Comparing the adaptabilities of Brazilian adolescent students and adult workers

Many studies have verified the validity of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale in diverse samples, both adolescents and adults. However, which abilities are more typical of each group remains unknown. This study investigated the CAAS factorial structure with Brazilian adolescents, to verify differences between adolescents and adults and to explore the occurrence of differential item functioning analysis (DIF), by considering these two groups as independent variables. The two Brazilian samples were composed by adolescents (n = 272) and by adult workers (n = 404). Results confirmed the expected factorial structure in the adolescents sample and that adults scored higher on all CAAS factors. DIF analysis identified more items favored adults, as expected, but there was coherence in item content which favored each group. Nevertheless, there is no psychometric evidence supporting the need for different forms of CAAS for each group. Results are discussed by taking into account the practical implications of the findings.     

The Five Factor Model (FFM) among four groups of male and female professionals

The present study examined the differences in personality traits among groups of seasoned professionals A Hebrew shortened version of Costa and McCrae’s [Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO-PI-R: Professional manual odessa. Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources] NEO-FFI questionnaire was administered to 236 Israeli male and female doctors, lawyers, clinical psychologists, and artists (mean age = 31.19). Artists were found to be significantly more neurotic than members of the other three professional groups and significantly more open to experience than doctors. Women were significantly more neurotic and extravert than men, regardless of their occupational affiliation.     

Personality, career decision self-efficacy and commitment to the career choices process among Chinese graduate students

This study examined the mediating effect of career decision self-efficacy on the relationship between the Five-Factor Model of personality and the career commitment process (i.e., vocational commitment and the tendency to foreclose) in a sample of 785 Chinese graduate students. The multiple regression analyses showed that neuroticism and conscientiousness related significantly to progress in vocational commitment both directly and indirectly through career decision self-efficacy. High agreeableness related to less premature foreclosure. In addition, career decision self-efficacy associated with greater progress in vocational commitment but also a strong tendency to foreclose. The implications for career development theory and practice are discussed.     

Adaptive adjustment of vocational aspirations among German youths during the transition from school to work

The transition from school to work is a central developmental task with long-term implications for the financial and social status of individuals. We argue that dynamic adjustments of aspirations play a decisive role for a successful outcome of the school to work transition, particularly in the context of the German vocational training system. Latent growth curve analyses conducted on the self-reported occupational aspirations of German adolescents (N = 414) surveyed in a 5-wave longitudinal study during their senior school year support this assumption. Based on expectancy-value-models of achievement, we delineated an adaptive trajectory of aspirations as starting off with relatively high aspirations and subsequently gradually downgrading them until s is attained. Such a trajectory of adjustment should maximize both expectancy (i.e., probability of obtaining an apprenticeship position at all) and value (i.e., training position with promotion potential). Finally, we showed empirically that the trajectory conceptually proposed as most adaptive was characteristic for youth who reported phase-adequate goal engagement strategies as suggested by the life-span theory of control.     

Market mindset impacts moral decisions: The exposure to market relationships makes moral choices more utilitarian by means of proportional thinking

We show that exposure to market relationships increases people’s tendency to make utilitarian moral choices by means of proportional thinking—the definitional feature of the market mindset. In Experiment 1, participants primed with market relationships made more utilitarian choices in both the trolley and the footbridge dilemmas. In Experiment 2, priming market mindset led to more utilitarian moral choices and to greater focus on the proportion of survivors to victims. Experiment 3 showed that the effect of market mindset on utilitarian choices held only when the numbers of potential deaths and saved lives were clearly specified. A preregistered Experiment 4 demonstrated that the motivation to use proportional thinking mediates the relationship between market mindset and making utilitarian choices. Experiment 5, also preregistered, showed that the main effect we demonstrated is not due to suppressed emotions and that proportional thinking increases utilitarian choices as part of a broader orientation on rationality.     

The Roles of Personality Traits and Vocational Interests in Explaining What People Want Out of Life

Life goals reflect people’s aspirations of what they want to become and what kind of life they want to live. In two student samples from the United States (N = 385) and Iceland (N = 1338), we used hierarchical regression and relative weights analyses to first replicate Roberts and Robins (2000) finding that Big Five personality traits predict major life goals, and then to test whether vocational interests have incremental validity in explaining major life goals over and above personality traits. Overall, vocational interests explained larger amounts of variance in major life goals than personality traits, and added incremental validity above and beyond personality traits. Expectations about specific linkages were largely confirmed across the two samples, providing implications for theory and practice.     

The structure of vocational interests in Germany: Different methodologies, different conclusions

The cross-cultural generalizability of vocational interest structures has received significant attention in recent years. This article adds to this research in four respects. First, data from a context that has not previously been investigated (Germany) was analyzed. Second, students at different stages of their educational career were examined. Third, the interest structure in male and females was compared. Fourth, two methods—the randomization test of hypothesized order relations (RTOR) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)—were applied to three competing structural conceptions: Holland’s circular representation, Gati’s hierarchical model, and Rounds and Tracey’s alternative hierarchical model. RTOR supported all three representations, whereas CFA supported only Holland’s model. CFAs indicated that the interest structure is reasonably invariant between high school and university students, but that the configurations for high school females and males differ. Substantive and methodological implications are discussed.     

The role of personality and learning experiences in social cognitive career theory

We sought to extend the empirical literature on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) by testing (a) the posited indirect effect of personality on interests through learning experiences and sociocognitive mechanisms, and (b) hypotheses that self-efficacy percepts and outcome expectations derive from corresponding career-relevant learning experiences. Participants (327 college students) completed a measure of the Big Five personality factors and measures of learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests corresponding to each of Holland’s (1997) six RIASEC themes. Results of path analyses indicated that personality’s relation to interests was mediated via learning experiences and sociocognitive mechanisms; however, the extent of that mediation varied considerably across the different personality-interest relations. Findings also indicated strong support, across Holland themes, for SCCT’s hypothesized relations of learning experiences to self-efficacy and outcome expectations; however, for five of the six Holland themes, the relation between learning experiences and outcome expectations was at least partially mediated through self-efficacy.