The History Of John Holland, PhD
The Self-Directed Search is a direct product of a theory of personality types and environmental models developed by John Holland.
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1919
John Lewis Holland is
born in Omaha, Nebraska.
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1942
Holland receives a BA in psychology from the Municipal University of Omaha.
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1942-1946
Works for the U.S. Army as a test proctor and psychological assistant, among other duties.
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1952
Earns a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Minnesota.
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1953
Creates the Vocational Preference Inventory, which includes occupational lists and organizes items into scales—the predecessor to the RIASEC hexagonal model.
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1953-1970
Hones his theory based on the latest research while working at a VA psychiatric hospital, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the American College Testing Program, and Johns Hopkins University.
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1970
Publishes the Self-Directed Search and the Occupations Finder (OF).
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1977
Publishes the first revision of the Self-Directed Search, which includes major changes to scoring and increases the number of occupations in the OF.
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1980
Holland retires, but doesn’t stop working on his theory.
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1985
Publishes the third edition of the Self-Directed Search. It improves instructions, revises items, reduces item overlap across scales, and doubles the number of occupations in the OF.
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1991
Publishes the Position Classification Inventory, which allows Holland’s theory to be applied to existing positions and organizations.
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1994
Publishes the Self-Directed Search Form R, 4th Edition, which features revised items and more occupations in the OF; Holland receives the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Professional Contributions to Knowledge award.
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2008
Receives the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Applications of Psychology. Holland dies at age 89 years in Baltimore, Maryland.
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2010
The OF is revised to include Occupational Information Network (O*NET) codes.
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2013
The Self-Directed Search Form R, 5th Edition, is published, along with the Veterans and Military Occupations Finder (VMOF).
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2017
StandardSDS and StudentSDS are published; SDS Web site is revised to include standard, student, and veteran reports.
Sources
American Psychologist staff (2008). Award for distinguished scientific applications of psychology: John L. Holland. American Psychologist, 63, 672-674.
Gottfredson, G. D. (1999). John L. Holland’s contributions to vocational psychology: A review and evaluation. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 55, 15-40.