Circular unidimensional scaling: A new look at group differences in interest structure

The fit of J. L. Holland's (1959, 1997) RIASEC model to U.S. racial-ethnic groups was assessed using circular unidimensional scaling. Samples of African American, Asian American, Caucasian American, and Hispanic American high school students and employed adults who completed either the UNIACT Interest Inventory (K. B. Swaney, 1995) or the Strong Interest Inventory (L. W. Harmon, J. C. Hansen, F. H. Borgen, & A. L. Hammer, 1994) were obtained from published sources. Two circumplex models were evaluated: a quasi-circumplex model with unconstrained distances between adjacent types and a circulant model constrained to equal distances. Results indicate that a quasi-circumplex model was a good fit with all samples; however, the circulant model may be more appropriate for Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans than for other groups. Circulant model results suggest that distinctions made between Holland's types may be less salient for some groups and that additional work is needed to produce interest measures with improved structural validity.