Alyssa Kirk

EDCEP852
CTI Summary
Oct. 5, 2015

The Career Thoughts Inventory (also known as CTI,) was developed in order for
individuals to learn more about the way they think about career choices. This career inventory
was created using the aspect that you pick whether you: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, and
Strongly Agree to the questions asked. The main focus of the test is for high school students,
college students and adults, it is not generally given to anyone younger, since they are still
processing/organizing their thoughts about their future careers. This test is formatted at an
intermediate grade level comprehension. The test itself took me about seven minutes to take, and
about five minutes to grade.
The main focus of the CTI is to evaluate a persons CTI Total, Decision making
confusion (DMC), Commitment Anxiety (CA) and External Conflict (EC). DMC has a total of
14 items which are covered (mixed between the others), the CA has 10 items which are covered
and the EC has five. The scores of each section (DMC, CA, EC) are added up on both pages of
the booklet and then added together to give a Raw Score.
This Raw Score is then used on a scale which is on the back of the booklet, which has been split
into sections which are labeled Profile for Adults, Profile for College Students and Profile
for High School Students. Since I am in the Masters Program here are K-State, I was asked to
score my Raw Scores with the College Student Profile. My scores are as follows: CTI Total was
a 50, which fell in the range of 49-50, DMC was a 14, CA was a 15, and EC was a 4.
DMC is used to show an individual their inability to sustain the decision making process.
This may be because of the lack of understanding of the process, or the result of several disabling
emotions when it comes to making career decisions. Personally, looking at this score compared
to others I could have received, I see this as a somewhat average score. I am still in the situation
where I am trying to decide where I am comfortable (since I just changed my career path from
Anthropology to School Counseling.) This is still somewhat of a culture shock for me, and so I
am still getting my footing in this area, which means that my score is what I expected it to be.
CA is used to help an individual to measure their inability to commit to a career, it also
My score was
somewhat surprising in this section of the test, I knew that my
involves the anxiety that comes along with the decision-making process.

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anxiety was high based on outside factors; however, I did not

realize that my career commitment was also playing a part in
this. I do see it as a possibly anxiety magnet because I did get
into the program late in the summer, right before classes, and I
was scared I was not going to be able to actually accomplish the
things I wanted to do which is help people. I have found that
since looking into the test score that my anxiety has seemed to
be about average. The score being average was also acceptable
since my DMC is also average.
EC tested five items to score the external factors in your
life. These factors include people you look up too, family,
friends, etc. This scale is used to show someone how capable
they are to balance the importance of their decision and thoughts
about a given career as similar to the importance of someone
significant in their life. For me, my EC has to be my parents;
who wanted me to get into the program and also wanted me to
be rejected. They worried about the financial aspect of school
more than they did of the actual career choice. This financial
burden was also made worse when they found out that I did not
qualify for any grants, but rather loans (which they wanted to
avoid because of my Undergrad Loans), as well as the stress of
finding and balancing an apartment and a job. The score for my
EC was a four, which falls into the average area as well as
everything else. This shows that I fall into the same range for all
three.
One thing that I want to change is my EC score, I feel as
though I am becoming more comfortable with the career choice
and will, over time, become comfortable enough with my choice
to switch paths that they will balance themselves out; however, I
do need to take into consideration the impact this will play on
my parents. My parents are willing to do anything and
everything to let their children have whatever they want (there
are three of us.) They want us to achieve greatness at any cost.
The only problem is, the money situation is not the best in my
family. My parents are behind n bills, yet they try to take on my
adult responsibilities and pay for my school, my apartment, my
meals, etc. They are still having a hard time separating
themselves from my financials because they are under the
impression that I am incapable- which in the end makes me feel

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the pressure to do everything I can to stay on top of all of my

bills, and make sure they never see the statements come in so
they cannot pay them.
After some time I have spoken with them and I wanted
them to understand that I am capable of taking care of my own
financials. They were also concerned about my career choice,
which they should feel more secure about my career choice now,
rather than my career choice with Anthropology (where I had no
idea where I fit into the situation, and felt out of place.) This
security has allowed me to become more confident in the
opportunity which was presented to me based on the acceptance
into the graduate program. This has given me the opportunity to
grow as a person, and has helped my parents with the fact that I,
as well as, my sisters are growing up.

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