The within-person variability of vocational interests

Phan, Wei Ming Jonathan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/101812 Copy

Description

Title

The within-person variability of vocational interests

Author(s)

Phan, Wei Ming Jonathan

Issue Date

2018-07-12

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Rounds, James

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Rounds, James

Committee Member(s)

• Drasgow, Fritz
• Newman, Daniel A.
• Nye, Christopher
• Liu, Yihao

Department of Study

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Vocational interest, Experience sampling

Abstract

Much of what is known about the stability of Vocational interests is from a between-person perspective (e.g., rank-order stability). This dissertation investigates the within-person variability of vocational interests. Three studies employ experience sampling methods to assess the daily fluctuations of RIASEC interests. These studies make three main contributions. First, I apply a whole trait perspective to understanding interests: interests can be stable at the between-person level yet vary at the within-person level. In so doing, I examine whether the within-person operationalization of interests affects the nomological relationship within interest domains (i.e., structural validity) and with personality traits of extraversion and openness. This analysis provides evidence that conceptualizing vocational interests as a density distribution is a viable and appropriate way of assessing a person’s interest. Second, G-theory is advanced as a better, more nuanced, and precise method of variance decomposition compared to other methods of variance decomposition. Beyond parsing variance into within- and between-person, G-theory estimates variability that arises due to differences in item selection and administration. Finally, I investigate a potentially better test of Holland’s (1997) congruence hypothesis. Rather than the current approach that matches individuals’ RIASEC activity preferences to their occupation (which consists of a heterogeneous mix of activities), I investigate the daily measurement of individuals’ RIASEC activity preferences matched to the daily work activity they actually do, an activity-interest congruence. Overall, results show that applying whole trait theory to vocational interests is an appropriate operationalization of interests that does not contradict what is currently known about interests at the between-person level. Rather, vocational interests exhibit non-trivial levels of within-person variability across all three studies. Results did not support the ESM test of the congruence hypothesis. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Graduation Semester

2018-08

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101812

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2018 Wei Ming Jonathan Phan

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