Holland personality types and academic achievement

J. Holland (1973) viewed vocational choices, preferences, and achievements as functions of personality and contended that individuals can be categorized into 1 of 6 basic personality types: realistic (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), enterprising (E), and conventional (C). Holland's primary code types for 323 male and 352 female college freshman were assessed using the 6 General Occupational Theme scale scores of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. First-semester GPAs for each code type and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores served as criterion indices. Mixed support merged for Holland's prediction. Using primary personality types alone as the predictor of 1st-semester college GPA had some validity for males only. Although both I, S, A, and C males and females achieved the highest GPAs, the observed ordering of the groups did not conform with Holland's prediction. When SAT Total scores were examined, differences among the types emerged for both sexes. On this variable, I and A males achieved higher scores than S, E, or Tied types. Analogous with the GPA findings, A males appeared superior to the R types, whom Holland predicted to be the lowest achievers. I females obtained the highest mean SAT Total score, as predicted by Holland. (5 ref)