ABSTRACT
The Career Occupational Preference System Interest Inventory (COPS) (R.R.Knapp & Knapp, 1974, 1982; Knapp-Lee, Knapp, & Knapp, 1995) is designed to assist individuals in the career decision-making process. The COPS is a carefully and systematically developed instrument yielding job activity interest scores based on occupational clusters, and may be used as a first step in career exploration. Using the extensive interpretive material presented with the COPS leads the way to utilization of most occupational information systems and consideration of educational choices, resulting in actual career decision making. The COPS Interest Inventory provides for time-effective administration, scoring, and interpretive procedures based on Career Occupational Preference System (COPSystem) occupational clusters, which have been established and refined through an extensive series of theoretical and factor-analytic studies begun over three decades ago (R.R. Knapp, 1967). The measurement of interests provided by the COPS combined with measurement of abilities, Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS) (L. Knapp & Knapp, 1976), and measurement of values, Career Orientation Placement and Evaluation Survey (COPES) (R.R.Knapp & Knapp, 1978; Knapp-Lee, Knapp & Knapp, 1995), provides a coordinated system for career exploration and decision making. For purposes of career exploration, a classification system is clearly needed. There are over 20,000 occupations listed in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT; U.S. Department of Labor, 1991) that are available for consideration as possible careers. The structural form arrived at for the classification of occupations has great practical implications for career guidance. Clients should be directed to focus their consideration primarily on those occupations consistent with their interests, abilities, and values. Furthermore, this field of focus should broaden their perspective by including all, or virtually all, occupations within such a categorization. With these prescribed goals in mind, appropriate techniques can be chosen to arrive at the most meaningful classificatory structure.
