Journal article
Vocational Interests and Performance: A Quantitative Summary of Over 60 Years of Research
Perspectives on psychological science, Vol.7(4), pp.384-403
07/01/2012
DOI: 10.1177/1745691612449021
PMID: 26168474
Abstract
Despite early claims that vocational interests could be used to distinguish successful workers and superior students from their peers, interest measures are generally ignored in the employee selection literature. Nevertheless, theoretical descriptions of vocational interests from vocational and educational psychology have proposed that interest constructs should be related to performance and persistence in work and academic settings. Moreover, on the basis of Holland's (1959, 1997) theoretical predictions, congruence indices, which quantify the degree of similarity or person-environment fit between individuals and their occupations, should be more strongly related to performance than interest scores alone. Using a comprehensive review of the interest literature that spans more than 60 years of research, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the veracity of these claims. A literature search identified 60 studies and approximately 568 correlations that addressed the relationship between interests and performance. Results showed that interests are indeed related to performance and persistence in work and academic contexts. In addition, the correlations between congruence indices and performance were stronger than for interest scores alone. Thus, consistent with interest theory, the fit between individuals and their environment was more predictive of performance than interest alone.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Vocational Interests and Performance: A Quantitative Summary of Over 60 Years of Research
- Creators
- Christopher D. Nye - Bowling Green State UniversityRong Su - University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignJames Rounds - University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFritz Drasgow - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Perspectives on psychological science, Vol.7(4), pp.384-403
- Publisher
- Sage
- DOI
- 10.1177/1745691612449021
- PMID
- 26168474
- ISSN
- 1745-6916
- eISSN
- 1745-6924
- Number of pages
- 20
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/01/2012
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship
- Record Identifier
- 9984380553002771
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