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Examining the Application of Holland's Theory to Vocational

Interests and Choices of Chinese College Students

Article  in  Journal of Career Assessment · February 2009

DOI: 10.1177/1069072708325743

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Interests and Choices of Chinese

College Students
Mei Tang
University of Cincinnati

This study investigates the applicability of Holland’s career development theory in cross-cultural
settings by examining vocational interests of Chinese college students and the relationship
between those interests and their career choices. One hundred sixty five Chinese college stu-
dents complete a Chinese version of the Self-Directed Search and a questionnaire requesting
their demographic information, career choices, reasons for making a particular choice, and
suggested areas needed for vocational guidance. The Multidimensional Scaling results sup-
ported the RIASEC order of Holland’s typology for male students and equivalent distance
among six types for female students. The majority of participants had a medium level of con-
gruence between interests and choices as measured by the C-Index. Personal interests, social
needs, and job market are identified as the top reasons for making a career choice. Practical
outcome-oriented career implementation skills are more desired than self-exploration for
vocational guidance.

Keywords: career assessment; cross-cultural application; interests of Chinese students

H olland’s vocational choice theory (1997) has had an enormous impact on vocational
theories, career counseling practice, and vocational assessment (Campbell & Borgen,
1999; Rayman & Atanasoff, 1999). Holland’s typology model has generated many studies
about vocational interest structure and the relationship between vocational interests and
choices. Holland (1997) postulates that congruence between personalities of individuals
and work environments leads to job tenure and satisfaction. The six types of personality are
in the circular order of Realistic (R)–Investigative (I)–Artistic (A)–Social (S)–Enterprising
(E)–Conventional (C) represented by a hexagonal figure. The empirically tested usefulness
and easy application of Holland’s theory made it widely used in career counseling practice
and researched across different cultures.
The findings regarding the propositions of Holland’s career model are generally support-
ive; however, cross-cultural studies on Holland’s vocational structure have yielded contro-
versial and inconsistent findings (Rounds, 1995; Rounds & Tracey, 1996; Ryan, Tracey, &
Rounds, 1996). Pertaining to Holland’s vocational interest structures, Tak’s (2004) study
about Korean students found evidence for the same ordering of RIASEC types. More sup-
port of RIASEC structure came from Alves Ferreira and Hood’s (1995) study in which the

Author’s Note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mei Tang, Division of Human Services,
College of Education, M. L. 0002, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0002; e-mail: mei.tang@uc.edu.

1
2 Journal of Career Assessment

matrices of the Portuguese students’ vocational interests and Holland’s Vocational

Preference Inventory were similar. Hong Kong college students’ interests were also consis-
tent with Holland’s model (Farh, Leong, & Law, 1998). Tracey, Watanabe, and Schneider
(1997) found a similar interest structure for the Japanese sample, but the fit of the six-type
and spherical model was better for the U.S. sample than for the Japanese sample. Some other
studies found evidence for the RIASEC structure but with interest order different than
Holland’s prediction. The high school and college students in Taiwan were found to have
IRASEC for males with RI only a short distance from each other but further distant from the
others; RIASEC for females formed a similar pattern to males (Tien, 1994, 1997). The inves-
tigation of the Chinese college students’ structure of vocational interests, measured by the
Strong Interest Inventory, revealed that Chinese male college students had the interest order
of RISAEC and female students had the order of IRSAEC (Tang, 2001). A recent study by
Yang, Stokes, and Hui (2005) further investigated the validity of Holland’s hexagon model
and found fit for the circular order model on two of the subtests of the Self-Directed Search
(SDS). However, Yang et al. did not find a fit for the circumplex model. In other words, the
equal distance between the adjacent types was not supported. The poor fit of Holland’s hexa-
gon model for cross-cultural samples also includes studies on Black South Africans (du Toit
& de Bruin, 2002) and Bolivian college students (Glidden-Tracey & Parraga, 1996).
One of the major postulates of Holland’s career choice theory is that congruence occurs
when the personalities of individuals and work environments match; a person is more satis-
fied and tends to have tenure if his or her personality and interests are congruent with the pat-
tern of the work environment. However, Leong, Austin, Sekaran, and Komarraju (1998)
studied Indian workers and found that congruence, consistency, and differentiation were not
correlated with job satisfaction. The research on Asian American career development has
found that Asian Americans’ inventoried interests are not necessarily related to their actual
career choice but significantly influenced by other factors such as acculturation and family
background (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). In traditional Asian cultures, an individual’s occu-
pation is viewed as more as a family’s accomplishment rather than personal achievement and
social status (Leong, 1986; Leong & Serafica, 1995). A person’s career choice should fulfill
family expectations and should bring honor to the family. It is considered selfish if one puts
his or her own needs ahead of family needs. In contrast to Western culture, traditional Asian
cultural orientation is collectivist rather than individualistic (Kim, Atkinson, & Umemoto,
2001). The concept of self is focused on oneself in relation to others and on harmonious inter-
dependence among others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Therefore, one’s career choice is
hardly an individual choice but a choice evolved from family needs and expectations.
Similarly, the process of making a career choice is not autonomous either. Chinese cul-
ture values family accord, deference to senior people in the family, and interdependence of
each other (Moy, 1992); consequently, parents play a critical role in the career–decision
making process (Leong, 1986; Min, 1995). Leong and Chou (1994) have argued that Asian
Americans tend to choose a career that would satisfy their parents; therefore, a young per-
son’s occupational choice may not necessarily be a choice of their own will but a compro-
mise between parents’ expectations and their own interests. France, Jin, Huang, Si, and
Zhang (1991) have found that Chinese middle school students exhibit less independence in
making a career choice compared to the middle school students in Canada. They further
argued that career guidance in Canada was based on independent choice, whereas in China,
 Tang / Chinese Students’ Career Interests and Choices 3

such independence was largely absent. A comparative study about career choices of Asian
American, White American, and Chinese college students found that the Chinese group was
more likely than the other two groups to be influenced by their parents and family mem-
bers in choosing an occupation. They were also more willing to make a compromise with
their parents if there was a difference between their personal preference and their parents’
expectations for their career choices (Tang, 2002). The same study has also found that
Chinese college students’ ideal occupational choices do not correlate significantly with
their actual choice, but on the other hand, their actual choices are significantly correlated
with their parents’ preferred choices for them. Family factors seem to play a more impor-
tant role than personal interests for Chinese students in career decision making (e.g., Leong
& Chou, 1994). It also appears that the structural ordering of interests may be different for
Chinese students (e.g., Yang et al., 2005). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate how
Holland’s postulates on congruence and the circular model apply to college populations in
the Chinese cultural context, particularly since the social, cultural, and economic context in
China has undergone dramatic change in the past 2 decades.
Economic reforms and subsequent changes in the labor market during the past 20 years
in China provide both challenges and opportunities for career counseling. College gradu-
ates are no longer guaranteed a job at graduation, as has occurred in the past. Instead, grad-
uating students have to hunt for jobs. As a result, both students and institutions began to
realize the importance of vocational guidance for successful living. Vocational guidance
has recently become critically important due to the changing practices of employment and
the rising needs of individuals as a result of the change. However, vocational guidance in
China is still developing (Zhang, Hu, & Pope, 2002) and lacks a theoretical framework.
Existing Western career development theories may be an easy solution, but few research
studies have been conducted to examine how Western career development theories can be
applied to implementation of career guidance in China. This study investigated individuals’
occupational interests and the relationship with career choices to determine whether
Holland’s career choice theory about personality congruence between individuals and
occupations is applicable to the Chinese population.
The major goal of this study is to examine the applicability of Holland’s theory to career
development of Chinese college students. Specifically, the study investigated the vocational
structure of Chinese college students to determine whether the RIASEC model is appro-
priate for this population. The study also examined the relationship between Chinese col-
lege students’ occupational interests and career choices to determine whether congruence
exists between individuals’ career interests and choices, and it also looked at factors influ-
encing the levels of congruence. The third goal of this study was to explore what factors
influenced Chinese students’ career choices and in what areas they needed assistance in
regard to making career choices.

Method
Participants
In all, 165 participants were recruited from three universities in northeast areas of China,
where the majority of the residents are of Han ethnicity. The three universities are located
4 Journal of Career Assessment

in an industrial urban area, and all the participants are from the same ethnic group and cul-
tural background. The sample was a good representation of the typical college population
in China because these participants were from colleges that are ranked average among
Chinese colleges/universities. In other words, they were not either from prestigious univer-
sities or from colleges unaccredited by the state Department of Education. The average age
of the sample was 21.6 years with a standard deviation of 2.78 years. Male students con-
stituted 37%, and female students constituted 62.4% of the sample. The sample represented
a wide range of majors: 29.1% Chinese language arts, 30.2% business and management,
25.4% science, 12.7% economics, and 2.4% others. Demographic information showed that
22% of the students’ fathers and 7.8% of the mothers had college degrees.

Instruments
The demographic questionnaire collected information on participants’ age, gender,
major, career choice, parents’ educational background, and occupations. The same ques-
tionnaire also asked the participants to rank the factors that have influenced their career
choices. The available choices were personal interests, social needs, parental expectation,
job market, ability utilization, self-actualization, job security, media influence, friends’
influence, and reaction to what is available. These items were developed based on the find-
ings from the literature (e.g., Tang, 2001, 2002; Zhang et al., 2002). The participants could
also list additional ones if the factor in their minds was not in the list. The demographic
questionnaire inquired what information, related to vocational guidance, the students would
like to have in their process of making a career choice.
The SDS (Holland, 1994) consists of five sections—daydreaming, activities, occupa-
tional preferences, competencies, and self-estimates. This instrument has been translated
into many different languages other than English and used widely in both research and
practice. The reliability of the split-half was .85 to .95 and the reliability of 4 to 12 week
intervals was from .76 to .89 (Ciechalski, 2002). The report also indicated that the SDS pos-
sessed good predictive and concurrent validity—overall 54% hit rate between SDS and
most other interest inventories (Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1997). The Cronbach’s alpha
for this current study is .95.
Two parts of SDS pertaining to occupational interests were used to measure individuals’
interests: Activities and Occupational Preferences. These two parts were chosen to measure
the interests because the items in these two sections are directly related to the measurement
of interests and were found to best fit the Holland’s circular model of (Yang, Lance, & Hui,
2006). The researcher was granted permission by the Psychological Assessment Resources
(PAR) to translate the two parts and to use them in the study. The instrument was first trans-
lated into Chinese by the researcher, and then a graduate student who is fluent in both
English and Chinese, but not familiar with SDS or any other assessment on career devel-
opment, translated the Chinese version back into English. The back translation was first
examined by the researcher for accuracy and then sent to PAR to ensure the linguistic and
content equivalence of the translation. There were no discrepancies found, and the final ver-
sion was approved by PAR for use in research studies.
 Tang / Chinese Students’ Career Interests and Choices 5

Procedure
The participants were recruited from various academic departments in several universities
in Northeast China. Different departments were first identified to represent a diversity of
majors. Since the students in the same department take their classes as a cohort group, a few
large classes with two or more majors represented in the class were selected for distribution
of the instrument. These participants were recruited in the class and informed by their
instructors that they would be administered a demographic questionnaire and an instrument
about vocational interests. The instructors of each selected class were oriented by the
researcher regarding the purpose of the study and guidelines for distributing and collecting
the instruments. The students completed the instruments and were briefed by the instructors
in the class. The briefing included the use of data collected in the study, appreciation of par-
ticipation from students, and contact information of the researcher. The data, once collected,
were entered by the research assistant who is fluent in both English and Chinese.

Data Analysis
The highest three scores of the combined scores of “Activities” and “Occupations” were
used as the summary code of participants’ interests, based on the suggestions of the SDS
manual. The career choices indicated by the participants were coded (three letter code)
according to Holland’s “The Occupations Finder” (1994). The career choices of the partic-
ipants were coded into Holland codes following the same guidelines.
A congruence index was calculated to denote the levels of congruence between career
choice and interests. The C-Index (Brown & Gore, 1994) was used in this study. According
to Brown and Gore (1994), and Gore and Brown (2006), C-Index is a simple congruence
index that better represents Holland’s (1997) person–environment congruence proposition.
It is sensitive to the uneven number of codes as well. The highest possible congruence score
one can get from C-Index is 18 and the lowest possible congruence score is 0, which makes
interpretation easier.
Several multiple regression analyses were performed to investigate whether the demo-
graphic factors and reasons for their career choices would influence the congruence levels.
All the predicting variables were entered into the model simultaneously.
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis was used to examine the underlying structure
of vocational interests for Chinese college students. The purpose of MDS was to identify
and model the structure and dimensions of a set of stimuli (objects or events) from the dis-
similarity data observed among the stimuli. The use of MDS could also produce a special
representation of the distance among investigated variables (Davidson, 1983; Davison,
Richards, & Rounds, 1986). MDS is a widely used statistical procedure to study the struc-
ture of interest as found in many similar studies (Haverkamp, Collins, & Hansen, 1994;
Tien, 1994, 1997). The Euclidean distance model was used to examine the relationship
among the six vocational interest types proposed by Holland (1997) on two dimensions.
The goodness-of-fit measure was indicated by stress values based on Krushal Stress
Formula 1, with 0 representing a perfect fit between the MDS solution to the observed data.
Stress values equaling or close to 1 indicate poor fit. In this study, RSQ, the squared corre-
lation between the data and the distances, was used as an additional fitness index. The cor-
responding distances accounted for the proportion of variance of the scaled data.
6 Journal of Career Assessment

Table 1
Intercorrelations Among Six Interest Types
Realistic 1 Investigative 2 Artistic 3 Social 4 Enterprising 5 Conventional 6

1 —
2 .508** (.40) —
3 .336** (.22) .359** (.43) —
4 .38** (.34) .477** (.43) .499** (.55) —
5 .175 (.48) .206* (.39) .367** (.51) .39** (.65) —
6 .138 (.51) .219* (.39) .124 (.34) .277** (.57) .50** (.71) —
M 5.26 8.17 12.63 11.55 12.55 8.04
SD 4.62 5.93 6.43 5.55 6.22 5.54

Note: The correlation coefficients in parentheses are interrelationship coefficients from Holland (1997).
*p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .001.

The descriptive and correlation analyses were performed using the demographic infor-
mation and interests data. Two multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine
whether the demographic factors, or other factors influencing the career choices, would
predict the levels of congruence between interests and choices, and whether the reasons for
career choice would be a significant predictor for congruence.

Results
Typology Model
The means, standard deviations, and the intercorrelations among the six Holland codes of
interests for Chinese students, measured by SDS, are presented in Table 1. As posited by
Holland’s typology model, strong relationships were found between (a) Realistic and
Investigative types, (b) Artistic and Social types, and (c) Enterprising and Conventional types,
and weak associations were found between (a) Artistic and Conventional types and (b) Realistic
and Enterprising types. However, the relationships between the following types were rather dif-
ferent from Holland’s pattern: Social and Enterprising, Social and Conventional, Realistic and
Enterprising, and Realistic and Conventional. Correlation coefficients published by the SDS
manual (Holland, 1994, 1997) are presented in parentheses in Table 1. The matrices of the cur-
rent study and Holland’s were compared for similarity, using the method of Proximity, and the
Pearson coefficient was only found to be at .29, far distant from a perfect match at 1.00.
ALSCAL, a statistical program used in multidimensional scaling was performed. Two
dimensional ALSCAL solutions are presented in Figures 1 & 2. For male Chinese partici-
pants, the stress value was .18, and RSQ was .89, which indicated a satisfactory fit between
the configurations and the data. The order of the plotted male Chinese college students sup-
ports the hypothesized RIASEC ordering by Holland. Dimension I was represented by
Realistic versus Enterprising, and Dimension II was represented by Conventional versus
Artistic. The shape of the sample configuration, however, was not close to a hexagon at all.
Realistic and Investigative were much closer to each other than expected. The distance
between Social and Artistic types was also very close. On the other hand, the distance
between Realistic and Conventional types is much larger than expected.
 Tang / Chinese Students’ Career Interests and Choices 7

Figure 1
ALSCAL Solutions for Chinese Male College Students
"I" should be here.
Configuration of SDS (Male)
1.50 C

1.00
R
0.50
Dimension 2

0.00
E

–0.50

S
–1.00
A
–1.50
–2.50 –1.50 –0.50 0.50 1.50 2.50
Dimension 1

Note: R = Realistic; I = Investigative; A = Artistic; S = Social; E = Enterprising; C = Conventional.

For female participants, the stress value was .17 and RSQ was .84, which also indicated
a satisfactory fit between the configurations and the data. The order of the plotted female
Chinese college students’ data shows RCEASI, which is a little different from the hypoth-
esized RIASEC ordering by Holland. The ordering of Artistic and Social is reversed in cir-
cular order. Dimension I was represented by Realistic versus Artistic, and Dimension II was
represented by Conventional versus Investigative and Enterprising. The shape of the sam-
ple configuration was close to a hexagon theorized by Holland except that the order of
Social and Artistic is reversed.

Congruence
The congruence scores between Holland codes of participants’ interests and their career
choices were calculated using the C-Index (Brown & Gore, 1994). The results showed that
the mean of the congruence index was 10.72 with a standard deviation at 3.04. Based on the
suggestion from Brown and Gore, the low category was set between 0 and 8, the middle range
between 9 and 13, and the high range between 14 and 18. Of the participants, 20.4% were in
the low category, 65.3% were in the medium category, and 14.7% were in the high category.
Two multiple regression analyses’ results showed that neither the demographic factors
nor the reasons for career choices were significant in predicting one’s congruence level.
The model for demographic factors (age, parents’ educational levels, and occupational lev-
els) found R2 = .18, F = .77 with df(5, 111), and R2 Change = .03. The model for reasons
for career choices (e.g., personal interests, job security, social needs, etc.) found R2 = .36,
F = 1.21 with df(10, 79), and R2 Change = .13.
8 Journal of Career Assessment

Figure 2
ALSCAL Solutions for Chinese Female College Students

Configuration of SDS (Female)

1.00 I
S

0.50 A
Dimension 2

R
0.00

–0.50

–1.00 E
C

–1.50
–2.50 –1.50 –0.50 0.50 1.50 2.50

Dimension 1

Note: R = Realistic; I = Investigative; A = Artistic; S = Social; E = Enterprising; C = Conventional.

Factors Influencing Career Choices and Vocational Needs

The participants were asked to rank order the factors in a list of 10 that were important
in their career choices. The results of descriptive analysis revealed that personal interests
were cited most often as important for their career choices. The detailed information is pre-
sented in Table 2. The low means indicated selections of higher ranking by more partici-
pants. Table 2 also lists the information of ranking if organized by the percentages of each
item being selected as number one reasons for the participants’ career choices. The differ-
ences between the two orders above 2 places were noticed for Self-Actualization (ranked 4
by mean and 1 by percentage of ranking of 1), and Job Market (ranked 7 by mean and 4 by
percentage of ranking of 1).
In regard to vocational needs and areas in which they needed help, the results revealed that
a majority of the students would like to get assistance in job-seeking skills and information
about the job market. About half of the sample also expressed a desire to get assistance with
information about occupations and understanding their abilities (see Table 3 for detailed
information). Fewer participants (the percentage scores were lower than 25%) would like to
seek help in the areas of understanding one’s interests, career aspirations, and values.

Discussion
This study explores the applicability of Holland’s career development theory in cross-
cultural settings with three aims: (a) to determine whether the hexagon structure with the
RIASEC order applies to the Chinese college students in this study, (b) to examine what
 Tang / Chinese Students’ Career Interests and Choices 9

Table 2
Reasons for Making Career Choices
Rank by Percentage of Rank by Percentage
Mean Reasons Mean Ranking 1 of Ranking

1 Personal interests 3.71 23.8% 2

2 Job security 3.73 22.4% 3
3 Social need 3.84 14.1% 5
4 Self-actualization 4.04 23.9% 1
5 Ability utilization 4.10 10.1% 7
6 Parent expectation 4.54 12.5% 6
7 Job market 4.65 16.1% 4
8 Media influence 6.38 3.3% 9
9 Friends’ influence 7.8 1.7% 10
10 Reaction to what’s available 8.08 6.0% 8

Note: N = 165.

Table 3
Areas in Which Students Hope to Get Assistance
Areas Percentage

Job seeking skills 60%

Information about job market 52.1%
Information about occupations 49.1%
Understanding my ability 47.3%
Understanding my interests 22.4%
Understanding career aspirations 18.2%
Understand my values 13.9%

Note: N = 165.

kind of congruence levels exist for them and what factors influence congruence, and (c) to
investigate the reasons for their choices and what kind of vocational guidance they need for
making their career choice. The findings generally support the appropriateness of Holland’s
typology model in explaining the structure of vocational interests of Chinese college stu-
dents, but the relationship among the six interest types are not exactly in the same pattern
as predicted by Holland (1997).
The results of multidimensional scaling show that Chinese students have almost an iden-
tical order of RIASEC as proposed by Holland (1997), with one exception (the reverse
order of Artistic and Social for female students). Such support for the theoretical structure
and hypothesized order of relationship of Holland is consistent with the findings of other
studies about vocational structure of Chinese and Asian American students (Haverkamp,
Collins, & Hansen, 1994; Tang, 2001). Though a basically similar order of RIASEC is
found for the Chinese participants, the interrelations among the six types deviate from
Holland’s prediction. A strong relationship between Realistic and Investigative types and
Artistic and Social types provides evidence of support for Holland’s position that adjacent
two types should be closely associated with each other. A distant relationship is found
10 Journal of Career Assessment

between Investigative and Enterprising, and Artistic and Realistic as hypothesized, because
they are on the opposite ends of the hexagon. However, the distance between Realistic and
Conventional is remote, and the correlation coefficient is low, especially for male students,
which does not support the hypothesized close relationship. This finding needs to be inter-
preted in the cultural context in China. Most of the occupations in the Realistic type involve
outdoor activities and manual labor, and most of the occupations in Conventional type
involve routine, tedious but indoor activities (usually in an office building). In China, work-
ing as a manual laborer in an office setting is perceived very differently from working as a
manual laborer in factories or outdoors. The former is usually perceived as having higher
social status and better financial rewards, whereas the latter is considered as having lower
social status and power. Even though both types share the same or similar job activities
according to Holland’s coding, they are quite different job categories in Chinese culture. It
is understandable that Realistic and Conventional types were less statistically correlated
than hypothesized.
Furthermore, the MDS results show the closeness of Realistic and Enterprising types and
their distinction from the rest of Holland’s codes on Dimension 1 for male students; for
female students, Realistic/Investigative/Conventional types is shown to be distant to the rest
on Dimension 1. This finding is similar to the results of other studies showing closeness of
Realistic and Investigative types and distance from the rest on one dimension (Haverkemp
et al., 1994; Tien, 1994, 1997; Tang, 2001). This dimension can be understood as a dis-
tinction between soft science (e.g., Social and Enterprising) and hard science (Realistic and
Investigative) as argued by Tien (1997) in other studies. A gender difference also emerged
on Dimension 2. For male students, Social and Artistic types are the opposite of Realistic
and Conventional types, which supports Holland’s proposition. However, female Chinese
students perceive Enterprising and Conventional types as distinct from the rest on
Dimension 2. Such a finding can be explained by a distinction between business-related
versus nonbusiness occupations in the Chinese socioeconomic context. Business related
(Enterprising) activities in China are perceived as having similarities with the Conventional
type because many items in the Conventional category on SDS involve working in an
office, which is viewed by Chinese as business or related occupations, particularly for
women. For instance, a secretary working in an office building for an entrepreneur would
be perceived by the Chinese as having a business-related occupation even though this per-
son is not involved in sales, marketing, or any other types of enterprising activities. Thus,
the Chinese female participants viewed Enterprising and Conventional activities as more
similar (both “business”) and unique than the other types (“nonbusiness”).
Pertaining to Holland’s (1997) proposition of congruence, the findings of this study
shows that the congruence scores between Chinese students’ vocational interests and their
career choices, as measured by C-Index, are found to be mainly in the medium range
(65.3% in the range of 9-13). A smaller percentage of applicants scored higher on the con-
gruence index (14.7% in the range of 14-18). In other words, very few participants choose
an occupation that closely corresponds with their vocational interests. This pattern of find-
ings is discrepant with Holland’s congruence theory but provides support for the argument
that Asians and Asian Americans may not choose a career based primarily on their interests
or individual considerations (Leong & Chou, 1994). The reason for the lack of congruence
is not clear. Demographic factors and reasons for career choices, as examined in this study,
 Tang / Chinese Students’ Career Interests and Choices 11

were not found significant in influencing the congruence scores. Actual factors such as obe-
dience to parental decisions, as well as the need for financial reward and job security prob-
ably influence Chinese students to make compromises between their own aspirations and
choices that meet both ends—their interests and their parents’ expectations.
Parental influence on career choice was found as a significant factor for Chinese college
students. In fact, parents, relatives, and siblings have been identified as important resources
for Chinese college students in their career decision making (Tang, 2002). The findings of
this study, furthermore, reveal that personal interests, job security, and social needs are the
top reasons for Chinese students’ career choices, in addition to parental expectations.
Consistent with the literature about collectivism and family accord about Asian culture
(Kim et al., 2001; Moy, 1992), the findings of this study also show that social needs are top
factors for career choices. For many years, young people in China have been educated to
contribute to the social good and to follow governmental demands (Hu, Chen, & Lew,
1994). Therefore, it is not surprising to observe social needs being chosen as one of the top
reasons, even in today’s society where the free-market economy has greatly influenced peo-
ple’s ideology.
Very interestingly, the most needed areas for vocational guidance identified by the Chinese
students in this study are job-seeking skills and information about the job market and occu-
pations, which relate to career implementation rather than exploration. The only area with a
higher percentage in the career exploration category is understanding one’s abilities, which
may be considered important because of the worry that they may not be qualified for the job
(again concerned about assurance of a job). This practical outcome oriented inclination
expressed by Chinese college students in regard to their vocational guidance needs reflects
the pressure many youth face today in China. As discussed by Zhang, Hu, and Pope (2002),
the transition from a planned economic system to a market economic system brought a dra-
matic change to the Chinese employment system. People are still adjusting to the uncertainty
of relying on oneself to seek jobs, instead of being assigned one by the government.
Therefore, knowing how to secure a job is far more important than knowing what type of job
fits one’s personality. Self-awareness and self-understanding are essential only when work is
an expression of self; otherwise, when work is solely a means to make a living, getting a job
becomes more critical than finding a perfect match to the work environment.
The generalizability of the findings should be cautiously considered due to the sample
size and lack of national representation. The questionnaire about the factors of influence
and areas of needs for vocational guidance is not a standardized instrument or empirically
tested. To further examine the application of Holland’s theory in cross-cultural settings, a
larger sample with national representation and cross-sectional validation studies are neces-
sary. The empirically verified measurement about family influences, the process of making
a career choice, and factors in choosing an occupation should be developed. Future studies
should also explore what factors other than demographics would influence congruence
between individuals’ interests and career choices.
In conclusion, the findings of this study supported the fit of six Holland’s types in the
order of RIASEC for the Chinese male college students’ vocational interests structure and
the circumplex model for Chinese female students, but the interrelations among the six
Holland types are not exactly the same as Holland’s (1997) predictions. The findings under-
score the importance of interpreting patterns of interests against the backdrop of cultural
12 Journal of Career Assessment

context. Regarding congruence between interests and career choices, the findings reveal the
pattern that a majority of the participants have a medium range of congruence, with lower
numbers of participants in either low or high congruence. None of the demographic factors
were found to be correlated to the congruence level. Personal interest is among the top rea-
sons that influence the career decision making, indicating a plausible rationale to warrant
further examination of vocational interests and structure to enhance career intervention.
The study also shows that practical strategies of the job search are more valued than explo-
ration of personal attributes. Considering the economic and cultural context in China today,
it is understandable that securing a job is more important than self-expression.

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