New Developments in the Assessment of Vocational Interests and Implications for Research and Practice

Abstract

Abstract. The assessment and research of vocational interests have a long history in psychology. Our bibliometric analysis shows a steep rise in publication numbers focused on vocational interests immediately after John Holland’s (1959) seminal work and a newly awakened impetus especially in German-speaking countries since the 1990’s. Contemporary research focuses on new structural models of vocational interests and attempts to further consolidate the construct validity of interests by delving deeper into the associations with personality and cognitive abilities. The enormous research activity of the past couple of decades culminated in two meta-analyses on the criterion-related validity of vocational interests, which reveal moderate validities with respect to occupational criteria, yet sophisticated matching algorithms and more detailed interest models raise expectations for a more precise prediction. The studies included in this special issue contribute to this vivid field of research by (1) rethinking the relationship between creative and investigative interests in particular and the Big Five personality traits, (2) analyzing the interlink between secondary vocational interest constructs and several indicators of career preparedness, (3) testing Gottfredson’s developmental theory of occupational aspirations, and (4) investigating the perceived benefits of online self-assessments in an experimental pretest-posttest control group design.