Relationship between Personality Traits and Vocational Interests: A multi-faceted study

Personality traits and vocational interests are important constructs of the individual differences that exist in the many sub-fields of psychology. Many studies have examined one or both, and indeed the associations between these constructs. Most researchers have investigated these associations by conceptualising and measuring a typical model of the ‘Big Five’ – representing the ‘bright’ side of personality – and RIASEC vocational interests. However, although few studies have investigated the association between the ‘dark’ side of personality and vocational interests, no study has examined these associations by considering both the ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ sides of personality.

This research investigates the relationship between personality traits and vocational interests by examining the ‘dark’ (i.e., Dark Triad) and ‘bright’ (i.e., HEXACO) sides of personality traits with vocational interests (i.e., RIASEC). These associations were investigated via four studies: longitudinal, cross-groups, cross-cultural, and the moderation effect of values on these associations within samples from undergraduates from Turkey (N=1,026) and the UK (N=445), and Turkish working adults (N=320).

Overall, the conclusions of this thesis are: (i) the relationship between personality traits and vocational interests was generalizable and most likely did not differ across time, groups or cultures; (ii) concerning the relationships between the dimensions of vocational interests and personality, Enterprising was consistently associated with several types of personality: Extraversion and Dark Triad personality types were positively related to Enterprising, while Honesty-humility was negatively related to Enterprising across time, groups, and cultures, suggesting that these variables could be considered together to provide a context when psychological variables were examined within the context of the resultant relationships between personality and Enterprising; (iii) although values, personality, and vocational interests were shown to be interrelated, values were not generally observed to moderate this relationship, though with a few exceptions. Future research and the practical implications of these findings are also discussed.