Expressed, Manifest, Tested, and Inventoried Interests

Jo-Ida C. Hansen & Shawn T. Bubany

No universally accepted conceptual definition of interests has emerged in vocational psychology. As a result, interests often are defined as what an assessment measures. At the most basic level, operational definitions of interests commonly focus on an individual's constellation or pattern of likes and dislikes for vocational, academic, and leisure activities, as well as for types of occupations, settings, and people. Donald Super organized these operational definitions into four methodological categories: expressed interests, manifest or evidenced interests, tested interests , and inventoried interests . Frank Parsons, an early career specialist, introduced a parsimonious framework in his widely known book Choosing a Vocation that provided an impetus for the measurement of interests. Parsons (1909) argued that individuals seeking to choose a line of work should engage in a rigorous process of self-study during which they consider how their “capacities, interests, resources, and limitations, and their causes” (p. 5) might best Among ...

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