Career assessment methods often include measures of individual differences constructs, such as interests, personality, abilities, and values. Although many researchers have recently called for the development of integrated models, career counseling professionals have long faced the challenge of integrating this information into their practice. The authors examine the use of integrated models to enhance the career counseling process, including Armstrong, Day, McVay, and Rounds's (2008) RIASEC-based Atlas Model of Individual Differences (using Holland's 1997, typology of 6 interest types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional [RIASEC]) and Armstrong, Smith, Donnay, and Rounds's ( 2004) basic interests-based Strong Ring. These models provide a structured framework for presenting clients with assessment feedback that emphasizes connections between interests, personality, and abilities.
In recent years, there has been a call for integration across domains of individual differences measurement. Although researchers who study an individual differences domain, such as interests, personality, abilities, or values, tend to focus on only one set of constructs at a time, they have also realized that a more effective understanding of how individuals adjust to their environments will emerge when multiple areas are assessed simultaneously. Ackerman and Heggestad (1997), initially working from an ability-based perspective, identified several areas of convergence between abilities, personality, and interests and referred to these integrated sets of individual differences measures as trait complexes. Lubinski (2000) referred to these attempts to move beyond domain-constrained measurement to combine information about multiple constructs as trait constellations. Armstrong, Day, McVay, and Rounds (2008) proposed using interests as the organizational framework for integrating assessment information into the Atlas Model of Individual Differences. This model primarily uses Holland's (1997) structure (i.e., the six interest types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional, collectively known as RIASEC) as an organizational structure for rep-