Vocational interests and career goals: Development and relations to personality in middle adolescence
Hirschi, A. (2010). Vocational interests and career goals: Development and relations to personality in middle adolescence. Journal of Career Assessment, 18(3), 223-238. doi: 10.1177/1069072710364789
Abstract
Cross-sectional research implies a close relation of vocation interests, goals, and traits, yet little is known about their reciprocal development over time. This longitudinal study examined develop ment of Things/People (T/P) and Data/Ideas (D/I) vocational interests and career goals in relation to Big Five personality traits among 292 Swiss adolescents with a cross-lagged panel design with two measurement points over 1 year from seventh to eighth grade. Interests and goals were significantly related within time and showed significant interactions across time. Traits related significantly and equally to interests and goals within time and predicted their development across time except for T/P goals. Goals and interests possessed incremental validity above traits in affecting each other. Implications include the need to account for dynamic processes in the development of goals and interests and their systematic relation to traits in theory and practice.
Keywords: vocational interests, career goals, career aspirations, personality, adolescent career development, developmental systems theory
Swiss adolescents’ career aspirations: Influence of context, age, and career adaptability
Hirschi, A. (2010). Swiss adolescents’ career aspirations: Influence of context, age, and career adaptability. Journal of Career Development, 36(3), 228-245. doi:10.1177/0894845309345844
Abstract
This study investigated the content, realism, stability, and coherence of the career aspirations of 262 students in seventh grade in Switzerland (ages 13 15 years). The content analysis revealed that 82% of the participants named at least one realistic career aspiration, and aspirations showed clear resemblance to existing opportunities in the environment. Quantitative analyses confirmed the hypotheses that realism and stability of aspirations over a 10-month period could better be predicted by individual degree of career adaptability as measured by planfulness and exploration than by chronological age when grade level was controlled for. Coherence of aspirations was not related to age or adaptability. Students attending basic scholastic requirements school tracks reported more adaptability but not more realistic, stable, or coherent aspirations compared to students in advanced requirements tracks.
Keywords: career decision making, career aspirations, career development, counseling psychology