Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) was used as a tool for comparing the typical personalities of full- and part-time adult basic education (ABE) teachers, the correlation between interclass and intraclass relationships of the six personality types for full- and part-time ABE teachers, and the correlation between personality type and job satisfaction among ABE teachers. Of the 1,918 of Texas's ABE teachers who were given survey instruments, 911 returned usable forms. According to Holland's hierarchy of traits, the Texas teachers turned out to be social, enterprising, and conventional (SEC). The hierarchy was essentially the same for full- and part-time teachers, the only difference being that order of the three-trait code was reversed for teachers' aides (social, conventional, enterprising for the aides versus social, enterprising, conventional for the other part-time instructors). The interclass and intraclass relationships among the six personality types showed a high level of correlation, and the full- and part-time teachers expressed the same level of satisfaction with working in an adult basic education program. Neither was their any significant difference in the Holland SEC code among those ABE teachers who were satisfied with their jobs and those who were not. It was recommended that persons using Holland's SDS to screen candidates for ABE teaching positions consider only the first two letters, giving preference to individuals whose two most dominant traits appear to be social and enterprising. (MN)