A study tested John L. Holland's theory that achievement is a function of the congruence between personality type and environment, focusing on college students' achievement within their academic majors. Subjects were 2,309 students enrolled in a wide variety of majors. Results indicate differences in effect size for "congruent" and…

This article continues a series of analyses using the "theory of careers" developed by John Holland to examine the patterns of student stability and change inherent in the college experience--as part of an effort to understand the satisfaction, learning, and retention of college students. The underlying basis of Holland's theory is that human…

The relative influence of selected life history experiences on the development of three vocational types (investigative, social, and enterprising) proposed by J. L. Holland is studied using causal modeling procedures. The lack of explicitness in the developmental postulates of Holland's theory is seen as a major deficiency. Among the principal…

A longitudinal study, based on Holland's theory of occupational choice, found accentuation of initial group differences for artistic abilities in both male and female college students and for enterprising abilities of male students within academic subenvironments. Data support Holland's theory that students' initial selection of academic…

Academic departments exert a powerful influence on students by recruitment of distinctive personality types into academic disciplines, and by a socialization process in which departments reward students for the display of attitudes in accordance with the norms of their disciplines. This study examined the differential patterns of student growth…