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Journal of Career Assessment
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DOI: 10.1177/1069072710364789
2010 18: 223 originally published online 15 April 2010Journal of Career AssessmentAndreas Hirschi
Middle AdolescenceVocational Interests and Career Goals: Development and Relations to Personality in
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by Azwar Inra on October 8, 2010jca.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Vocational Interests andCareer Goals: Developmentand Relations to Personality inMiddle Adolescence
Andreas Hirschi1
AbstractCross-sectional research implies a close relation of vocation interests, goals, and traits, yet little isknown 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 relationto Big Five personality traits among 292 Swiss adolescents with a cross-lagged panel design with twomeasurement points over 1 year from seventh to eighth grade. Interests and goals were significantlyrelated within time and showed significant interactions across time. Traits related significantly andequally to interests and goals within time and predicted their development across time except forT/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 andinterests and their systematic relation to traits in theory and practice.
Keywordsvocational interests, career goals, career aspirations, personality, adolescent career development,developmental systems theory
Personal interests and goals are important constructs in understanding human motivation and
behavior. Within vocational psychology, the focus has traditionally been on investigating interests
and goals as important parts of a person’s personality and expression of self-concept (Holland, 1997;
Savickas & Spokane, 1999). Although it is acknowledged that vocational interests and goals emerge
in childhood (Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, 2005), adolescence seems to be a crucial period for the
study of their development. Research showed that during adolescence, interests crystallize and sta-
bilize, and career goals and aspirations become more realistic in terms of adaptation to personal and
environmental characteristics (Low & Rounds, 2007; Walls, 2000). Within this context, the goal of
the current study was to examine the development and reciprocal interaction of vocational interests
1Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Institute for Strategic HR Management Research and Development (SMARD),
Lueneburg, Germany
Corresponding Author:
Andreas Hirschi, Leuphana University of Lueneneburg, Institute for Strategic HR Management Research and Development
(SMARD), Wilschenbrucher Weg 84, D-21335 Lueneburg, Germany.
Email: [email protected]
Journal of Career Assessment18(3) 223-238ª 2010 SAGE PublicationsReprints and permission:sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navDOI: 10.1177/1069072710364789http://jca.sagepub.com
223
by Azwar Inra on October 8, 2010jca.sagepub.comDownloaded from
and career goals and the relation of their development to basic personality traits in middle
adolescence.
In the existing theoretical and empirical literature, vocational interests and career goals/aspira-
tions are frequently referred to as measured versus expressed interests (Spokane & Decker,
1999). The first refers to interests as they are assessed with standardized interest inventories repre-
senting a central part of a person’s personality (Holland, 1999). The latter refers to stated vocational
or educational aspirations that are considered an expression of a person’s self-concept (Super, 1990).
Thus, it is important to clearly distinguish interests from aspirations and goals. As Silvia (2001)
pointed out, ‘‘expressed interests’’ are in fact career intentions that refer to goals of a person, which
encompass motivational and evaluative components and are conceptually different from mere
interests. Similarly, from a developmental systems perspective of personality (D. H. Ford, 1987),
interests represent regulatory cognitions of self-evaluation, while aspirations belong to directive
cognitive processes and represent future-oriented personal goals. In the current article, the term
career goals is used synonymous to career aspirations describing current career-related wishes
encompassing, but not restricted to, more specific career intentions that have been prioritized and
are currently directing or are ready to direct activity (M. E. Ford, 1992).
Two of the most prominent theories of vocational goals and interest development are Gottfredson’s
(1981, 2002) theory of circumscription and compromise and the social cognitive career theory (SCCT)
by Lent, Brown, and Hackett (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2002). However, they propose very dif-
ferent processes of interests and goal development. According to Gottfredson (1981, 2002), career
aspirations/goals develop beginning in early childhood due to a process of circumscription, which
refers to eliminating occupational alternatives that conflict with one’s self-concept on perceived size
and power, sex roles, and social valuation or prestige of the occupations. In a final stage, approxi-
mately ages 14 and older, adolescents are proposed to orient themselves to their internal, unique self
and have to compromise to reach a balance between idealistic and realistic aspirations based on their
own abilities and accessibility of the occupations. Empirical research on career aspiration development
provided support for some propositions of this theory by showing that gender plays an important role
in children’s career aspiration development and that aspirations decrease in prestige and become more
realistic during adolescence (Helwig, 1998, 2001).
SCCT (Lent et al., 1994, 2002) states that interests primarily develop out of self-efficacy beliefs
and outcome expectations, which are shaped through specific learning experiences. Interests then
lead to the development of goals that are also directly influenced by self-efficacy beliefs, outcome
expectations, and contextual influences proximal to choice behavior. Several studies provided
empirical support for the notion that interests in adolescence are influenced by self-efficacy beliefs
(although self-efficacy beliefs are also shaped by interests, cf. Lent, Tracey, Brown, Soresi, & Nota,
2006; Tracey, 2002) and that goals are modeled by interests, self-efficacy beliefs, and outcome
expectations (Fouad & Smith, 1996), where interests mostly mediated the influence of outcome
expectations, self-efficacy beliefs, and environmental factors of barriers and support on goals (Lent,
Brown, Nota, & Soresi, 2003; Lent, Brown, Schmidt, et al., 2003). It was also suggested that basic
personality traits affect interests and goals via self-efficacy beliefs (Hartman & Betz, 2007; Nauta,
2004; Schaub & Tokar, 2005; Tokar, Thompson, Plaufcan, & Williams, 2007) and that especially
emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness contribute to the development of general
and specific self-efficacy beliefs (Hartman & Betz, 2007; Larson & Borgen, 2006). SCCT also
includes a feedback loop in which goals lead to behaviors that in turn affect self-efficacy expecta-
tions, which then again reshape interests (Lent et al., 1994). However, this more circular part of the
theory has not yet received much empirical or theoretical attention (but see Lent, Taveira, Sheu, &
Singley, 2009).
Another dynamic perception of goals and interest development is presented in the developmental
systems perspective on personality and human development (D. H. Ford, 1987; D. H. Ford & Lerner,
224 Journal of Career Assessment 18(3)
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1992; also see Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008). According to this conception, goals and interests (as a
specific form of evaluative thoughts) influence each other. As also proposed by the dominant current
theories, goals are adapted to interests through negative feedback processes, which show a discre-
pancy between goals and evaluations of self and/or environment (e.g., interests or perception of
occupational gender type and prestige). However, according to developmental systems, theory goals
also influence interests directly and indirectly by affecting selective perception and processing of
information through feedforward processes. The notion that goals are not only adjusted to current
circumstances and cognitions/emotions but also play an eminent role in active self-construction is
also shared by other prominent goal theories (Lerner, Freund, De Stefanis, & Habermas, 2001).
Much previous research on career goals focused on differences between career expectations
and aspirations (e.g., Armstrong & Crombie, 2000; Cook et al., 1996; Creed, Conlon, &
Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007; McNulty & Borgen, 1988; Patton & Creed, 2007) or analyzed career and
educational goals in terms of educational level or prestige (e.g., Helwig, 2004; Meinster & Rose,
2001; Rojewski & Yang, 1997; Shapka, Domene, & Keating, 2006). In contrast to those approaches,
the current study focused on the content of career goals in relation to interests and personality.
Personality in Relation to Interests and Goals
One construct that may be useful in understanding the relationships of interests and goals are basic
personality dispositions. Personality is a theoretical concept that describes peoples’ tendencies to
behave, think, and feel in certain consistent ways. According to a trait perspective of personality,
largely inherited traits affect the subsequent development of interests and goals as specific adaptations
to life experiences and environments (McCrae et al., 2000). Dynamic perspectives on personality
development also state that behaviors and environmental demands can in turn alter personality dispo-
sitions, which implies a dynamic interplay of personality, interests, and goals (e.g., Roberts, Caspi, &
Moffitt, 2003). It is empirically well established that vocational interests show meaningful relations to
basic traits (Barrick, Mount, & Gupta, 2003; Larson, Rottingshaus, & Borgen, 2002), although not
many studies with adolescents are available (Hirschi, 2008; Larson & Borgen, 2002). The strongest
and most consistent relations across studies are reported between artistic interests and openness, enter-
prising interests and extraversion, social interests and extraversion, investigative interests and open-
ness, and social interests and agreeableness. Realistic interests and neuroticism were generally not
significantly related to any personality trait or interest type, respectively.
Likewise, major life goals were shown to be related to traits in emerging adulthood (Roberts,
O’Donnell, & Robins, 2004; Roberts & Robins, 2000). Cross-sectional studies with college students
showed that personality traits were related to level of educational goals (Gasser, Larson, & Borgen,
2004; Rottinghaus, Lindley, Green, & Borgen, 2002) and differentiated between students with engi-
neering, drug/medical, teaching, counseling and guidance, finance/investing, entrepreneurial, and
accounting career goals (Larson, Wei, Wu, Borgen, & Bailey, 2007). Goals are also conceptually
closely related to values (Roberts & Robins, 2000), which in turn were closely related to interests and
traits (Roccas, Sagiv, Schwartz, & Knafo, 2002; Sagiv, 2002). Therefore, confirming theoretical
assumptions, there seems to be a close connection and partial overlap between goals, interests, and
personality traits, which could also partially explain relations among interests and career goals. How-
ever, no longitudinal study to date investigated the dynamic development of career goals in relation to
development of interests or the development of career goals in relation to personality traits.
Current Study
Addressing these limitations of the current literature, it was the first goal of the study to investigate
whether career goals and vocational interests affect each other in their development in adolescence.
Hirschi 225
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It was hypothesized that interests influence the development of goals but also that already existing
career goals influence the subsequent development of vocational interests (D. H. Ford, 1987; D. H.
Ford & Lerner, 1992; Lent et al., 1994). The study applied Holland’s (1997) model of vocational
interest fields as a measure of interests and goals content. According to Holland, six major interest
areas can be distinguished: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
Based on Holland’s circular interest model, Prediger (1982; Prediger & Vansickle, 1992) proposed
that vocational interests can be categorized according to the two dimensions of people versus things
and data versus ideas. Those two dimensions were applied in the current study to categorize interests
and goals content into a common framework.
The study assessed career goals with an idiosyncratic approach that allowed participants to freely
name their personal career goals. While some studies measure goals by asking to rate a number of
predefined goals that were established according to an underlying theoretical model (Roberts et al.,
2004; Roberts & Robins, 2000), other approaches allow participants to freely name their goals that
are then rated according to certain dimensions by the participants and/or researchers (Dik, Sargent,
& Steger, 2008; Emmons, 1996; Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005; Salmela-Aro, Aunola, &
Nurmi, 2007). The latter approach has the advantage of possibly greater ecological validity because
participants are not forced to restrict their goals to a predefined set. Because the purpose of the cur-
rent study was to investigate goal content, such an idiographic approach was selected.
The second goal of the study was to assess how development of interests and goals related to
basic personality dispositions. Based on the existing knowledge, it was expected that traits show
a meaningful relation to the development of both vocational interests and career goals in adolescence
over time and that the specific relations are consistent with the cross-sectional findings reported in
the literature (e.g., openness would be positively related to development of more ideas vs. data inter-
ests and more ideas vs. data career goals over time).
The third goal of the study was to investigate whether the proposed reciprocal relations among
interests and goals can partially or completely be explained by their common relations to personality
traits. Given the meaningful partial overlap of traits, interests, and goals as suggested by previous
research, it is theoretically important to investigate whether interests have an effect on goals and goals
an effect on interests, which goes above and beyond their common relations to personality traits. Based
on the conceptual differences between goals and interests, it was expected that the assumed reciprocal
relationship could only partially but not completely be explained by their overlap with traits.
Method
Participants
Swiss students from a German-speaking part of the country participated in the study. At the first
point of measurement (T1), they were at the end of seventh grade, at the second measurement point
at the end of eighth grade (T2). Of the 319 students assessed at T1, 27 (8.5%) did not participate at
the second measurement due to absence from class at the time of data collection. The missing stu-
dents do not differ in their gender distribution from the remaining students. They also did not differ
in their career interests or goals at T1 from the other students. The 292 remaining students (51.7%girls) ranged from 13 to 16 years in age (M ¼ 14.10, SD ¼ 0.70). Representative of students in
Switzerland, close to one fifth (17.1%) had an immigration background, the majority coming from
South-Eastern Europe (former Yugoslavia and Turkey). Also representative for this grade level in
Switzerland, about two thirds (n ¼ 184) attended school classes with advanced scholastic require-
ments (more comprehensive and demanding curriculum), the other with basic requirements. Race
is not commonly assessed in Switzerland as a meaningful construct and was subsequently not
assessed in the current study. However, almost all students in the study region were White.
226 Journal of Career Assessment 18(3)
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The Swiss educational system places a strong emphasis on vocational education and training with
about 70% of all students continuing to a vocational education and training after compulsory school.
The others continue to general high school, which prepares students for later college education
(Bundesamt fur Berufsbildung und Technologie, 2007). Students have to apply for an apprenticeship
or decide to take exams for general high school by the end of eighth grade through the beginning of
ninth grade, which makes the eighth grade a crucial time for career planning, supported by classes on
career development in schools. The current study spanned the entire time when students had to
actively explore their interests and formulate specific career goals, which made it especially salient
for investigation of the research questions. Thus, despite the fact that the study did only encompass
1 year, significant developments in interests and goals could be expected due to an environmentally
imposed, accelerated phase of career preparation.
MeasuresVocational interests. Interests were assessed with the Revised General Interest Structure Test
(Allgemeiner Interessen Struktur Test–Revidierte Version; Bergmann & Eder, 2005), which is a
well-established and the most frequently used interest inventory in German-speaking countries
(Switzerland, Germany, and Austria). Students are presented with 60 items, each describing a
particular activity in one of Holland’s (1997) six interest domains: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic,
Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). Sample items include ‘‘working on a construc-
tion site’’ or ‘‘learning a foreign language.’’ Each area is assessed with 10 items in alternating order
where answers are provided on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from not at all interested to very
interested and where higher points indicate more interest in this activity. The authors of the inven-
tory provide evidence for the inventory’s construct validity (e.g., differences between people
employed in different occupations, as well as significant relations to basic personality traits). The
authors report reliability estimates (a) ranking from .82 to .87 and 1-month retest stabilities of
.85 to .92. Within the current sample, the reliabilities (a) of the RIASEC scales were R: .84,
I: .83; A: .85, S: .92, E: .88, and C: .87 at the first measurement point and R: .88, I: .83; A: .85,
S: .93, E: .90, and C: .88 at the second measurement point.
Career goals. Each student was asked to name the vocations that he or she is currently considering
to pursue after ninth grade. Students could name as many occupations as they wanted in a free
response format. These aspirations were then transformed into three-letter RIASEC codes according
to the Dictionaries of Occupational Codes (Swiss edition) provided by Jorin, Stoll, Bergmann, and
Eder (2004). A sum score of their aspirations was then calculated by assigning three points for the
first letter, two for the second, one for the last letter, and zero points for all subsequent letters for
each aspiration (cf., Reardon & Lenz, 1999). This sum score was then divided by the number of
named aspirations to result in an average score representing each student’s endorsement of RIASEC
types represented in his or her career goals. Students named between 1 and 13 (M ¼ 3.24, SD ¼ 1.6)
goals at the end of seventh grade and between 1 and 12 goals at the end of eighth grade (M ¼ 2.75,
SD ¼ 1.5). The vast majority of students (Time 1 83%, Time 2 88%) named four or fewer goals at
both measurement points.
Interests and goals dimensions. The retrieved values for Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social,
Enterprising, and Conventional interests and goals were transformed to a Things/People (T/P) and
Data/Ideas (D/I) dimension. This approach has the advantage of taking the relation of the RIASEC
dimensions into account and transferring the ordinal measure of career goals into a continuous scale
that can be directly compared to the measure of vocational interests. The formula provided by
Tracey, Robbins, and Hofsess (2005) was applied where the T/P dimension was calculated as
Hirschi 227
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(2R þ I þ C � 2S � E � A) and the D/I dimension was calculated as (1.73E þ 1.73C � 1.73I �1.73A) using the raw scores of the interest inventory profile and the RIASEC scores of the goals
measure. High values in the T/P dimension thus indicate stronger interests/goals on things over peo-
ple and negative scores indicate more interests/goals on people over things. High scores on the D/I
dimension are indicative of more interests/goals on data while negative scores represent more inter-
ests/goals on ideas.
Personality traits. Traits were assessed with the NEO-FFI (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1993), which is
the official German language adaptation of the original scale developed by Costa and McCrae
(1992). The scale consists of 60 statements (e.g., ‘‘I am not easily worried’’) that tap the Big Five
personality traits neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Based
on the recommendations of scale evaluation studies (Ludtke, Trautwein, Nagy, & Koller, 2004;
Rost, Carstensen, & von Davier, 1999), a 4-point Likert-type scale was applied, ranging from
strongly disagree to strongly agree. Higher points of the five scales indicate a higher value in the
assessed construct. The authors of the scale (Borkenau and Ostendorf) provide support for its factor
structure, reliability and construct validity, for example, correlations to other established personality
inventories. Cronbach’s as for the scales in the current sample were .77 for neuroticism, .72 for
extraversion, .60 for openness, .69 for agreeableness, and .78 for conscientiousness.
Procedure
Students indicated their current career goals and completed the interest inventory in their classrooms
during an ordinary school session under the supervision of their teachers shortly before the end of
seventh grade (T1). Approximately 1 year later, they again completed the interest inventory by indi-
cating their career goals and completing the personality questionnaire in the same setting (T2). Par-
ticipation was voluntary at both measurement points but all students present in the class at the time
of data collection participated in the study.
Results
Preliminary AnalysesCorrelations. An analysis of the correlations among the assessed variables can provide information
regarding the extent to which traits, vocational interests, and career goals were related within time
among the study participants. Table 1 shows that interests and goals showed significant and consid-
erable interindividual stability over time as indicated by the significant relations of T/P and D/I inter-
ests and goals at T1 and the same measures at T2, 1 year later (ranging from r¼ .83 (T/P interests) to
.44 (D/I goals, M ¼ .67, SD ¼ .18). The results also showed that interests and goals were signifi-
cantly related at both measurement points, although the relations of T/P interests and goals (M ¼.75, SD ¼ .03) was larger than the relation among D/I interests and goals (M ¼ .38, SD ¼ .01). Sup-
porting the hypothesis, the results further showed that traits were equivocally related to goals and
interests. That is, if a certain trait significantly related to an interest dimension, it also significantly
correlated to the same goals dimension (e.g., agreeableness related negatively to T/P interests and
goals). The exceptions were that extraversion related positively to D/I interests but was unrelated
to D/I goals at the first measurement point and openness related only to D/I interests but not D/I
goals at both points. Generally, the results showed that neuroticism related negatively to T/P inter-
ests and goals, extraversion correlated negatively to T/P but positively to D/I interests and goals,
openness related negatively to D/I interests, agreeableness correlated negatively to T/P interests and
goals, and conscientiousness was unrelated to goals and interests.
228 Journal of Career Assessment 18(3)
228
by Azwar Inra on October 8, 2010jca.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Tab
le1.
Corr
elat
ions
Am
ong
the
Mea
sure
s(N¼
292)
T1
T2
Inte
rest
sG
oal
sIn
tere
sts
Goal
sT
raits
T/P
D/I
T/P
D/I
T/P
D/I
T/P
D/I
NE
OA
C
T1
Inte
rest
sT
/P–
D/I�
.082
–G
oal
sT
/P.7
71**
*�
.052
–D
/I�
.239**
.384**
*�
.316**
*–
T2
Inte
rest
sT
/P.8
27**
*�
.060
.701**
*�
.207**
–D
/I�
.069
.689**
*�
.066
.399**
*�
.146*
–G
oal
sT
/P.7
31**
*�
.108
.796**
*�
.265**
*.7
34**
*�
.119*
–D
/I�
.176*
.281**
*�
.197**
.448**
*�
.185*
.368**
*�
.341**
*–
Tra
its
N�
.124*
.033
�.1
27*
.026
�.0
91
�.0
77
�.0
66
�.0
12
–E
�.2
33**
*.1
65**
�.1
52**
.083
�.2
93**
*.2
22**
*�
.212**
*.1
82*�
.449**
*–
O�
.027
�.2
27**
*�
.012
�.0
56
�.0
93
�.2
23**
*�
.076
�.1
22
.005
.060
–A
�.2
19**
*�
.055
�.1
84**
.020
�.2
02**
�.0
59
�.1
91**
.031
�.3
65**
*.4
22**
*�
.006
–C
�.0
11
.024
�.0
81
�.0
13
�.0
40
.140
�.0
88
�.0
27
�.2
67**
*.2
08**
*.1
41*
.305**
*–
Note
:A¼
agre
eable
nes
s;C¼
consc
ientiousn
ess;
D/I¼
dat
ave
rsus
idea
s;E¼
extr
aver
sion;N¼
neu
rotici
sm;O¼
open
nes
s;T
/P¼
thin
gsve
rsus
peo
ple
.*
p<
.05,**
p<
.01,**
*p
<.0
01.
Hirschi 229
229
by Azwar Inra on October 8, 2010jca.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Reciprocal Influence of Interests and Goals
To test the hypothesis that interests and goals would affect each other in their development, a
crossed-lagged panel analysis with structural equation modeling was applied. Data were analyzed
with AMOS 17 and the maximum likelihood method. The calculated T/P and D/I dimensions for
interests and goals were included in the model as observed variables. First, a model that only
included the autoregressive paths was estimated, meaning that no relations of interests on goals
or vice versa over time were proposed. The same dimensions of interests and goals (e.g., T/P) were
allowed to covary at each measurement point to account for the relation of goals and interests within
time. The results showed that all autoregressive paths were significant, indicating the interindividual
stability of the measures over time. However, the model showed a relatively poor fit to the data,
w2(20, N ¼ 292) ¼ 94.2, p < .001; normed fit index (NFI) ¼ .93, comparative fit index (CI) ¼.95, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) ¼ .070, root mean square error of approxima-
tion (RMSEA) ¼ .11 (95% CI: .09–.14).
Next, a model that included the crossed-lagged effects of T/P and D/I interests at T1 on the cor-
responding goals at T2 was assessed. The two paths from interests at T1 to goals at T2 were signif-
icant (T/P b ¼ .328, p < .001; D/I b ¼ .121, p ¼ .020), indicating a significant effect of interest on
goals development over time. A chi-square difference test showed that the model fit, w2(18, N ¼292) ¼ 52.0, p < .001; goodness-of-fit index (GFI) ¼ .96, NFI ¼ .96, CI ¼ .98, SRMR ¼ .06,
RMSEA ¼ .08 (95% CI: .06–.11), was significantly better than when only the autoregressive paths
were included.
Third, a model that included the crossed-lagged effects of T/P and D/I goals on the corresponding
interests was assessed. The two paths from goals at T1 to interests at T2 were significant (T/P b ¼.222, p < .001; D/I b ¼ .150, p ¼ .001), indicating a significant effect of goals on interest develop-
ment over time. A chi-square difference test showed that the model fit, w2(18, N ¼ 292) ¼ 66.5 p <
.001; GFI ¼ .95, NFI ¼ .95, CI ¼ .97, SRMR ¼ .06, RMSEA ¼ .10 (95% CI: .07–.12), was signif-
icantly better than when just the autoregressive paths were included.
Finally, a model with full crossed-lagged effects was assessed proposing effects of interests on
goals and of goals on interests over time. Figure 1 shows that T/P goals had a significant effect
on interest development and vice versa. D/I goals also had a significant effect on D/I interest devel-
opment. However, D/I interests missed the significance level for this sample size (p¼ .052) for their
effect on D/I goals development indicating only a modest effect. Overall, the model showed a good
fit to the data, w2(16, N ¼ 292) ¼ 34.6, p ¼ .005; GFI ¼ .97, NFI ¼ .98, CI ¼ .99, SRMR ¼ .05,
RMSEA¼ .06 (95% CI: .03–.09). Chi-square difference tests indicated a significantly better fit than
any of the previous models, supporting the hypothesis that goals and interests showed a pattern of
reciprocal influence on each other over time.
Personality and Development of Goals and Interests
The next set of analyses were conducted to test the hypothesis that the development of interests and
goals are meaningfully related to basic personality traits and that they effect each other beyond and
above their relation to traits. Due to the available sample size, multiple hierarchical regression anal-
yses instead of structural equation modeling were applied for this analysis. A model that accounts for
the interrelatedness of the personality traits and their relations to the measure at T1 while investigat-
ing their effects on the measure at T2 would need 75 parameters to be estimated—even when using
the observed values instead of latent variables. This would mean a disproportionally large number of
parameters compared to sample size, which could negatively affect the stability of the results.
For the multiple hierarchical regression analyses, the measures at T2 were taken as the dependent
variables and the measures at T1 were entered first in the model to account for the autoregressive
230 Journal of Career Assessment 18(3)
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effect. Next, the five traits were included to assess their effect on the residualized gains or interin-
dividual change of the variable over time. In a final step, the respective goals or interest measure,
respectively, was included to establish its effect above and beyond the personality measures. The
results in Table 2 show that traits had a significant effect on the development of T/P interests over
time, DR2 ¼ .017, DF(5, 285) ¼ 3.22, p ¼ .008. Students with higher extraversion showed stronger
increase in interests on People and a weaker increase in interests on Things. T/P goals explained a
significant amount of variance above and beyond traits, DR2 ¼ .011, DF(1, 284) ¼ 10.4, p ¼ .001.
The development of T/P goals was not significantly related to traits, DR2¼ .012, DF(5, 285)¼ 2.00,
p ¼ .078. However, more extraversion related negatively to development of goals on things and
positively to the development of goals on People. T/P interests had a significant effect on the
development of goals beyond and above traits, DR2 ¼ .029, DF(1, 284) ¼ 25.16, p < .001.
Traits also explained significant variance in the development of D/I interests over time, DR2 ¼.039, DF(5, 285) ¼ 4.51, p ¼ .001. More extraversion, less openness, less agreeableness, and more
conscientiousness predicted more interest development on Data and less development of interests on
Ideas. Goals explained significant variance interest development above and beyond traits, DR2 ¼.015, DF(1, 284) ¼ 8.88, p ¼ .003. Traits also explained significant variance in D/I goals develop-
ment, DR2 ¼ .029, DF(5, 285) ¼ 2.69, p ¼ .021. Openness related negatively to development of
interests on Data and positively to interests on Ideas. However, interests did not explain significant
additional variance, DR2 ¼ .003, DF(1, 284) ¼ 1.57, p ¼ .211.
Discussion
The goals of the current study were to investigate whether vocational interests and career goals
affect each other in their development during adolescence and to explore how their development
Figure 1. Results of the structural equation modeling for the full cross-lagged design (N ¼ 292). *p < .05,**p < .01, ***p < .001.
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is related to basic personality traits. Based on a living systems approach to human development and
personality (D. H. Ford, 1987) and the circular component of SCCT (Lent et al., 1994), bidirectional
influences of goals and interests over time were expected. The cross-sectional results showed that
interests and goals according to the dimensions T/P and D/I are strongly related. This implies that
adolescents strongly orient their current career goals to their current vocational interests. However,
the longitudinal crossed-lagged panel study results confirmed that not only do interests predict
development of goals as suggested by the social-cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994) and
shown by other studies (e.g., Fouad & Smith, 1996) but also that goals had an equally strong effect
on development of interests over time. The results partially support Gottfredson’s (1981, 2002) the-
ory and the social-cognitive model that goals become adjusted to internal self in terms of personal
interests during middle adolescence. However, the results suggest a more dynamic picture where
existing interests are also subsequently adjusted to goals. This supports living systems theory that
states that existing goals shape self-evaluations through feedforward processes and by means of
selective information processing and attention (D. H. Ford, 1987). The finding that interests and
goals reinforce each other in their development is also consistent with a sociogenic view of person-
ality development that states that people select environments partially based on personal dispositions
and that those environments in turn reinforce those same traits (Roberts et al., 2003). The results also
stress the importance of the often neglected reciprocal component of the SCCT, which implies that
goals lead to behaviors that in turn affect self-efficacy expectations, which then again reshape inter-
ests (Lent et al., 1994). However, the current results suggest that direct experiences might not even
be necessary for changes in interests to occur (see Roberts et al., 2004, for a similar result regarding
the goals–trait relation). In summary, the current results align with other research indicating a more
dynamic development of career-related variables in adolescence than is implied by dominant linear
models (cf., Lent et al., 2006; Tracey, 2002).
One exception to the reciprocal influence was that D/I interests did only modestly affect subse-
quent development of respective goals. D/I goals were also less stable in terms of interindividual
stability within the current sample compared to T/P goals. One possible reason for this finding is
that goals in enterprising and conventional fields (which anchor the Data pole of the D/I orientation)
are less affected by personal interests but more by environmental opportunities or societal (e.g., par-
ental) influence. Specifically, within Switzerland, office clerk and retail salesman/saleswoman (both
Table 2. Predictors of Interests and Goals Development (N ¼ 292)
Dependent Variable T2
Things/People Data/Ideas
Interests Goals Interests Goals
Step 1 R2 ¼ .684*** R2 ¼ .634*** R2 ¼ .474*** R2 ¼ .363***Measure T1 .827*** .796*** .689*** .603***
Step 2 R2 ¼ .701*** R2 ¼ .646*** R2 ¼ .513*** R2 ¼ .392***Neuroticism �.049 �.012 �.061* .047Extraversion �.130** �.089* .131* .105Openness �.062 �.062 �.101* �.152**Agreeableness .012 �.017 �.133** .004Conscientiousness �.012 .004 .100* .013
Step 4 R2 ¼ .712*** R2 ¼ .675*** R2 ¼ .528*** R2 ¼ .396***Goals/interests T1 .163** .278*** .140** .067
Note: b weights are reported for when variable first entered into the regression.* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.
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examples of data-oriented vocations) are by far the two most frequent vocational educations for
adolescents. This could mean that many students develop such goals more out of opportunity than
personal interests. This reasoning is further supported by the finding that D/I goals (but not interests)
were generally not strongly related to personality traits. The results stress the importance of
research investigating under which circumstances adolescents are more or less likely to develop
goals according to internal versus external influences.
The second hypothesis was that the development of interests and career goals would show
meaningful and similar relations to basic personality traits. The cross-sectional results confirmed the
assumption that goals and interests generally related to traits in the same way, suggesting a mean-
ingful overlap between traits, interests, and career goals in middle adolescence. The participants
were chronologically at the beginning of the last stage of Gottfredson’s (1981) model of aspiration
development, where adaptation of aspirations to personal self is expected. However, the fact that
goals were already clearly related to traits and interests as early as seventh grade implies that career
goals become an expression of aspects of personal self earlier than Gottfredson’s theory would
suggest.
Traits also significantly related to the development of interests and goals over time, although not
necessarily in the same way. One consistent relation of traits to the development of both goals and
interests was found for the development of D/I interests and goals with openness. The relation of
artistic and investigative interests (both defining the Ideas dimension) and openness is well estab-
lished in cross-sectional findings among adults (Barrick et al., 2003; Larson et al., 2002). The results
provide first longitudinal evidence that openness also plays a crucial role in the development of
Ideas-oriented interests and goals in adolescence. Contrary to the expectation, traits did not explain
significant variance in the development of T/P goals. One possible explanation for this finding is that
the T/P dimension is especially affected by gender socialization with boys on average showing a
stronger tendency toward Things and girls on average a stronger tendency toward People (Lippa,
1998). A post hoc analysis confirmed large gender differences in the T/P (Mean d ¼ 1.84) but not
the D/I (Mean d¼ 0.17) dimension of career goals for this sample. Another post hoc regression anal-
ysis separated by gender confirmed that personality traits did not explain development of T/P goals
among either boys or girls. This could imply that career goals in this area are more affected by gen-
der socialization than by traits.
The final hypothesis expected that goals would predict change in interests and interests
would predict change in goals beyond and above their common relation to personality traits. For
both T/P and D/I dimensions, goals explained significant variance in the development of respective
interests beyond and above the effect of traits. T/P interests also explained significant variance in
development of respective goals beyond and above traits. However, due to the generally modest
effect of D/I interests on D/I goals development, D/I interests could not explain additional variance
in the respective goals development above and beyond traits. Overall, the results imply that the
relation of interests and career goals cannot just be explained by their common relation to more basic
traits but that they possess a unique component that explains their reciprocal influence.
Limitations and Conclusions for Theory and Practice
One limitation of this study is that traits were only assessed at the second measurement point, which
limits the possibility to make causal inferences about their influence on the development of goals
and interests. According to some personality theorists, traits are largely genetically determinated and
are not affected by subsequent individual life experiences (McCrae et al., 2000), which would imply
that traits did predict change in interests and goals. However, others suggest that traits do change
over time and are affected by the interaction of person and environmental demands (Roberts,
Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006). Research on traits and interests stability showed greater
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interindividual change in adolescence compared to later periods in life, indicating that those
constructs are more in flux during this developmental period (Low & Rounds, 2007; Roberts &
DelVecchio, 2000). This implies that traits also might have been influenced by interests and goals.
Future studies could tap into this dynamic view and also assess development of traits over time and
how they are related to changes in interests and goals. Another limitation was that the openness
dimension showed low reliability among the study participants. However, the meaningful,
significant, and consistent results regarding the relation of openness to interests and goals support
the measure’s validity within this sample.
The study also did not explicitly differentiate between career expectations and aspirations. The
instructions and purpose in assessing career goals was to have students name their actual intentions
when leaving school. However, some students might have named more ideal aspirations while others
might have named more restricted expectations. As such, the study could not tap into possibly
important differences and different developments of these two kinds of career goals.
One strength of the study was that interests and goals were assessed in different ways (i.e., inven-
tory vs. open response format) that reduces the shared method variance and likelihood of artificial
relations among the two measures due to the same method of measurement. However, it also implies
that part of the overlap of interests and traits might not only be conceptual but also methodological
due to identical means of measurement with standardized Likert-response format questionnaires. A
final limitation is the use of a convenience sample, which implies restrictions to generalizability and
external validity.
Despite those limitations, the study has several conclusions that could inform future theory and
research: (a) goals and interests show a dynamic interaction in their development in middle adoles-
cence; (b) goals and interests are meaningfully related to basic personality traits as early as seventh
grade; and (c) their common relation to traits can partially, yet not completely, explain their effect on
each other. These results call for more attention to dynamic models of career development, which
investigate reciprocal effects of variables over time and not just linear effects. For career assessment
practice, the results imply that counselors should take early career goals seriously and not just regard
them as relatively unreflected expressions of social and environmental influences. On one hand,
career goals are meaningfully related to personal interests and traits even in earlier adolescence.
On the other hand, early career goals will possibly affect the subsequent development of vocational
interests, which in turn would affect career choices. As such, early career goals can be expected to
possess real predictive utility for future career development among adolescents.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Fred. W. Vondracek for his comments on a previous version of this manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication
of this article.
Funding
Work for this study was funded as part of a fellowship for prospective researchers granted to
the author by the Swiss National Science Foundation
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