A VALIDITY STUDY OF THE STRONG-CAMPBELL INVENTORY SCALE FOR MALE AIR FORCE OFFICERS

This investigation was undertaken for the purpose of evaluating the validity of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory in measuring interests relating to Air Force Officers. A within-subject design was used with one independent variable comprised of three categories. The dependent variable consisted of SCII scales with three levels: (a) Air Force Officer Occupational Scale, (b) the Military Activities Interest Scale, and (c) the SCII Occupational Scale that corresponded best with the subject's job specialty code in the Air Force.;The second hypothesis was that a significant difference would not exist between the male Air Force officers and the University of Denver students on the Air Force officer scale was also rejected at the .05 level. A two-factor analysis of variance with unequal ns, one independent variable (subject categories) and one dependent variable (SCII scales) was used to test this hypothesis. The male Air Force officers scored higher than the University of Denver students on the Air Force officer scale.;A third research hypothesis stated that the scores on the occupational scale that best fit the officers' actual jobs in the Air Force would be higher than their scores on the Air Force Occupational scale. A one-tailed correlated t test was utilized which led to the rejection of the research hypothesis and the conclusion that the actual job scale scores were lower than those of the Air Force officers occupational scale.;A 2-tailed independent t-test was used to determine if a significant difference existed between the scores of the male Air Force officers in the study and the manual's "men in general" sample. It was hypothesized that the scale questions were not valid in assessing a potential Air Force officer. The t statistic showed that a significant difference does exist between the two groups with male Air Force officers actually scoring greater than or equal to the "men in general." The null hypothesis of no difference was thus rejected at the .05 level.