Ashland Interest Assessment

Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D. & Connie W. Marshall, B.A. © 1997

The Ashland Interest Assessment (AIA) was developed in response to a need for a career measure to accommodate individuals with barriers to employment due to educational, physical, emotional, cognitive, or psychiatric conditions.

Applications

• Career and educational counseling for high school, counseling center, employment center, learning center, or youth services center.
• Career planning for:
  • individuals with a limited access to education.
  • developmentally delayed or handicapped, or learning disabled individuals.
  • chronically unemployed people.
  • individuals with a chronic emotional or psychiatric condition, or brain injury.
  • school-to-work students.
  • individuals with a limited familiarity with the English language

Description

The AIA consists of 144 pairs of work related activities requiring the respondent to choose which activity he or she would like to do most. The results are printed in clear and easy to understand format.

The AIA items represent work tasks typically associated with a particular occupation, such as clerical worker, sales person, or health care attendant. In other cases the items more broadly represent general work roles, such as those involving Arts and Crafts or Personal Service.

Reliability and Validity

A great deal of care and attention was paid to the development of the scales for the AIA. Norms were collected from employment agencies, schools, learning centers, psychiatric hospitals, and mental health associations. The AIA was normed on 725 females and 725 males.

Hand Scoring

Hand scoring takes approximately 15 minutes using four templates. Responses are totalled on a scoring sheet. Basic Interest Scale scores then are plotted on a profile sheet. Materials required for hand scoring include the Test Manual, one set of templates, one booklet for hand scoring, one scoring sheet, and one profile sheet per respondent.

Mail-in Scoring

The AIA Extended Report consists of a profile of the scores on the 12 Basic Interest scales, as well as a description of theses scales. A profile of Similarity to 12 Occupational Groups and a narrative summary of the three (3) highest-ranked Occupational Groups with links to the DOT codes are also included. A summary report is provided for the counselor. Materials required for mail-in scoring include one (1) test manual and one (1) machine scorable question/answer sheet.

Software

Our SigmaSoft AIA for Window software allows you to administer and score the AIA on your computer. The AIA for Windows software produces three types of reports. The Extended Report is similar to that available from our Mail-in Scoring service. The Basic Report contains all of the profiles found in the Extended Report, but does not provide explanatory text and career information. The Data Report contains the scores found in the Basic Report in a format designed for use by other programs. In addition to the software itself, you will need to purchase enough coupons to pay for each report you wish to produce.

Internet

The Ashland Interest Assessment is available online through SigmaTesting.Com, our main testing site. SigmaTesting.Com gives the counselor complete control over administration and report handling.

Prices

Click here for detailed pricing information.