Selecting items for interest inventory keys

Abstract

Several methods of scoring an interest inventory so as to maximize the separation of workers in an occupation from workers in general were applied to samples of electricians (compared with civilian workers) and aviation machinists' mates (compared with Navy men-in-general.) Criteria of a good key were (a) its ability to separate groups (per cent overlap), and (b) its test-retest reliability. It was found that (1) using unit item weights an optimum number of items can be found for scoring, (2) units weights with an optimum number of items yielded more discriminating keys than Strong scoring weights, (3) selecting items by a method designed to increase item heterogeneity, the validity of the key is increased but test-retest reliability is somewhat decreased. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)