The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Vocational Interest Themes, and College Major Satisfaction

Utilizing a sample of college students who completed the Personal Style Inventory for College Students (Lounsbury & Gibson, 2004), the Strong Interest Inventory (Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994), and a Quality of Life Scale, specific relations between Five Factor Model personality traits, a set of work based narrow personality traits, and Holland’s (1997) RIASEC model of vocational interest themes were hypothesized and examined. All but one of the hypothesized correlations were found to be significant at the .05 level. This study also investigated whether personality traits, vocational interest themes, or a combination of the two models were better predictors of satisfaction with college business major. Regression analysis revealed that a model including Optimism, the Realistic vocational interest theme, the Artistic vocational interest theme, and Extraversion was the strongest predictor of satisfaction, accounting for 19.8% (p < .05) of the variance as compared to 14.7% and 9.9%, respectively, when using personality or vocational interest alone. Results are discussed in terms of career and academic counseling implications.