Page 321 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 31: Inventories

31.2 Purpose of Inventory Notes

Interest testing is done to achieve some purpose i.e.
(i) To provide teachers and counselors with information regarding the students preference and
aversions which will help them acquire better understanding of students and their problems.
(ii) To help the testes to identify and clarify their interests in terms of the demands of varied
courses and careers and choose work and experiences consistent with their interests.
(iii) To enable teachers, counselors and parents to know the kinds and intensity of the teste’s
interests and assist him to prepare his educational and vocational plans consistent with their
interests.
(iv) To help channelise the energies of the youth in different directions.
(v) To help in the selection of the right person for the right work, and thus save frustration.

31.3 Methods of Measuring Interest

We can measure the interests of individuals by the following methods :
(1) Observation : We may observe manifest interests. What an individual actually does is a good
indication of what his interests are.
(2) Claims of the Counselor : We can know the interests by knowing the expresses interests of the
individual, in a subject, activity, object or vocation. Verbal claim can be an Integrator of his
interests.
(3) Use of Instruments : We may assess interests using an instrument like Michigan Vocabulary.
Test on the grounds that if individual is really interested in something, he will know the
vocabulary involved in that area.
(4) Use of Inventories : We may determine the pattern of an individual’s interest from his responses
to lists of occupations and activities.
The later are too often influenced by his limited and faulty knowledge of occupations. This
technique is by far the most common means of assessing interests and is commonly used.

31.4 Advantages of Interest Inventories

Interest inventories are useful in many ways :
(1) They are well-adapted to vocational counseling. The student expects his interests to be
considered. The interpretation, when given, carries considerable force because the student can
see that he is looking at himself in a mirror, that he is only receiving an analysis of what he
himself has said.
(2) They are useful for the counselor too as they are less fraught with emotional significance. The
subject can discuss the interest scores with the counsellee freely.
(3) They are helpful devices for the counsellee too – Students do not mind revealing their interests
and are eager to have a report of their scores. A promise to interpret scores is an excellent, non-
threatening gambit to entice the student into the counselor’s office.
(4) They are economic devices — They can be given to a group; interpretation of profiles can be
carried out in group discussion.
(5) The provide excellent preliminary information either to further group study of careers or to
individual counseling.
(6) They assist counselor in dealing with many other student problems.

Interest inventories provide information about the student’s preferences which are more
stable than the verbally claimed interests.

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