Personality Traits and Occupational Attainment

Historically, sociologists have paid little attention to the role of non-cognitive characteristics in occupational attainment. This is in sharp contrast to the relatively large amount of research highlighting the importance of cognitive traits, such as IQ and educational qualifications, or characteristics related to social background, such as social class origin, sex or ethnicity. In this paper, I analyse data drawn from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS), and show that personality traits measured at childhood are a significant determinant of an individual’s class destination (measured at age 42). I move on to provide a possible micro-level explanation for why personality traits should have an impact in processes of occupational and class attainment.