 x 5 cm) with occupation titles. Occupation cards designate
professions such as: reporter, nurse, administrator, carpenter, dentist,
geographer, secretary, etc.The card sorting technique is available in two versions: a) the sorting is done in the
counsellor’s presence and monitored and b) self-administration, which means that the
subject is offered the cards and the self-testing instructions, and results processing is
performed in a subsequent session, together with the counsellor.
Opting for a testing version is done according to the complexity of the problem the
subject seeks solution to (Moran, 1991).
If he/she is undecided or confused with respect to choosing an occupation, the counsellor
may decide on facilitating the sorting process by a series of clinical monitoring strategies.
For this, the counsellor may use the technique of reading out loud the protocol, and by