Campbell Interest and Skills Survey in School Counseling
This paper examines a case study involving Sophia, a 17-year-old first-generation college student who lacks clear career direction and family role models with college experience. A school counselor uses the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey (CISS) to help Sophia identify her interests and self-assessed skills across seven orientation scales and multiple occupational scales. The paper describes the CISS instrument in detail, including its scoring, interpretation patterns (Pursue, Develop, Explore, Avoid), and psychometric properties. It also outlines the ethical guidelines from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) that govern assessment administration and results presentation in this context.
- Introduction: Overview of school counselor's career guidance role
- Case Study Background: Sophia's profile and referral question
- The Campbell Interest and Skills Survey: CISS instrument description and administration
- Scoring and Interpretation: CISS scales and four interpretation patterns
- Evaluation of the Assessment Tool: Norming sample, reliability, and overall utility
- Presenting Results and Ethical Considerations: ACA and ASCA ethics applied to Sophia's case
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper anchors every methodological point in a concrete case subject (Sophia), making abstract assessment concepts immediately applicable and readable.
- It integrates multiple scholarly reviewers of the same instrument (Boggs, Pugh, Roszkowski), demonstrating awareness that assessment tools should be evaluated from more than one perspective.
- The inclusion of specific ACA and ASCA ethical codes—cited by section number—shows professional-level familiarity with counseling practice standards, not just academic theory.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case analysis: it introduces a referral question, selects and justifies an appropriate assessment instrument to answer that question, evaluates the instrument's psychometric properties, and then describes how results must be communicated within an ethical framework. This structure mirrors real professional practice documentation in school counseling.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing introduction, then profiles the case subject and the referral question. It next describes the CISS instrument in operational detail (items, response format, timing), followed by a section on scoring outputs and interpretation patterns. A separate evaluation section addresses norming, reliability, and overall utility. The paper concludes by mapping ethical guidelines from both the ACA and ASCA onto the specific case, and summarizing how results should be discussed with the client.
Introduction
One of the roles counselors play, particularly school counselors, is that of career counselor. High school students often have no idea what career they would like to pursue. This is especially true when they lack role models with diverse careers. This paper examines a case study in which a young woman seeks guidance from a counselor in such a situation. In order to provide this guidance, an assessment tool is typically used. This paper also describes how the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey (CISS) can aid the counselor in assisting the young woman featured in the case study.
Case Study Background
Sophia is 17 years old and a high school junior hoping to attend college. She will be the first in her family to do so. She has above-average grades and has exceeded the minimum SAT score required for admission to her state university. Her difficulty is that she does not know what she wants to do. Other than her teachers, she knows very few adults with college degrees and feels she is entering uncharted waters. The adults in her extended family work together running the family restaurant. They are supportive of her attending college and have many ideas about what she should study, based largely on their own unfulfilled dreams. Sophia wonders why she does not seem to have dreams of her own and is seeking counseling to explore her options. The referral question the counselor must answer is: Which career pursuits are most appropriate for this individual's interests and skills?
The Campbell Interest and Skills Survey
In order to answer the referral question, the counselor must determine Sophia's interests and abilities. Because Sophia is having difficulty identifying her own career interests, the counselor should use an assessment instrument to assist her. One such instrument is the CISS. Pugh (2010) explains that the purpose of this assessment is to help individuals gain a better understanding of their interests and skills when making career decisions, and that it is designed for use in educational settings and individual counseling sessions. Roszkowski (2010) adds that the instrument helps individuals make informed occupational choices by helping them identify the type of work they would enjoy and could confidently perform.
Boggs (1999) notes that the CISS focuses on careers requiring a college education, making it an appropriate assessment for a student like Sophia who is planning to attend college. Additionally, the CISS is designed for adults and adolescents ages 15 and older and is written at a sixth-grade reading level (Boggs, 1999).
Individuals completing the assessment respond to 320 survey items on either a paper or computer-based format, indicating their level of interest in 200 academic and occupational items as well as their level of skill in 120 occupational items (Boggs, 1999). Respondents choose from six Likert-type options ranging from very positive to very negative for interest items, and from expert to none for skill items. Skill items are based on the respondent's self-confidence or self-efficacy (Boggs, 1999). Pugh (2010) adds that skill scores should be interpreted with the understanding that they measure the respondent's beliefs about their ability to perform occupational activities. The assessment takes approximately 35–45 minutes to complete.
References
American Counseling Association. (2005). ACA code of ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author.
American School Counselors' Association. (2010). Ethical standards for school counselors. Retrieved from http://asca2.timberlakepublishing.com//files/EthicalStandards2010.pdf
Boggs, K. R. (1998). Career decisions: The Campbell and Ms. Flood. The Career Development Quarterly, 46(4), 311–319. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/219384727?accountid=27965
Boggs, K. R. (1999). Campbell Interest and Skill Survey: Review and critique. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 32(3), 168–178. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195602453?accountid=27965
Pugh, R. C. (2010). Review of the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey. Mental Measurements Yearbook. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Roszkowski, M. J. (2010). Review of the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey. Mental Measurements Yearbook. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., Perna, L. W., & Swan, A. K. (2011). Structuring opportunity: The role of school context in shaping high school students' occupational aspirations. Career Development Quarterly, 59(4), 330–344.
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