Career Development In Students: Motivation, Personality Factors, And Vocational Interests

Abstract

Career development is a very important aspect of modern career counseling theory and studies. The researches focused on the need to identify and to explore the psychological aspects of career decision in students. The present study investigated the associations among three variables: motivation personality factors and vocational interests in students. Within these relations, we proposed to make a brief personality profile. Hypothesis: H1: There are associations between motivation toward objectives and some of the personality factors (Extraversion, Amiability, and Counsciousness). H2. There are associations between motivation toward relations and Extraversion. Method: we used a corelational study. The research included psychometrical and statistical methodes. The following instruments were used in this research: TOM (an instrument to test the motivation), CEI (a questionnaire to evaluate the vocational interests) and FFPI- Five Factor Personality Inventory (to measure the personality factors). The participants were 60 students at the University of Pitesti, 30 males and 30 females. They were randomly selected to participate in this research. Results confirmed the hypothesis. Students motivated towards objectives are more gentle, polite, determine, and dominant, and they like to perform in difficult and challenging activities. Students motivated toward relations are more sociable and friendly, they like to colaborate and to work in a non-conflictual environment.

Keywords: Career developmentvocational interestspersonality factors

Introduction

The career development is a very complex process based on a diversity of factors connected to the most profound aspects of human personality. The psychological dimension of this process refers to a continuous development of personal abilities, potential, and resources in a relation to the social environment.

For the last 10 years, many studies developed in the field of career and career development, linked personality factors, motivational aspects and vocational interests to some complex aspects of career, such as: career adaptability, academic success, vocational identity (Ginevra, Annovazzi, Santilli, Di Maggio, & Camussi, 2018; Hernandez-Franco, Baena, Prieto-Ursua, & Toro, 2018; Lawson, Lee, Crouter, & McHale, 2018; Martin-Gutierrez & Morales-Lozano, 2018; Schultz, Connolly, Garrison, Leveille, & Jackson, 2017). Akkermans and Kubasch (2017) reviewed all published papers from four core career journals (i.e. Career Development International, Career Development Quarterly, Journal of Career Assessment, and Journal of Career Development) between 2012 and 2016. They included personality as an essential aspect in the debates on careers among other aspects (Career success, Career decision making, Employability, Attitudes, Health and well-being, Career capital, Mentoring and counselling, Gender, Career mobility, Culture, Social capital, Identity, Meaningfulness, Work-home interaction, and Proactive behaviour). The authors noticed an evolving tendency to consider that personality traits – most notably the Big Five personality traits – can and do actually change over the lifespan and that they can be altered through interventions. Many studies focused on the personality factors that can explain differences in academic success. In a study based on a large data from 567 college students and 270 university students in Germany, Smidt (2015) linked the higher conscientiousness to higher study satisfaction.

A large study from Brazil (Ambiel &Noronha, 2016) identified Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness as the main predictors of self-efficacy in 308 high school students. They identified two personality factors (Extraversion and Conscientiousness) that could be used to differentiate people with low and high levels of self-efficacy. These findings are similar to other investigations where the personality factors Emotionality, Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were significantly correlated with the overall career adaptability. Veres and Szamosközi (2017) collected data from 328 college students, from the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania in a large study with the purpose to investigate the effects of socio-demographic characteristics, work experience, GPA and HEXACO-60 on career adaptability, and its subscales (concerns, control, curiosity, confidence). They expected that all three dimensions will be predictors of career adaptability, but only Conscientiousness and Extraversion predicted significantly the overall career adaptability.

Other researches (Shin & Kelly, 2013) explored the effects of optimism, intrinsic motivation, and family relations on vocational identity in college students in the United States and South Korea. Vocational identity was linked to optimism, and intrinsic motivation was a factor that mediated this relation. In this context, our study proposed to develop the field of career theory and practice integrating some of the existing research results into a holistic perspective of career (career decision and career development) that is more appropriate for the dynamic of careers in the modern world. From this perspective, the career development process became a part of the unique personality development process, a spiritual journey reflecting people`s career decisions.

Problem Statement

In the field of career counselling, the problematic of career development became an important aspect in many studies. These researches focused on the need to identify and to explore the psychological aspects of career decision in students. The career development is a very complex and dynamic process, and it is influenced by a multitude of various factors (external factors: family, peers, and society, culture, and interior, psychological factors: personality factors, values, interests, motivation, spirituality).

Research Questions

Our study was developed from the following questions:

Is there a connexion between personality factors and motivational orientation in students?

Is there a connexion between motivational orientation and vocational interests in students?.

Purpose of the Study

This study purposed to investigate the associations among three variables: motivation (motivation toward objectives, motivation toward innovation, motivation toward leadership and motivation toward relations), personality factors (Extraversion, Amiability, Consciousness, Emotional stability, and Autonomy), and vocational interests (social, realistic, investigative, conventional, artistic, and entrepreneurial) in students. Within these relations, we proposed to make a brief personality profile.

Research Methods

We develop a corelational study to test the hypothesis. Other used methods were: Psychometric and statistical–mathematical methods (the Pearson’s correlation coefficient).

Findings

The means and standard deviations for all the variables of the study are presented in Table 1 .

The Pearson Correlations were computed to test the hypothesis of the research.

There were several positive significant correlations between the personality factors and motivation: Extraversion and orientation towards objectives (r=0,290; p<0.05); Extraversion and orientation towards relations (r=0,267; p<0.05); Agreeableness and orientation towards objectives (r=0,255; p<0.05); Consciousness and orientation towards objectives (r=0,284; p<0.05); Consciousness and orientation towards innovation (r=0,351; p<0.05).

Motivational orientations significantly correlated with vocational interests: Orientation towards objectives and artistic (r=0,352; p<0,01) and social interests (r=0,445; p<0,01); orientation towards innovation and artistic (r=0,344; p<0,01), entrepreneurial (r=0,400; p<0,01), social (r=0,386; p<0,01) and investigative interests (r=0,328; p<0,01); orientation towards relations and artistic (r=0,472; p<0,01) and social interests (r=0,525; p<0,01).

Conclusion

References

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