Brainard Occupational Preference Inventory

By:KRISTINE JOY B. GARCIA

Description of the TEST

The Brainard Occupational Preference Inventory

permits a systematic study of a person’s interests.

It is a standardized questionnaire designed to bring to the fore the facts

about a person with respect to his occupational interests.

The purpose is to help to intelligently and objectively discuss his occupational and

educational plans.

The Inventory can be administered in about 30 minutes. It is intended for

students in grades 8-12 and adults.

CautionREQUIRES a relatively low level of

reading skill. HENCE, it may appropriately be used at lower educational levels than similar

instruments which contain more difficult reading material.

Adults with limited educational backgrounds may also be able to react with greater understanding to the item of the Inventory.

Components

The Brainard Occupational Preference Inventory yield scores in six broad occupational

fields for each sex.

Both boys and girls obtain scores in the fields identified as Commercial, Mechanical, Professional, Esthetic, and Scientific.

Only boys answer the item which yield an Agricultural score;

Only girls answer then items for a personal

service score.

continuation

Each field contains twenty questions divided equally

among four occupational

sections.

The subject responds to each item by indicating

whether he strongly dislikes the activity,

dislikes it, is neutral about it, likes it, or strongly likes

it, or strongly likes it.

Answers are marked on a separate answer sheet by drawing a line which indicates the choice of

response.

History

In 1932 the Specific Interest

Inventory by Paul P. Brainard was published in four forms. The forms were M

and W, for men and women; B and G, for boys

and girls.

The four inventories had been carried on since 192. (Refer to

Fryer’s The Measureme

nt of Interests,

Henry Holt and

Company, 1931).

All four forms of the

Specific Interests Inventory

were widely used.

REVISIONS

Classification of the 140 question into 28 Sections and these, in turn,

into 7 Occupational Fields.

Wording of items were made applicable to both sexes and for high

school through adult ages.

Grouping of items which conformed in general to the code plan of the

Dictionary of Occupational Titles, and also to the large fields of interest

(proposed by Dr. Alfred Lewerenz of the Educational Research and

Guidance Section of the Los Angeles City Schools).

In 1955, Form A was reviewed and changes in wording were made in a

few items.

Continuation…Agricultural score for girls and the Personal Service score for boys were removed since each of these fields was apparently more meaningful for one sex

than the other.

Inventory items were put into a new

booklet and the answer sheet was

redesigned.

Scoring system was changed to

eliminate negative scores on items.

The answer sheet can now be scored either by hand or

by machine.

FIELDSField

• I – Commercial • II – Mechanical • III – Professional • IV – Esthetic • V – Scientific • VI – Agricultural (for

Boys)• Personal Service (or

girls)

Item numbers

• 1-20• 21-30; 41-50• 31-40; 51-60• 61-70; 81-90• 71-80; 91-100• 101-120

ReliabilityThe first reliability test was a TEST-RETEST study in 1955 to the entire

tenth grade in an academic high school in Yonkers, NY.

The time interval between tests was one week. The test-retest reliability coefficients of the six field scores are for each sex.

2nd reliability study in which scores on odd and even items were correlated was based on 683 boys and 200 girls in grade 12.

The odd-even correlation coefficients are corrected by the Spearman-Brown formula.

Both studies indicate that the reliabilities of the field scores are adequately high for most purposes to which these scores will be put.

No data have been gathered to establish the effectiveness of the Inventory scores as predictors of success in specific occupations.

ValidityThe scores from the BOPI

show very little relationship to the scores derived from

the Kuder Personal Preference Record.

BOPI gains different data from the Kuder PPR.

The Kuder items measure interests by forcing the

subjects to choose among three activities indicative of different types of interests.

While BOPI permits the student to indicate his

strength of interest in other activities without forcing

him to subordinate interest in other activities.

Scoring

The weights for the various responses are: 1 for SD; 2 for D; 3 for N; 4 for L; and 5 for SL.

Score each field by summing the appropriate

weights for the given responses .

Record the scores in the

proper boxes at the top edge of

the answer sheet.

The lowest possible score for any fields is 20, meaning that the subject has marked

the SD for each item;

the maximum score is 100, in which case every item has been marked

through the SL.

Omitted Items• If only one item in a field has

been omitted, treat it as a response of N (Neutral) and

give it a weight of 3. But when two or more items in a field have not been mark, no score should be obtained for that particular field as such as score could only be an

approximation of the subject’s interest.

Prepared by Kristine Joy Garcia