Relationships between Holland's vocational typology, Schein's career anchors and Myers—Briggs' types

The relationships between the variables measured by the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and ipsative scales measuring the concepts in Holland's theory of vocational personalities and Schein's theory of career anchors were investigated by analysing data from 1063 Norwegian adults. Three bipolar factors extracted from the vocational scales were in close agreement with the diagonal dimensions of Holland's hexagon model of the vocational categories. Four factors extracted from the anchor scales were interpreted as bipolar career anchor factors. Regression analysis, using MBTI variables as independent and vocational and career anchor factors as dependent variables, showed that extraversion–introversion predicted the enterprising–investigative factor, sensing–intuition predicted the conventional–artistic factor, and thinking–feeling predicted the realistic–social factor. The Myers–Briggs variables were not distinctly related to the career anchor variables. It is argued that the three-factor structure of the vocational categories corresponds with Holland's hexagon model of these categories because preferential choice data tend to expand the hexagon to an octahedron.