What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to create a framework for 17-year-olds in Vietnam to choose college majors using scientifically-supported approaches.

May 14, 2026Open Access

Evidence-Based Frameworks for University Major Selection: A Five-Step Operational Model for Vietnamese 17-Year-Olds, with the Psychometric Displacement of MBTI

Key Points

The aim is to create a framework for 17-year-olds in Vietnam to choose college majors using scientifically-supported approaches.
Developed a five-step operational framework incorporating interest measurement, ability self-assessment, value clarification, labour-market reality check, and exploration heuristics.
Utilized established assessments like Holland's RIASEC and Big Five for reliability and validity tests.
Documented the psychometric shortcomings of MBTI and advocated for free assessment tools for users.
Presented a reliable framework for major selection that displaces unsupported career-guidance methods.
Identified specific cultural considerations affecting decision-making processes in Vietnamese families.
Highlighted failure modes in existing guidance content and offered solutions to prevent premature choices.

Abstract

The dominant career-guidance instruments used in Vietnamese secondary-school content — Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 16Personalities, horoscope or zodiac matching, and folk kinship-pattern advice — are not supported by the vocational-psychology evidence base. This paper synthesises the empirical literature on how 17-year-olds should actually choose a college major and produces a five-step operational framework that displaces these popular but unsupported approaches with instruments that have psychometric backing. The framework integrates: (1) interest measurement using Holland's RIASEC hexagon and Big Five personality assessment, both with documented test-retest reliability and predictive validity for satisfaction and persistence 1, 2, 3, 4; (2) ability selfassessment grounded honestly in g-factor research 5 and the deliberate-practice meta-analytic literature 6 which constrains overclaiming of innate-talent narratives; (3) value clarification using Schwartz's circumplex of basic human values 7; (4) labour-market reality check (Vietnam-specific data deferred to companion node I3.2); and (5) exploration heuristics for the genuinely uncertain, drawing on Krumboltz's planned-happenstance theory 8, 9, Schwartz's paradox-of-choice satisficing prescription 7, and reversible-choice prioritisation. The paper documents the psychometric failure of MBTI without strawmanning — citing test-retest unreliability, factor-structure non-replication, the Forer effect, and the absence of incremental validity for occupational outcomes 10, 11 — while acknowledging MBTI's pedagogical-language utility for self-reflection conversations. The framework is operationally usable by a 17-year-old without paid instruments: free RIASEC short-forms (O*NET Interest Profiler, the public-domain version of the original Holland SelfDirected Search items) and free Big Five short-forms (BFI-10, IPIP-50) are recommended. Three cultural-integration considerations specific to Vietnamese family decision dynamics are flagged for follow-on node I3.3. Failure modes — over-fitting interest to current high-school subjects, premature foreclosure 12, and the over-promise of any single test — are surfaced as design constraints on guidance content.

Evidence-Based Frameworks for University Major Selection: A Five-Step Operational Model for Vietnamese 17-Year-Olds, with the Psychometric Displacement of MBTI

Key Points

Abstract

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