Career Thoughts

Inventory (CTI)
Chris Joly, Rebecca Cronander,
DeShawn Fogle, Monique Jones

Population of Interest for School

Counselors
High School Juniors and Seniors
Developmentally appropriate and was designed
for 11th-12th graders who may be choosing a
postsecondary program of study, choosing an
occupation, or looking to enter the workforce
after High School.

Other Populations...
The CTI is also used with college students who
are choosing a major or looking for
employment.
Adults considering a career change may also
take the CTI.

Counseling Standards
Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) meets
American School Counseling Association
Standards
C:A1.3 Develop an awareness of personal
abilities, skills, interest, and motivations
http://static.pdesas.org/content/documents/A
SCA_National_Standards_for_Students.pdf

Primary Objective

To measure dysfunctional career thoughts.

Blueprint
The CTI has a CTI Total Score (a
single global indicator of negative
thinking in career problem solving
and decision making) as well as
scores on three construct scales
Out of 48 items:
14 Items directly linked
to DMC
10 Items to CA
5 Items to EC

Questions and Scoring

48 Questions Worded Negatively
Represent Dysfunctional Career Thoughts
Likert-type Scale
Strongly Disagree (SD) to Strongly Agree (SA)
Easily Scored
Adding Numbers Down Each Column
Calculates CTI Total Score

Questions and Scoring

Clients Transfer Numbers
Three Scales:
Decision Making Confusion (DMC)
Commitment Anxiety (CA)
External Conflict (EC)
Record Scores on Appropriate Profile
High School, College, Adult

Theoretical Rationale
Cognitive Information Processing Theory or CIP
Effective career problem solving and
decision making requires effective
processing of information following four
domains.
Cognitive Therapy (Beck)
Dysfunctional cognitions have detrimental
impact on behavior and emotions.

Theoretical Rationale... (CIP)

Domains:
Self-knowledge
Occupational Knowledge
Decision making skills
Executive processing

Why Is It Useful?
It quantifiably measure one's level of
dysfunctional thinking.
Raises individuals awareness about themselves
and the world of work.

What Can the Counselor Do?

Help the client learn to replace dysfunctional
cognitions with positive, functional ones.
Cognitive Restructuring
Collaboration
Attention to Emotions and Cognitions
Developing Effective Helping Relationship

Other Benefits to the CTI

Cost Effective
Rapidly Scored
Easily Interpreted
Inexpensive to Use

Validity
Content Validity
Construct Validity
Criterion Validity
Convergent Validity

Construct Validity: Evidence of this was

established through a series of factor analyses.
The constructs of decision-making confusion,
commitment anxiety, and external conflict, that
were identified in two different samples during CTI
development, were replicated for adults, college
students, and eleventh- and twelfth-grade high
school students based on normative data. The CTI
Total score is highly correlated (r = .89 to .94) with
DMC for all groups.

Convergent Validity: Convergent validity is

concerned with the extent to which the CTI Total
score and construct scale scores correlate with
other measures of similar constructs in a
theoretically consistent direction. Convergent
validity measures included the following:
My Vocational Situation (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980a) Identity Scale and Occupational Information and Barriers
categories;
The Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1987) Certainty and Indecision Scales;
The Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1988) Decidedness, Comfort, Self-Clarity, Knowledge about Occupations & Training,
Decisiveness, and Career Choice Importance scales;
The NEO PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992a) Neuroticism Domain, including the facets of: Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, SelfConsciousness, Impulsiveness, and Vulnerability.

Evidence of convergent validity was established by

administering the above measures to 50 adults, 152
college students, and 151 eleventh- and twelfthgrade high school students.

Criterion Validity: Criterion validity is concerned

with the extent to which the CTI accurately
discriminates between persons seeking career
services (clients) and persons not seeking career
services (non-clients).
Evidence of predictive validity was established by
administering the CTI to 199 clients and 149 nonclients at two different universities. Analysis of the
data revealed significant differences in CTI Total
and construct scales for each group, with clients
having higher scores as predicted.

Reliability
Internal Consistency
Determined by calculating coefficient alphas
for each of the respective norm groups.
Adults (n=571)
College students (n=595)
High school students (n=396)
Total score range (.97 to .93)
Construct scale range (.94-.74)

Reliability
Stability
Extent to which individual scores achieve
same CTI scores on two different occasions
Total score (r=.86)
Construct score range (.82=.74)

Item Analysis
Exploratory Factor Analysis
Demonstrates if Inventory has Multiple Scales
Provides evidence of Construct Validity
Cronbachs Alpha Internal Consistency Reliability
Conducted Alternately Provide the Following:
Validity
Reliability
Item Analysis

Inventory Evaluation
When complete - The CTI booklet can be torn
apart and scored.
Very practical - Can be taken and graded
quickly. From my experience with High School
students it can be administers in 7-15 minutes
and hand scored in 5-8 minutes.
DMC - Reflects students inability to initiate or
sustain the decision making process as a result
of disabling emotions and / or lack of
understanding about the decision making
process.

Inventory Evaluation
CA - Reflects inability to make a commitment to
a specific career choice, along with generalized
anxiety of the decision making process.
EC - Reflects the inability to balance the
importance of ones own self perceptions with
the importance of input from significant others,
resulting in a reluctance to assume
responsibility for decision making.

Career Choice Decision Making

Thinking about my
decision making

Knowing how I make decisions

Knowing about myself

Knowing about my options

Summary
Can assist in allowing high school, college
students, and adults to make better quality
career decisions; Provides a better quality
service for those seeking career advice; Cheap
assessment to administer; Easy to score and
analyze information

References
Sampson, J., Peterson, G., Lenz, J., Reardon, R., Saunders, D. (1999). The use and development of the career
thoughts inventory. Retrieved from
http://career.fsu.edu/documents/career%20thoughts%20inventory/Use%20and%20Development%20of%20CT
I.htm
.
http://www.creativeorgdesign.com/tests_page.htm?id=433
J. Worth Pickering, E. N. (2001). Test Review: Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). Association for Assessment in
Counseling. Retrieved from
http://aac.ncat.edu/newsnotes/y98spr2.html