Do modes of thinking predict career interest types among Chinese university students?

This study had two objectives. The preliminary objective was to further test the psychometric properties of the short-version self-directed search that was intended to be a brief research tool for measuring Holland [Holland, J. L. (1973). Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; Holland, J. L. (1994). Self-directed search. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources] six career interest types. The primary objective, though, was to examine the predictive power of modes of thinking for career interest types. Modes of thinking were grounded in Torrance's [Torrance, E. P. (1981). Implications of whole-brained theories of learning and thinking for computer-based instruction. Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, 7(4), 99–105] notion of brain dominance.Two hundred and seventy-two university students from Shanghai, People's Republic of China, responded to the style of learning and thinking and the short-version self-directed search. Results showed that after gender effect was taken into account, the holistic mode of thinking (characterized by its creativity-generating tendency) significantly predicted five of the six career interest types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, and enterprising) defined by Holland. The analytic mode of thinking (characterized by its tendency for norm-conformity) contributed to Holland's conventional career interest type. We discuss implications of these findings for university educational and career counselors and for faculty members.