Interests, personality, and career success: Two longitudinal studies

Abstract

Individuals differ in their personality and vocational interests with substantial consequences for major life outcomes. This dissertation includes two studies that examine personality and interest development from adolescence to young adulthood. Study one examined three types of continuity and change in interests and personality. Study two extended these analyses to a new sample while also examining long-term associations with career success. Both studies used longitudinal data from samples of Icelandic youth (N1 = 485; N2 = 1,290) who responded to measures of the Big 5 traits and RIASEC interests. Study one revealed that within-person changes in interests and personality traits co-occur in general and specific ways. Changes in general factors of personality and interests were moderately related, yet stronger correlated changes were found among specific personality–interest pairs that share situational content. Study two revealed three additional findings. First, vocational interests were slightly more stable than personality traits across adjacent waves, but were equally stable across the full study. Second, there were distinct patterns of mean-level change in interests and personality. Whereas mean-levels of personality traits tended to increase with age, mean-levels of vocational interests either remained constant or decreased slightly. For the most part, gender differences in mean-levels of interests and personality traits decreased with age. The third major finding from study two was that adolescent levels of interests and personality were meaningfully associated with career attainment over a decade later. Furthermore, changes in personality traits were also moderately correlated with certain aspects of career success. In sum, this dissertation shows that vocational interests and personality traits are powerful predictors of career outcomes that develop separately—and in relation to each other—during the formative years of adolescence and young adulthood.