hexagon, in vocational psychology dictionary

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Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Hexagon

Holland (1997) claims that the six types fit a hexagonal structure, in the order of Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C). Types nearer one another in the hexagon are assumed to be more similar to one another (or have higher "consistency"). The same hexagon structure is assumed to underlie both vocational personality types and work environments. Over the years, substantial research has tested hypotheses releated to the presumed universality of this hexagonal structure across cultures and other variables across which individuals may differ.

Reportedly, Nancy Cole first noticed the pattern of correlations between various indicators of Holland's vocational personality types while she worked as a junior member of Holland's research team while they were both on the staff of ACT, in the late 1960s. (Cole went on much later to become President of ETS.)

Kitson anticipated the value of the application of this shape to vocational psychology and proposed a vocational hexagon decades earlier, but it differed from Hollands in several important ways, and it received little subsequent notice.

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