Ninja Vs. Pirate

Vocational Assessments

My initial idea for this project has been to create a hypothesis based on vocational assessments and how the results affect the participants, if at all. Creating hypotheses for this topic is proving more difficult than I had imagined, however I will throw some out and work through them with hopes that they will lead to one grand hypothesis.

The following research problems are based on the hypothesis: If a high school student completes a vocational assessment, then he or she will seek a career based on his or her top three results.

This is an example of one of my not-so-great hypothesis', but it is a good start. I am really interested in knowing whether or not the results of certain vocational assessments encourage and/or discourage participants from pursuing careers that they have high interests in. I also need to research all of the vocational assessments that are frequently used and work specifically with one. Hopefully I can find the best hypothesis for this eventually.

Quantitative Research Problem

In the interest of finding out whether or not a vocational assessment changed a participant's career decision, research will be done using a non-experimental survey. The participants will consist of college students that have previously taken a vocational assessment. The survey will include questions pertaining to the results of the assessment and whether or not they correlate with the participant's interests and the participant's current career goal.

Possible questions for the survey:
1. When considering college, what were your top three possible career interests?
2. What were the top three results on the vocational assessment?
3. What are your top three current possible career interests?
4. Do you believe the assessment played a role in your career interest decision?

Questions 1,2, and 3 in the survey all have three parts. In order to assess the results of the survey, I would use a program like SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to calculate correlations between the answers. If the answers to question 1 are the same as question 3, yet the answers to question 2 are different, then it can be assumed that the vocational assessment did not have any affect on the student. If the answers to questions 1 and 3 are different, yet the answers to questions 2 and 3 match up to an extent, then it can be assumed that the vocational assessment did have an affect. I would have to figure out how to put these calculations into the program and they may not even work correctly, but I would adjust it accordingly.

The fourth question on the survey is for additional information. There is always a chance that another variable caused the change in career interests, therefore having a percentage of whether the participants believe the assessments had an affect or not.

Qualitative Research Problem

The research problem in this section is very similar to the one in the Quantitative, however the interest is to find out if the vocational assessments affected the college students and in what way. To research this, it would be useful to use a longitudinal study starting with the participant's being in high school before completing the vocational assessment and then continued after the assessment has been completed. The last section of the study would be after the students have started college and have chosen a major and created career goals.

For the first section of the study, I would interview high school students and inquire about their career interests and goals. After the student's have taken the vocational assessment, I would have another interview to discuss the results of the assessment. This interview would also include more questions about what the student is considering making their career goal. Last, but not least, a third interview would be completed about a year or so later after the participants have become established at a college or university. This interview would be to inquire about how the student's interests have changed, if at all, and to ask about how much they believe was affected by the assessment results.

Doing a longitudinal study like this would allow the interviewer to get the participant's interests at different times in their lives instead of all at once and asking them to try and remember their past interests. After all the interviews have been completed, the information received for each participant would be analyzed to find whether or not as well as how the assessment may have affected the participant's career goal decision.

The Differences

Both the quantitative and the qualitative were focused around a similar research problem, however there are many distinct differences that can be found. 

The quantitative is very calculated and closed. Each participant received exactly the same questions with a specific amount of responses expected. Then the answers can be placed into a statistical analysis that will throw out a calculated description of the variables. 

The qualitative is more open, with personal interviews being completed. The questions would be similar for all the participants but the answers could vary and the information of interest is pulled together. Also, the longitudinal aspect of the study allows the interviewer to get information that is reflective of the different times, which is important to this specific research problem. 

Completing interviews with the qualitative section does have the disadvantage of not being able to reach as many participants due to the time issues. The qualitative survey can easily be dispersed to many participants.

Overall, a difference can be found in how personal the qualitative study can be while the qualitative survey may seem very impersonal and that may have an affect on how willing the participants are to give their answers and put thought into their answers.