The Validation of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Predicting Naval Academy Disenrollment and Military Aptitude

Abstract

Despite rigorous selection procedures, approximately one-third of the officer candidates admitted to the Naval Academy disenroll before being commissioned. The present research sought to examine the usefulness of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) for improving the selection of Naval Academy midshipmen. SVIBs have been administered since 1967 to applicants and/or entering Naval Academy midshipmen and analyzed to determine their value in predicting disenrollment and military aptitude. Three separate interest scales were empirically developed to predict motivational disenrollment, academic disenrollment, and military aptitude. The scales were evaluated for both their individual predictive effectiveness and, where possible, for their contribution to existing selection procedures. All three scales yielded significant and useful relationships with their respective criteria in cross-validation samples. The empirically-developed scales also provided significant and useful cross- validated increments beyond the levels of predictive accuracy attained with the present composite.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 28, 1973
Accession Number
AD0755169

Entities

People

  • Idell Neumann
  • Norman M. Abrahams

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force
  • California
  • Classification
  • Composite Materials
  • Military Research
  • Naval Personnel
  • Navy
  • Regression Analysis
  • Schools
  • Security
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Students
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Training
  • United States Naval Academy
  • Validation

Fields of Study

  • Education

Readers

  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.