Vocational interests are important aspects of personality that reflect individual differences in motives, goals, and personal strivings. It is therefore plausible that these characteristics have an impact on individuals' lives not only in terms of vocational outcomes, but also beyond the vocational domain. Yet the effects of vocational interests on various life outcomes have rarely been investigated. Using Holland's RIASEC taxonomy (Holland, 1997), which groups vocational interests into 6 broad domains, the present study examined whether vocational interests are significant predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over and above the Big Five personality traits. For this purpose, a cohort of German high school students (N = 3,023) was tracked over a period of 10 years after graduating from school. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of RIASEC interests and Big Five personality traits. Nine outcomes from the domains of work, relationships, and health were investigated. The results indicate that vocational interests are important predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over the Big Five personality traits. Vocational interests were significant predictors of 7 of the 9 investigated outcomes: full-time employment, gross income, unemployment, being married, having children, never having had a relationship, and perceived health status. For work and relationship outcomes, vocational interests were even stronger predictors than the Big Five personality traits. For health-related outcomes, the results favored the personality traits. Effects were similar across gender for all outcomes-except 2 relationship outcomes. Possible explanations for these effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present study is a close replication of the work of Orth, Robins, and Roberts (2008). Orth et al. (2008) tested three theoretical models of the relation between self-esteem and depression--the vulnerability model, the scar model, and the common factor model--using longitudinal, cross-lagged panel designs. The authors concluded that depression and self-esteem were not the same construct (contrary to the common-factor model), and furthermore, the results were clearly in line with the vulnerability model and not with the scar model (low self-esteem predicts subsequent levels of depression and not vice versa). In addition, the results held for both men and women. To conduct a very close replication of the work of Orth et al. (2008), we used data from another large longitudinal study (N = 2,512), which is highly similar in study design and that contains the same measures (self-esteem and depression). The present study replicated the results of the Orth et al. (2008) study in a notable manner, in regard to the comparability of the coefficients, and therefore, corroborates the vulnerability model (and not the scar- or the common-factor model).

According to the social-investment principle, entering new environments is associated with new social roles that influence people’s behaviors. In this study, we examined whether young adults’ personality development is differentially related to their choice of either an academic or a vocational pathway (i.e., entering an academic-track school or beginning vocational training). The personality constructs of interest were Big Five personality traits and vocational-interest orientations. We used a longitudinal study design and propensity-score matching to create comparable groups before they entered one of the pathways and then tested the differences between these groups 6 years later. We expected the vocational pathway to reinforce more mature behavior and curtail investigative interest. Results indicated that choosing the vocational compared with the academic pathway was associated with higher conscientiousness and less interest in investigative, social, and enterprising activities.