Rong Su

University of Iowa | UI · Tippie College of Business

In recent years, a rapidly growing literature has shed light on important costs and benefits of prosocial motivation in the workplace. However, researchers have studied prosocial motivation using various labels, conceptualizations, and operationalizations, leaving this body of knowledge fragmented. In this study, we contribute to the literature by...

A growing volume of research has used polynomial regression analysis (PRA) to examine congruence effects in a broad range of organizational phenomena. However, conclusions from congruence studies, even ones using the same theoretical framework, vary substantially. We argue that conflicting findings from congruence research can be attributable to se...

The current research proposes to incorporate vocational interests into the study of adverse impact (i.e., differential hiring/selection rates between minority and majority groups in employment settings). In the context of high stakes testing (e.g., using cognitive and personality tests), we show how race gaps in vocational interests would correspon...

Growing evidence on the predictive validity of vocational interests for job performance calls for greater consideration of interest assessment in organizations. However, a consensus on the fundamental dimensions of interests that are aligned with contemporary world of work is still lacking. In the current research, we developed an organizing framew...

Despite early claims that vocational interests could be used to distinguish successful workers and superior students from their peers, interest measures are generally ignored in the employee selection literature. Nevertheless, theoretical descriptions of vocational interests from vocational and educational psychology have proposed that interest con...

We discuss how using vocational interests in the selection process can help address the diversity‐validity dilemma. First, we point out how incorporating vocational interests as predictors in selection could help to reduce adverse impact. We further suggest that by using optimal predictor weights, one could simultaneously improve validity while enh...

In recent years, a rapidly growing literature has shed light on important costs and benefits of prosocial motivation in the workplace. However, researchers have studied prosocial motivation using various labels, conceptualizations, and operationalizations, leaving this body of knowledge fragmented. In this study, we contribute to the literature by...

The present study investigated whether Black and White Americans differed on the dimensions of Holland’s RIASEC model of vocational interests. Theoretical explanations of why racial differences in interests may occur are advanced drawing on Gottfredson’s (1981) theory of circumscription and compromise, and social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1...

The number of empirical studies on contemporary career attitudes (e.g., protean and boundaryless career orientation) has grown in volume, and yet our understanding of how these attitudes relate to career and job outcomes is rather limited. There are inconsistent findings on these career attitudes and their outcomes. The purpose of this review is to...

Abstract: Although hospitality is a valued social and cultural phenomenon, it has been largely overlooked in the psychology research literature. Our studies are designed to advance the understanding of hospitality by creating a brief measure of it that can be used across cultures. In Study 1, we employed a large sample of Americans to create and be...

A growing volume of research has used polynomial regression analysis (PRA) to examine congruence effects in a broad range of organizational phenomena. However, conclusions from congruence studies, even ones using the same theoretical framework, vary substantially. We argue that conflicting findings from congruence research can be attributable to se...

The current review presents a theoretical integration of interest research across the fields of vocational, organizational, and educational psychology and provides empirical evidence that supports this integration. Guided by the framework of Trait-State Interest Dynamics (TSID; Su, Stoll, & Rounds, 2018), I discuss three research themes that cut ac...

The concept of human capital originated in economics over 200 years ago. The current paper takes a novel approach to human capital by interpreting it from a psychological perspective. We divide human capital into 2 domains: traditional and nontraditional. The traditional domain consists of the constructs that have been historically classified as hu...

Previous research has focused primarily on assessing dialectical thinking among respondents in representative East Asian and Western nations (e.g., China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States). This chapter examines how dialectical thinking varies across 19 nations/subnations spanning four continents. Consistent with previous theory, dialectic...

This paper integrates the rapidly growing literatures on the individual and organizational factors that contribute to women’s career equality. We organize studies into three research perspec- tives: career preference, gender bias, and work-family explanations. These literatures diverge on whether women “opt out” or are “pushed out” of leadership po...

The current meta-analysis investigated the extent to which personality traits changed as a result of intervention, with the primary focus on clinical interventions. We identified 207 studies that had tracked changes in measures of personality traits during interventions, including true experiments and prepost change designs. Interventions were asso...

Background: Positive psychological health is a multifaceted construct and fundamental to individuals' overall mental health. Yet, measures of positive psychological health tend to focus on only a few of these facets. Su, Tay, and Diener () sought to address this by creating the Comprehensive and Brief Inventories of Thriving (CIT/BIT), integrative...

The search for “noncognitive” skills essential for workforce readiness has largely overlooked one important individual difference domain: interests. This chapter reviews evidence for the relationship between interests and job performance, career success, and academic achievement. It also discusses two mechanisms through which interests can predict...

Employers both in the United States and internationally are facing difficulties hiring workers who meet the skill requirements of 21st century jobs. This chapter focuses on the skill requirements of middle-skill jobs and argues for building a talent supply chain with standards that workforce entrants need to meet. The chapter provides a framework s...

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the study and use of vocational interests for predicting workplace behavior. The renewed attention to this topic is at least partially due to two recent meta-analyses (Nye, Su, Rounds, & Drasgow, 2012; Van Iddekinge, Roth, Putka, & Lanivich, 2011a) demonstrating the validity of interests for predicting...

In the past few years, the term “21st century skills” has gained increasing popularity in educational research and business practice. Neubert, Mainert, Kretzschmar, and Greiff (2015) advocated for the utility of assessing 21st century skills in industrial–organizational psychology (I-O psychology) and its superiority over assessing basic psychologi...

The degree of women's underrepresentation varies by STEM fields. Women are now overrepresented in social sciences, yet only constitute a fraction of the engineering workforce. In the current study, we investigated the gender differences in interests as an explanation for the differential distribution of women across sub-disciplines of STEM as well...

This chapter begins with a brief review of the historical roots of person–environment fit (P-E fit) theories, retracing how the traditional trait-factor approach evolved into the present-day P-E fit approach to understand individual differences in career choices, behaviors, and outcomes. Next, we identify and define critical elements and assumption...

This article investigates the interplay of family background and individual differences, such as personality traits and intelligence (measured in a large U.S. representative sample of high school students; N = 81,000) in predicting educational attainment, annual income, and occupational prestige 11 years later. Specifically, we tested whether indiv...

In this article we present the development and validation of two new measures of psychological well-being: Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving (CIT) and Brief Inventory of Thriving (BIT). These measures were developed with two specific goals in mind: (1) to measure a broad range of psychological well-being constructs and represent a holistic view o...

Despite their significance to both individuals and organizations, interests are often misunderstood, and their predictive power is often overlooked. In this article, we discuss the nature of interests, describe several key features of interests, and, contrary to the received knowledge of many, explain how interests can be used to predict career and...

The current research examined whether nations differ in their attitudes toward action and inaction. It was anticipated that members of dialectical East Asian societies would show a positive association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. However, members of non-dialectical European-American societies were expected to show a negative associat...

An Occupational Interest Profiles for updated new and emerging O*NET occupations

Work values profiles were added to new and emering O*NET occupations

We examined a longstanding assumption in vocational psychology that people-things and data-ideas are bipolar dimensions. Two minimal criteria for bipolarity were proposed and examined across 3 studies: (a) The correlation between opposite interest types should be negative; (b) after correcting for systematic responding, the correlation should be gr...

Interest literature since the 1970s has primarily used Holland’s RIASEC model to organize research results. Therefore, the present chapter begins with a review of Holland’s (1997) structural formulations of interests. Next, we discuss gender differences in interests. In particular, Hyde and her colleagues (Hyde, 2005; Hyde & Linn, 2006) have argued...

An emic approach was used to test the structural validity and applicability of Holland's (1997) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) model in Iceland. Archival data from the development of the Icelandic Interest Inventory (Einarsdóttir & Rounds, 2007) were used in the present investigation. The data includ...

This report summarizes the initial development research to create a short form of the O*NET Interest Profiler. The primary objective was to develop brief RIASEC scales for use in counseling and consulting settings where it is helpful to have an interest measure that can be completed in a very short period of time. A secondary objective was to incre...

Development of the 60 item IP. Called the Short Form used O*NET Online.

The magnitude and variability of sex differences in vocational interests were examined in the present meta-analysis for Holland's (1959, 1997) categories (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional), Prediger's (1982) Things-People and Data-Ideas dimensions, and the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathema...