The gatekeeping to a profession: a structural analysis of the certified public accountancy examination situation

This paper attempts an empirical structuring of the process of selecting candidates for the profession of certified public accountancy (CPA). The unit of investigation is the ‘examination situation,’ which is defined as the multiple interaction among the attributes of an examinee, an examination problem he answers and the examiner who grades the answer. Using Guttman's smallest space analysis, a way of partitioning the empirical continuum of those attributes into contiguous sections is found, where each represents a concept formulated in advance. The partition is based on ‘fluidity v. obstruction’ in the selection process and ‘academic orientation v. practical orientation’ of the process. 1975 The British Psychological Society