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Background: Vocational interests play a central role in the vocational decision-making process and are decisive for the later job satisfaction and vocational success. Based on Ackerman's (1996) notion of "trait complexes," specific interest profiles of gifted high-school graduates can be expected. Aims: Vocational interests of gifted and highly achieving adolescents were compared to those of their less intelligent/achieving peers according to Holland's (1997) RIASEC model. Further, the impact of intelligence and achievement on interests were analysed while statistically controlling for potentially influencing variables. Changes in interests over time were investigated. Sample: "N" = 4,694 German students (age: "M" = 19.5, "SD" = 0.80; 54.6% females) participated in the study (TOSCA; Koller, Watermann, Trautwein, & Ludtke, 2004). Method: Interests were assessed in participants' final year at school and again 2 years later ("N" = 2,318). Results: Gifted participants reported stronger investigative and realistic interests, but lower social interests than less intelligent participants. Highly achieving participants reported higher investigative and (in wave 2) higher artistic interests. Considerable gender differences were found: gifted girls had a flat interest profile, while gifted boys had pronounced realistic and investigative and low social interests. Multilevel multiple regression analyses predicting interests by intelligence and school achievement revealed stable interest profiles. Beyond a strong gender effect, intelligence and school achievement each contributed substantially to the prediction of vocational interests. Conclusions: At the time around graduation from high school, gifted young adults show stable interest profiles, which strongly differ between gender and intelligence groups. These differences are relevant for programmes for the gifted and for vocational counselling. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)

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. (Contains 9 tables and 5 figures.)

This study examines the relationships of vocational interests and mathematical literacy both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Extending previous research, the results of Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) scale scores are compared with results from a reductionist approach using individual interest profiles (including the parameters level, differentiation, and orientation). Both analyses find significant relations between interests and mathematical literacy. The scale score analyses reveal positive associations of Realistic interests with mathematical literacy, whereas Artistic interests show a negative association. Interest profiles from a dimensional representation show individuals with interest orientations close to the Realistic domain score highest on mathematical literacy, with those with interests in both Artistic and Social domains scoring lowest. Results from profile analyses suggest that interest differentiation moderates the interest-ability relation. Only interest profiles are predictive for mathematical literacy over and above covariates, indicating that interest profiles are more robust predictors than the scale scores. Analyses show that interest profiles are a valid reduction of the scale score models. (Contains 4 figures and 5 tables.)

The current study is concerned with the stability of and changes in vocational interest profiles and interest congruence in vocational education and training (VET). Specifically, we examined (1) the stability of vocational interest profiles, (2) the existence of occupational socialization effects that manifest themselves as increases in person-environment (P-E) congruence, and (3) the question of whether or not changes in P-E congruence are psychologically relevant because they are related to trainees' attitudes towards their VET course. We used data from a three-wave longitudinal sample comprising N = 2611 trainees from five different VET courses in Germany. Through the use of meta-analytical aggregation techniques, we were able to analyze interindividual differences in intraindividual interest stability and P-E congruence and to relate these differences to trainees' satisfaction with VET. On average, interest profiles turned out to be highly stable over the entire course of VET. However, we found substantial interindividual and intergroup differences in interest stability. Average P-E congruence increased slightly in two groups, providing only little evidence for the presumed socialization effects. Nevertheless, interindividual differences in P-E congruence and changes in P-E congruence were psychologically relevant because they were linked to trainees' satisfaction with their VET course and changes therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Vocational Behavior is the property of Academic Press Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vocational interest research relies on interest taxonomies that partition the construct space of activity preferences into a small number of broad interest domains. To this day, the most widely used classification system is Holland's (1997) RIASEC taxonomy, which distinguishes between six overarching interest domains. A central feature of this model is that the six domains are connected via a circular similarity structure, the circumplex, which is often described with the help of two orthogonal core dimensions: People-Things and Data-Ideas. In recent years, alternative interest taxonomies have been proposed, which suggest different partitionings of the construct space that are said to better reflect today's world of work. Using the example of one such alternative, namely, the recently introduced SETPOINT model (Su et al., 2019), the current article argues that such taxonomies still strongly reflect the underlying core dimensions that define the interest circumplex. Using a mixed online sample from Germany (N = 560), it is shown that 1) the main and subdomains of the SETPOINT model reflect a circular similarity structure, 2) this circular similarity structure is conceptually identical to the ones identified in previous research, and 3) the discriminatory power of the SETPOINT scales for occupational group membership can largely be traced back to the core dimensions of the interest circumplex. • We compared the dimensional SETPOINT model to traditional interest models. • Basic and broad-band scales of the SETPOINT exhibited a circular structure. • Relationships with the PGI circumplex were consistent with this structure. • Profiles based on the structure's core dimensions replicated group-specific profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present investigation is to examine key aspects regarding the validity of the spherical model of vocational interests in Germany, namely, its structural validity, its convergent validity—with an instrument assessing vocational interests according to the RIASEC (R—Realistic, I—Investigative, A—Artistic, S—Social, E—Enterprising, and C—Conventional) model—and its construct validity regarding the pattern of gender differences. To this end, the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI) was translated and completed by a sample of German university students. Results of randomization tests of hypothesized order relations provided support for the structural validity of the instrument in female and male university students. Principal components analyses with target rotations identified two particular scales as outliers. RIASEC scores derived from the PGI correlated strongly with corresponding scales of another instrument, and gender differences were in line with previous findings reported in the literature. Overall, our results provide evidence for the validity of the spherical model in German university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the role of gender, school achievement tests, school grades, self-concepts, and vocational interests in predicting the transition from school to different fields of vocational education and training in a German sample of 10th-grade students ( N = 900) attending intermediate secondary school. All sets of constructs were assessed with respect to multiple domains related to school subjects and the salient characteristics of occupations. Results showed that the sets of predictor variables had large proportions of variance in common (18% to 87%). On average, the profiles of students' construct scores resembled the characteristics of the different groups of occupations. Multinomial logistic regression analyses based on three alternative classification systems of occupations revealed that all variables were related to students' vocational choices, but that vocational interests were the most powerful predictors, and that the remaining variables only had small incremental effects once interests were controlled for. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Vocational Behavior is the property of Academic Press Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the role that vocational interests conceptualized by Holland (1997) play in the transition from lower secondary school to the thematic profiles of upper secondary schools in Schleswig-Holstein. Based on the circumplex model of vocational interests, we examined the predictive validity of the individual interest profile parameters derived from the model for the thematic profiles chosen in Grade 11. The empirical results support the validity of the profile approach. In particular, (1) interest structure at the end of the lower secondary school was consistent with the one postulated by Holland, and (2) the choice of different upper secondary school thematic profiles was associated with individual interest profile parameters. In addition, (3) the parameters of individual interest profiles examined made an independent contribution towards the prediction of future educational decisions, even when school grades and sex were controlled for. Overall, the empirical findings indicate that, as early as Grade 9, vocational interests play an important role in the decisionmaking process with regards to in-school educational choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal for Sociology of Education & Socialization / Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung & Sozialisation is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The vocational interest circumplex implies a pattern of correlations that can be represented by the interest domains' locations on the circumference of a circle. In addition, the circumplex can be extended by placing external covariates into the two-dimensional interest structure. Results that simultaneously support the circumplex as a model for the interest scales' internal structure and for their external relationships with covariates provide a more comprehensive account of the circumplex's validity than isolated analyses of just one kind of validity evidence. In this article, we outline a latent variable framework that makes it possible to simultaneously examine both validity aspects and that enables researchers to study the robustness of such validity evidence across groups. We applied this framework to the eight basic interest scales of the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI; Tracey, 2002) and their relationships with nine measures of domain-specific self-concepts. Participants were randomly assigned to groups in which the interest items were presented in different orders with the goal of eliciting either cross-domain or within-domain comparisons. Our results suggest that the circumplex structure was remarkably similar (although not fully invariant) across conditions and that the relationships between the PGI scales and the self-concept domains were in good agreement with the circumplex regardless of item order. Interestingly, most self-concept scales occupied positions along the People-Things axis of the circumplex, thereby replicating previous results on the relationships of vocational interests and ability-related constructs. Taken together, our results provide strong support for the internal and external validity of the interest circumplex as an integrative map for representing complex construct relationships. • A framework to test the validity of the latent vocational interest circumplex is proposed • Strong evidence for the internal and external validity was found • Validity evidence was largely robust against item-order effects • We provide a construct map of nine domain-specific self-concepts placed on the interest circumplex [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]