Vocational interests assessed at the end of high school predict life outcomes assessed 10 years later over and above IQ and Big Five personality traits.

Abstract

Vocational interests are important aspects of personality that reflect individual differences in motives, goals, and personal strivings. It is therefore plausible that these characteristics have an impact on individuals' lives not only in terms of vocational outcomes, but also beyond the vocational domain. Yet the effects of vocational interests on various life outcomes have rarely been investigated. Using Holland's RIASEC taxonomy (Holland, 1997), which groups vocational interests into 6 broad domains, the present study examined whether vocational interests are significant predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over and above the Big Five personality traits. For this purpose, a cohort of German high school students (N = 3,023) was tracked over a period of 10 years after graduating from school. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of RIASEC interests and Big Five personality traits. Nine outcomes from the domains of work, relationships, and health were investigated. The results indicate that vocational interests are important predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over the Big Five personality traits. Vocational interests were significant predictors of 7 of the 9 investigated outcomes: full-time employment, gross income, unemployment, being married, having children, never having had a relationship, and perceived health status. For work and relationship outcomes, vocational interests were even stronger predictors than the Big Five personality traits. For health-related outcomes, the results favored the personality traits. Effects were similar across gender for all outcomes-except 2 relationship outcomes. Possible explanations for these effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Prediction of Professional Success in Apprenticeship: The Role of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities, of Interests and Personality

“…Taken together our results are in line with studies showing, that vocational interest play an important role in predicting occupational outcomes (Stoll et al, 2017) especially during the early vocational career (Volodina, Nagy & Köller, 2015). The results also confirm older studies showing that different person-job-fit-criteria (success vs. satisfaction) are predicted by different predictor groups (ability, personality, interests) as found by Gellatly, Paunonen, Meyer, Jackson and Goffin (1991).…”

Whose Job Will be Taken Over by a Computer? The Role of Personality in Predicting Job Computerizability over the Lifespan

“…Specifically, Su () found that an interest in things and people was detrimental to educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige, whereas interests in arts, sciences, business, and leadership were favourable. More recently, Stoll et al () replicated some of these findings on a German sample, showing that vocational interests had incremental validity in predicting occupational outcomes over the lifespan.…”

“…Second, given past research on occupational outcomes (e.g. Damian et al, ; Stoll et al, ), we expected that personality traits and vocational interests would prospectively predict job computerizability, over and above background factors and intelligence. Third, in line with past research and theory (e.g.…”

Similarity of vocational interest profiles within families: A person‐centered approach for examining associations between circumplex profiles

“…For decades, vocational interests have been a central topic in organizational, educational, and personality research. While the majority of research is concerned with the structure and stability of vocational interests (e.g., Low, Yoon, Roberts, & Rounds, ; Tracey & Rounds, ), with their predictive power for academic success, choice behavior, and life events (e.g., Nye, Su, Rounds, & Drasgow, ; Stoll et al, ; Van Iddekinge, Roth, Putka, & Lanivich, ), as well as with associations between interests, personality traits, and abilities (e.g., Ackerman & Heggestad, ), little is known about intrafamily associations of vocational interests.…”