Personality and vocational interests in an adult sample.

Johns Hopkins University This article examines the relations between Holland's vocational typology and the Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness (NEO) model of in a sample of men (N = 217) and women (N = 144) aged 21 to 89 and old adult groups were similar to college students m most vocational interests, and the same pattern of sex differences was found. Correlations between Self-Directed Search (SDS) scales and NEO scores showed strong associations of Investigative and Artistic interests with Openness to Experience, and of Social and Enterprising interests with Extraversion Individuals 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 traits in a subset of the subjects The NEO complements the Holland typology, primarily m providing measures of Neuroticism Research on the possible utility of supplementing vocational interest data with measures is suggested, and some implications for vocational counseling among older adults are discussed Historically, vocational interests and traits have been considered relatively distinct areas of inquiry. Instruments such as Strong's (1943) Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) and the Kuder Preference Inventory (1960) were empirically derived and pragmatically oriented guides to occupational choice. By contrast, with such notable exceptions as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the California Psychological Inventory, models (e. g. , Cattell, 1946; Eysenck, 1960; Murray, 1938) have often been theoretical in orientation, and measures have usually been constructed through rational or factor analytic methods. Although relations between the two domains have long been hypothesized (e. g. , Darley Strong, 1943), early research results were inconsistent. Indeed, Super (1957) concluded that personality traits seem to have no clear-cut and practical significant differential relation to vocational preference (pp. 240-241). In part, this conclusion reflects the use of older measures such as the