No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Personality Traits, Vocational Interests and Career Maturity: A Correlational Study
Abstract
Relationship Between Personality Traits and Vocational Interests and Between Personality Traits and Career Maturity variables.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
The authors review the development of the modern paradigm for intelligence assessment and application and consider the differentiation between intelligence-as-maximal performance and intelligence-as-typical performance. They review theories of intelligence, personality, and interest as a means to establish potential overlap. Consideration of intelligence-as-typical performance provides a basis for evaluation of intelligence–personality and intelligence–interest relations. Evaluation of relations among personality constructs, vocational interests, and intellectual abilities provides evidence for communality across the domains of personality of J. L. Holland's (1959) model of vocational interests. The authors provide an extensive meta-analysis of personality–intellectual ability correlations, and a review of interest–intellectual ability associations. They identify 4 trait complexes: social, clerical/conventional, science/math, and intellectual/cultural.
Originated from the developmental theory of vocational behaviour, career maturity
has been defined as the maturity of attitudes and competencies pertaining to career
decision making. It has been found to be influenced differentially in different culture,
race and gender groups by certain psychological, educational and demographic
factors (Lawrence and Brown, 1976; Pound, 1978). The aim of the present piece of
research work is to examine empirically that whether or not self-concept, occupational
aspiration and gender work independently or in interaction with each other are capable
of generating variance in career maturity in case of Hindi speaking Indian adolescents
studying in class X. Employing a (2)
3
ex-post facto, non-experimental factorial design
(fixed model) the two levels of self-concept, i.e. high and low, the two levels of
occupational aspiration, i.e. realistic and idealistic and the two levels of gender, i.e.
male and female were manipulated in the study. Employing the stratified random
sampling technique, finally 480 students of class X (240 males and 240 females)
within the age range of 14 to 16 years were drawn randomly from different Hindi
medium schools of Raipur City of Chhattisgarh State to serve as subjects in the
present study. All the three independent variables were found to be potential enough
in generating variance in career maturity. Barring few exceptions, the first order
interactions were not found significant whereas the second order interactions were
found significant for almost all the components of career maturity. Theoretical
interpretations have been given
This study extends prior work by examining how a different model of personality beyond the Big Five and interest are predictive of an important criterion variable, educational aspirations. This is the first study to investigate personality-interest convergence by examining the newly revised 2003 California Psychological Inventory with the 1994 Strong Interest Inventory. In general, the authors found that those personality scales and interest scales that were more related or applicable to educational aspirations were moderately correlated with level of educational aspirations. Also, hierarchical regression results showed that specific dimensions of personality and interests are related to college students’ plans for future scholarly work. Similarly, the current study found that components of one’s personality and interest may relate to aspiring to higher levels of education.
Using meta-analysis, we revised Ackerman and Heggestad's (1997) identification of four trait complexes that propose personality and interest (P-I) linkages. Studies that had reported correlations between general and specific measures of vocational interests (Strong Interest Inventory [Strong; Hansen & Campbell, 1985; Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994]) and personality (Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire [MPQ: Tellegen, 1982, 2000; Tellegen & Waller, in press]) were located. These meta-analysis was based on 2,023 people from five databases including gifted adolescents, college students, and adult career clients. The substantive P-I correlations ranged from |.20| to |.49|—reflecting between 4% and 24% shared variance. Within the Science/Math complex, we found Harmavoidance to be negatively linked with Realistic and Science interests and Achievement to be positively linked with Investigative, Math, and Science interests. Within the Intellectual/Cultural complex, Absorption was related to general and specific Artistic interests. Within the Social complex, Social and Enterprising interests were differentiated based on the former being related positively to Wellbeing and negatively to Aggression and the latter being related positively to Social Potency. Sex was not found to be a substantial moderator of P-I correlations.
Big Five personality traits were analyzed in relation to career decidedness among adolescents in middle and high school. Participants were 248 seventh-grade, 321 tenth-grade, and 282 twelfth-grade students. As hypothesized, Conscientiousness was positively and significantly correlated with career decidedness in all three grades. Openness and Agreeableness were found to be positively related to career decidedness for these middle and high school students. Emotional Stability was positively, significantly related to career decidedness for the twelfth-grade sample. There were no significant differences in correlational results for males versus females. No significant mean differences in career decidedness were observed between the three grades. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and career development efforts. The purpose of this article is to examine the Big Five personality traits in rela-tion to career decidedness among adolescents in middle and high school. Deciding on a career is a key developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood (Super, 1990). As noted by Arnold (1989), career decidedness serves several positive functions for the individual, including contributing to identity and psychosocial competence, providing "a filter through which sometimes sur-prising events in an unfamiliar environment with novel role requirements are interpreted" (p. 165), and providing long-term goals. As might be expected, there is a rich and diverse literature on career decidedness and on the related topic of career indecision 1 (Gordon, 1998; Osipow, 1999; Spokane & Jacob, 1996). Within that literature base, there has been fairly extensive investigation of the relationship between personality traits and career decidedness. It is important to study career decidedness from the perspective of personality for several reasons.
The career maturity construct has been the subject of much research since its introduction into the literature in 1955. Studies have investigated various correlates of the career maturity construct. The more recurrent research focuses can be grouped into the following clusters: age or grade level differences; race, ethnic, and cultural differences; locus of control (LOC) and socioeconomic status (SES) differences; sex or gender differences; and work salience. Research indicates career maturity is better differentiated by educational level than age and lends support to the construct's developmental nature and supports the belief that career maturity development differs by gender. Studies have failed to find a significant relationship between SES and career maturity, but evidence indicates SES may have an indirect effect. A commanding body of research has delineated both indirect and direct relationships between LOC and a wide spectrum of career-related variables, such as career decision, career commitment, career aspiration, work ethics and leisure, career exploration, and occupational information-seeking behavior--all integral to career development and career maturity. Research on career development concerns of racial and ethnic groups should be interpreted cautiously because of the confounding of race, class, ethnic, and economic variables. Work-role salience has been conceptualized generally as an independent variable affecting various career issues including career maturity. (142 references) (YLB)
Based on 164 undergraduate business majors, we examined the relationship between satisfaction with major and Holland's vocational interests and with the Big Five and narrow personality traits. Contrary to our hypothesis, enterprising scores were unrelated to major satisfaction. As hypothesized, using ipsative and normative scores, investigative, artistic, and realistic interests were negatively related to major satisfaction. As hypothesized, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and optimism were positively related to major satisfaction, as were extra-version and assertiveness. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that 49% of the variance in major satisfaction could be accounted for by a combination of vocational interest themes and personality traits. Implications were drawn for theory and practice, including support for Holland's continuity principle, adding personality traits to Holland's vocational theory, and using vocational interest and normal personality trait measures in student advising and career counseling. Study limitations and implications for future research were noted.
Examined the relations between vocational typology developed by the 3rd author (1966, 1973) and the neuroticism–extraversion–openness (NEO) model of personality presented by the 1st 2 authors (1980) among 217 males and 144 females, aged 21–89 yrs. Young and old adult groups were similar to college students in most vocational interests, and the same pattern of sex differences was found. Correlations between Self-Directed Search and NEO inventory scores showed strong associations of investigative and artistic interests with openness to experience, and of social and enterprising interests with extraversion. Ss interested primarily in conventional occupations tended to be closed to experience. These associations were generally confirmed when spouse ratings were used as a non-self-report measure of personality traits in a subset of the Ss. The NEO Inventory complements the Holland typology, primarily in providing measures of neuroticsm. Research on the possible utility of supplementing vocational interest data with personality measures is suggested, and some implications for vocational counseling among older adults are discussed. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Validity studies of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank have produced consistent results with male samples; to compare validity for females and males on the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), 232 female and 386 male undergraduates took the SCII and a satisfaction measure 3½ yrs after initial testing with the SCII. Using the McArthur method (see record
1955-06355-001), excellent predictive validity (good hit) was evidenced for 42.5% of females and 59.3% of males in the direct-hit category. Concurrent validities were 58.0% and 64.0%, respectively. A MANOVA revealed differences among good-hit, poor-hit, and clean-miss groups on satisfaction, perceived congruence, and J. L. Holland's theoretical signs (see Pa, Vol 58:6452). Limitations with respect to the comparability of male and female validity data and the selection of a follow-up criterion for females are discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Cross-sectional research implies a close relation of vocation interests, goals, and traits, yet little is known about their reciprocal development over time. This longitudinal study examined development of Things/People (T/P) and Data/Ideas (D/I) vocational interests and career goals in relation to Big Five personality traits among 292 Swiss adolescents with a cross-lagged panel design with two measurement points over 1 year from seventh to eighth grade. Interests and goals were significantly related within time and showed significant interactions across time. Traits related significantly and equally to interests and goals within time and predicted their development across time except for T/P goals. Goals and interests possessed incremental validity above traits in affecting each other. Implications include the need to account for dynamic processes in the development of goals and interests and their systematic relation to traits in theory and practice.
The purpose of this study was to identify higher-order dimensions that explain the relationships among the Big 6 interest types and the Big 5 personality traits. Meta-analyses were conducted to identify an 11 × 11 true score correlation matrix of interest and personality attributes. Cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling were used to identify 3 dimensions that explained relations among the 11 attributes: (a) Interests versus Personality Traits; (b) Striving for Accomplishment Versus Striving for Personal Growth, and (c) Interacting with People Versus Interacting with Things. Overall, results clarified the relationships among interests and personality traits by showing that 3 rather than 2 dimensions best explain the relationships among interests and personality traits.
This article presents Parsons' extensive method of assessment and reviews its incorporation of the developing science of psychometrics in the early decades of this century. The utility of self-assessment, also advocated by Parsons, is discussed. It concludes that the validity of Parsons' fundamental ideas, although greatly elaborated in the past 80 years, is affirmed.
After extensive consultation, thorough updating, inclusion of new research and topics, and the addition of a fantastic new online learning platform, Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour is better than ever. The second edition is an engaging and exciting introduction to the study of psychology. This book's scientific approach, which brings together international research, practical application and the levels of analysis framework, encourages critical thinking about psychology and its impact on our daily lives.
This correlational study, using an adult sample of 175 men and 123 women, replicates the correlational patterns between the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1985a) and the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI/FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1989) observed in earlier investigations. The relationships between the SDS and the Personal Styles Inventory (PSI; Silver & Malone, 1993)—developed to measure six personality disorders or styles from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.) (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987)—were also explored. Canonical and simple correlational analyses indicate that the SDS is more closely related to the NEO PI/FFI than to the PSI. These analyses lend support to the formulation for some of Holland's Personality types.
This study examined the relationship of alternative personality systems and vocational interests in a sample of college students. The sample (N = 126) consisted of undergraduate college students who were administered the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Brief Form (MPQ-BF), the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), and the Sensation Seeking scale (SSS-V). It was determined that younger college students generally have undifferentiated vocational profiles. There is, however, a trend for men to be interested in Realistic, Enterprising, and Investigative vocations, whereas women were interested in Social, Enterprising, and Artistic vocations. Men and women had different associations between scores on personality inventories and interests in certain vocations. Finally, significant convergence between similar scales on the instruments was indicated. The findings reveal that the utilization of alternative personality traits and their linkage to vocational interests in clinical settings are vital for merging the two domains.
Career interests and self-efficacy (using J. L. Holland's realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional types for both) and the big five personality dimensions (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) were used to predict college students' career exploration behaviors approximately 18 months later. Among 113 college students, none of the predictors was associated with subsequent environmental exploration. However, after controlling for gender and year in school, five of six interest types, one self-efficacy type, and two personality dimensions were associated with subsequent self-exploration. Whereas realistic, artistic, and conventional interests; artistic self-efficacy; and openness were positively associated with self-exploration, investigative and enterprising interests and extraversion were negatively associated with such exploration. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are presented.
Historically, many researchers have considered the domains of intellectual abilities, personality, and interests to be both distinct and distant from one another. Recent meta-analytic reviews and new empirical research suggest that there are fundamental communalities among particular measures of cognition, affect, and conation. These communalities, in turn, yield a relatively small set of trait complexes—groups of traits that are related to one another and that appear to be differentially related to career choices and adult intellectual development. Derivation of trait complexes is described; empirical data on trait complexes, career choice, and domain-specific knowledge are reviewed; and implications for developments in vocational and educational counseling are suggested.
Models of career maturity, first formulated at midcentury, have been criticized for not incorporating innovations in personality and developmental psychology. This isolation from general models of and debates about personal maturity has kept career maturity from receiving widespread acceptance in mainstream psychology. The present study investigated whether Super’s model of career maturity could be linked to Gough’s three-dimensional model of personality organization. To explore relations between the two structural models, 200 college students responded to Gough’s California Psychological Inventory and Super’s Career Development Inventory. Results showed that planful competence in career development related to greater realization of one’s potential and a higher degree of social adjustment. Furthermore, the results indicated that more mature attitudes toward career planning and exploration related to an adjustment style characterized by extroversion in interpersonal relationships and by a positive orientation to social norms.
The circumscription and compromise theory of vocational aspirations draws attention to the possibility that many adolescents may unnecessarily limit their vocational options. This article describes key elements of the theory, particularly its emphasis on children's perceptions of occupational sextype, and the changes the theory requires in how to conceptualize and assess vocational aspirations. It also describes a theory based Mapping Vocational Challenges1 (MVC; Lapan, Loehr-Lapan, & Tupper, 1995) activity that helps adolescents map and discuss the beliefs and background factors that can lead them to rule out careers they might actually find interesting and perform well.
This article reviews the basic postulates of self-efficacy theory and describes its applications to the study of career choice and development. Following a discussion of issues involved in the measurement of perceived self-efficacy with respect to domains of career behavior, measurement of and research on occupational self-efficacy, mathematics self-efficacy, self-efficacy with respect to basic domains of activity, and career decision self-efficacy are reviewed. The relationship of self-efficacy to vocational interests and the particular relevance of the theory to the career development of women and members of racial/ethnic minority groups are also discussed.
Efforts to test hypotheses derived from social cognitive theory require sound measures of the theory’s constructs. Because the theory is concerned with domain-specific aspects of human functioning, it raises special measurement challenges. For example, unlike traits, which can be indexed with general, all-purpose measures, social cognitive research calls for measures that are tailored to the specific domain and dependent variables of interest. To facilitate social cognitive research on career development, a guide is provided for conceptualizing and assessing the core constructs of social cognitive career theory: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, and contextual supports and barriers. The basic constructs and their common variants are defined and distinguished, unique measurement concerns are considered, and examples and suggestions are offered for measurement design and adaptation.
This study examined the correspondence between two models of personality structure, both of which purport to be comprehensive: Holland's (1992) vocational personality typology and the five-factor model. In this research, 102 female and 91 male college students completed the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1985a) and the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985). Results of canonical analyses revealed two dimensions to which SDS and NEO-PI variable sets were related for both females and males; however, the nature of the dimension pairs differed by gender. For females, significant overlap between SDS and NEO-PI domains was represented by a dimension characterized by a Nonpersonal Orientation at one pole and an Interpersonal Orientation at the other pole, and a Closedness-Openness dimension. For males, overlap between the two domains was explained by Closedness-Openness and Introversion-Extraversion dimensions. Results generally were consistent with theoretical definitions of the Big-Five personality dimensions, as well as the trait characterizations of the six Holland types. Results also revealed associations of Prediger's (1982) Data/Ideas and Things/People with the Closedness-Openness and Nonpersonal-Interpersonal dimensions, respectively.
This study investigated the relationship between Holland's typology and the Five-Factor Model of personality. Raters coded the adjective descriptors of Holland's six personality types according to their perceived reference to the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience. Ratings were tallied to provide an index of each adjective's "loading" on each of the Big Five. The loadings for the descriptive adjectives were aggregated within each of the Holland types to yield a quantitative index of each type's relationship to each of the Big Five. The relationships between the Holland types and the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model that had been predicted from the adjective rating task were then compared with actual correlations obtained between Big Five marker scales and operational measures of Holland's typology. Results supported a pattern of empirical relationships between interest and personality scales that was consistent with Holland's qualitative description of his typology.
This article presents measures of six personality styles designed to investigate occupational choice and leisure activity in survey research among normal populations. The instrument is composed of scales of seven items each that describe Narcissistic, Paranoid, Obsessive, Hysterical, Depressive and Impulsive personalities based on axis II of DSM-III-R (1987) and Shapiro's Neurotic styles (1965). The scales were validated on several independent samples (443 undergraduate students, 802 undergraduate and graduate students, 293 students and adult workers). We found that the measures of personality styles satisfied several tests of internal consistency, validity, and reliability. Although the results from our preliminary assessment of the difference in personality styles among selected occupational groups are not fully definitive, they do suggest that theoretically meaningful differences exist.
Interests, personality, and values figure prominently in work motivation, yet little research has examined the combined influence of these factors on vocational behavior. The present study therefore examined relationships among these variables in a sample of 282 medical students (169 women, 113 men) who responded to the Strong Interest Inventory, NEO Personality Inventory—Revised, and the Physician Values in Practice Scale. Supporting prior research, results indicated significant relationships between openness and artistic interests and between extraversion and enterprising interests, social interests, and management work values. Regression analyses indicated that personality and vocational interests predicted between 2% and 14% of the variance in each of six work values measured. Personality traits and vocational interests appear to play a meaningful, albeit limited, role in determining work values.
A two-study design was used to examine the relationship between Holland's vocational interest types, personality characteristics, and abilities. Study 1 consisted of 139 individuals (48 men and 91 women) who participated in a vocational assessment exercise. They completed the Self-Directed Search, the revised NEO Personality Inventory, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised. Study 2 consisted of 669 men and 206 women employed in the finance industry who completed the SDS, the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, and a measure of general abilities, the PL-PQ. In both studies conceptually similar vocational interests and personality were found to be empirically related. A weak to moderate relationship was observed between general abilities and Investigative interests and between general abilities and the personality characteristics of Openness to Experience and Intuition. It was concluded that assessment of all three domains of interests, abilities, and personality has several advantages for assisting clients seeking vocational counselling.
The existential dilemma of youth entering the job market has been widely recognized but little understood. Few efforts have been turned to assisting them in making the critical transition from school to work, which has such farreaching ramifications for later career adjustment. This paper addresses some of the theoretical and research issues which are central to furthering our knowledge of how and why neophyte workers establish themselves in the world-of-work. It proposes a comprehensive model of career development in early adulthood, suggests hypotheses to test it, and outlines ways in which it can be translated into operational terms for further research. Desiderata for the construction and validation of a Career Adjustment Inventory (CAI) are also ennumerated.
This study tests Larson and Borgen's assertion that a dramatic increase in variance occurs in the prediction of interests by personality if one examines the overlap at specific levels rather than only at broad levels of the RIASEC and Big Five dimensions. Whereas Larson and Borgen studied gifted adolescents, this study assessed a college sample using Tellegen's Big Three model of personality. Participants (n = 200) completed the 1994 Strong Interest Inventory (SII) and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The authors' findings corroborate 7 out of 10 specific hypotheses supported by Larson and Borgen, and also support the general hypothesis that specific MPQ primary scales contribute significantly to the prediction of SII Basic Interest scales (BISs) beyond the contribution of the related MPQ higher order factors. An important relation found between the MPQ Harm Avoidance and several Realistic BISs is discussed.
This article reviews what is believed to be one of the most important trends in vocational research and career assessment, that is, that body of work integrating vocational interest measurement with the concepts of self-efficacy and personal styles. Beginning with a review of Bandura's self-efficacy theory, recent work in which parallel measures of interests and self-efficacy (or confidence) are used to improve the prediction of vocational choice behavior and the comprehensiveness of career assessment and counseling is examined. Following this, the use of measures of personal styles, such as those on the Strong Interest Inventory, along with vocational interests in vocational research and counseling are reviewed. Implications of both of these trends for future research and for career counseling are discussed.
Self-efficacy beliefs and self-rated abilities are conceptually overlapping constructs that have emerged from two parallel literatures in career psychology. The present investigation employed three different analytic strategies to assess empirically whether they represent unique constructs. In the first analysis, confirmatory factor analyses of measures of each of these two constructs revealed that a two-factor model fit the data better than did a one-factor model. Second, it was found that LISREL estimates of self-efficacy beliefs were more highly related to vocational interests and perceived career options than were estimates of self-rated abilities. Third, the relation of ability self-estimates to interests was found to be mediated by self-efficacy beliefs. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are considered.
The present article seeks to renovate the career counseling use of interest inventories as personality indicators by making explicit the link between inventoried interests and their personal meaning to clients. Interest denotes a relationship between the individual and the environment, one to the advantage of the individual. The chief advantage of an interest to the individual is that it cultivates a solution to a personal problem. Viewing interests as a developmental pathway encourages the interpretation of interest inventory results from a psychology of use. A focus on how the client uses an interest prompts counselors to trace a measured interest both backward to its origin in private preoccupations and forward to its expression in public occupations. Using interest inventories as personality indicators helps clients to conceptualize the impetus of their movement (needs), the direction of that movement (values), and the style of that movement (interests). Counseling that includes a coherent narration of the why, what, and how of an individual's movement in the world can clarify the client's occupational choices and enhance that client's ability to make career decisions.
This study assessed the relative value of Bandura's (1977, 1982, 1986) self-efficacy theory and Rotter's (1966) locus of control model in predicting the career maturity of college students. A sample of 113 undergraduates (83 women and 30 men) completed a demographics questionnaire and measures of career decision-making (CDM) self-efficacy (Taylor & Betz, 1983), career locus of control (Trice, Haire, & Elliott, 1989), CDM attitudes (Crites, 1978a), and CDM skills (Super, Thompson, Lindeman, Jordaan, & Myers, 1981). Results reveal that self-efficacy theory is superior to the locus of control model in predicting the CDM attitudes of college students. Results also showed that the most powerful predictor of CDM skills among college students was their CDM attitudes. Locus of control accounted for additional variance in the CDM attitudes of the participants. Age did not enter either of the regression equations despite its significant correlation with CDM attitudes and CDM skills. (Contains 43 references and 3 data tables.) (Author/YLB)
Since career development extends through the life span, career assessment may be helpful to individuals of all ages. This paper explains the theoretical bases for career maturity and provides definitions and correlates of the construct of career maturity. School psychologists, who typically work with students-at-risk academically and socially, should consider early assessment of career maturity in order to assist in the formulation of appropriate educational and vocational planning. They should also consider providing input into planned experiences that accommodate developmental differences. Awareness of interests, abilities, and aptitudes is an important component of career decision making, and should be assessed as part of the transdisciplinary vocational assessment. Addition of an interest inventory and career maturity measure would add approximately 1.5 hours to assessment time and provide valuable data for educational and vocational planning in a developmental context. These instruments could be administered by another transdisciplinary assessment team member. Curriculum-based assessment can measure individual progress in vocational domains and provide additional data to enhance the accuracy of career decision making. Reviews of the available instruments for vocational assessment suggest that continuing research and development of new tools is imperative. (RJM)
To investigate the career maturity of welfare recipients, this thesis examines six independent variables: (1) race; (2) sex; (3) age; (4) level of formal education; (5) general intelligence; and (6) locus of control. Scales taken from the Career Maturity Inventory served as the dependent variables. The sample consisted of 83 welfare recipients who were eligible for the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program in a midwestern state. Of the 100 comparisons that were made, 30 were for main effects and 70 were for interactions. Results for the main effects indicate that individuals who possess an internal locus of control are more mature in decisiveness and orientation, that females are more mature in involvement than males, and that individuals with general intelligence (91 to 100) are more mature in compromise. As for the significant interactions, findings revealed the following positive correlations: (1) formal education, general intelligence, and locus of control with Involvement; (2) formal education and age with Decisiveness; (3) race, sex, and general intelligence with Independence; and (4) race and sex with Orientation. Five tables and three figures offer statistical summaries. (RJM)
The commitment to social change demonstrated by the founder of vocational psychology, Frank Parsons, continues in several areas of vocational psychology today, including individual career counseling, guidance work in the schools, career interventions with special populations, and vocational research. This article highlights ways in which career counselors and vocational psychologists have focused and can continue to focus their practice and research to improve the condition of society and to provide interventions that enhance the ability of all individuals to love and to work in a meaningful way. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated gender differences in 401 undergraduates' career maturity. Quantitative measures included the Career Maturity Inventory-Attitude Scale, the Decision-Making Scale of the Career Development Inventory's University and College Form, and the Vocational Preference Inventory. Females (
n =250) scored significantly higher than did males (
n = 151) on each of the career maturity measures. 128 Ss were also interviewed. Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed that the perception of barriers may serve as a motivating force in many students' career development. Findings suggest that current theories of career development may be lacking in their application to many of today's college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The use of the term
career development as descriptive of both the factors and the processes influencing individual career behavior and as synonymous with intervention in career behavior (e.g., the practice of career development) is relatively recent. As professional vocabulary evolves across time, so do the form and substance of career interventions and those to whom they are directed. At the beginning of the new millennium, this article reviews the legacy of the 20th century and considers selected theoretical and practical issues likely to be prominent in the practice of career development and vocational guidance in the decades immediately ahead. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
5 essays on vocational choice, adjustment, and development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The major objective of this textbook is to improve the knowledge, understanding, and practices of persons who construct tests, take tests, or merely ponder over the meaning and value of test scores. [This] edition is designed primarily as a text for college students. It may also serve as a source of information and procedures for professional psychologists, educators, and other individuals who use tests and test results. The material in the book is appropriate for a 1-semester course in testing assessment at the undergraduate or beginning graduate level in psychology or education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
With some refinements on H. D. Carter's description of vocational interests as dynamic phenomena, a basic theory can be stated as follows: "In answering a Strong Vocational Interest test an individual is expressing his acceptance of a particular view or concept of himself in terms of occupational stereotypes." Two corollaries are given to help clarify this statement: The degree of clarity of an interest type will vary positively (1) with the degree of acceptance of the occupational stereotype as self-descriptive, and (2) with the degree of knowledge of the true occupational stereotype. After a review of some of the preliminary evidence on these problems, several predictions are made on the relationship between the father's occupation and the son's measured interests, personality and interest type, claimed and measured interests, and on the continuity of interest type. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Attempts to explain how educational and occupational preferences and skills are acquired, and how selection of courses and fields of work are determined. Interactions of genetic factors, environmental conditions, learning experiences, cognitive and emotional responses, and performance skills that influence the nature of the decision-making process are identified. It is maintained that different combinations of these factors interact over time to produce different decisions. An educational or occupational preference, for example, is considered to be the result of an evaluative self-observation based on learning experiences pertinent to a career task and may be modified by further environment events and social learning. Career indecision, conversely, is a consequence of unsatisfactory or insufficient opportunities to obtain knowledge. Career counseling becomes a process of providing career-relevant experiences and motivating a client to initiate exploratory activities. Specifically, it is proposed that the responsibilities of a career counselor include helping the client to (a) learn a rational sequence of decision-making skills, (b) arrange an appropriate sequence of career-relevant exploratory experiences, and (c) evaluate the personal consequences of those experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of this study is to examine the nature and magnitude of the relationship between 2 widely accepted models for classifying individual differences–the 5-factor model of personality and Holland's RI-ASEC occupational types. Based on extensive meta-analyses, our results illustrate that there are meaningful relations between some FFM personality dimensions and some RIASEC types. The strongest relationships were obtained between the RIASEC types of enterprising and artistic with the FFM personality dimensions of Extraversion and Openness to Experience, p= .41 and .39, respectively. Three other RIASEC types had moderate correlations with at least 1 FFM personality trait. In contrast, the realistic type was not related to any FFM personality traits. Multiple regression analyses in which each RIASEC type is regressed on the FFM scores (based on meta-analytic estimates), revealed a multiple R of .11 for realistic, .26 for investigative, .42 for artistic, .31 for social, .47 for enterprising, and .27 for conventional types. The overall conclusion from the study is that although FFM personality traits and RIASEC types are related, they are not merely substitutes for each other.