Iconographic Professional Interests Inventory (3IP): A New Validation Study

Interests have been a central focus of counselling psychology (and vocational psychology in particular) for over 100 years. The awareness
of professional interests increases self-knowledge and provides occupational information. In career counselling, vocational interests are
assessed more frequently than any other vocational construct, though early evaluations (before 13 years old) of professional interests are
very rare. The aim of this research is to examine the 3IP construct (Iconographic Professional Interests Inventory; an inventory composed of
65 stylised pictures that represent people in the act of performing a job) in depth, testing more models in addition to the 19 vocational areas
proposed in the 3IP manual. Results show that most of the vocational areas can be grouped into 4 second-level areas (“things”, “people”,
“leisure”, and “culture”). Moreover, Holland’s RIASEC model is tested; an accurate selection of items reveals that this model works well using
24 specific jobs. The research concludes that the inventory has good psychometric qualities which can grow further by mean of the increasing,
in a targeted way, of the number of jobs.