The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between vocational interest types and thinking styles, and between personality and thinking styles.
A total 449 tenth-grade students from Busan Educational District were used for the stud...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between vocational interest types and thinking styles, and between personality and thinking styles.
A total 449 tenth-grade students from Busan Educational District were used for the study. Their developmental stages were considered in selection process.
The instruments for the study were as following;
First, to clarify vocational interest types, Career Investigating Test according to Holland’s theory of vocational interest types was used.
Second, McCrae and Costa‘s Short-Form Personality Inventory was used to examine personality
Third, Sternberg ‘s Thinking Styles Questionnaire Short Version was used to clarify thinking styles
The data collected was analyzed by Pearson Product Correlations.
The results of this study were as follows
First, all scales of vocational interest types related significantly to the several scales of thinking styles. This means thinking styles based on Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government encompass vocational interest types from Holland’ theory.
Second, almost all of the relationships between vocational interest types and thinking styles were weak. This means the constructs of vocational interest types are different from those of thinking styles.
Third, all 5 scales of personality related significantly to the several scales of thinking styles. This means thinking styles manifest personality comprehensively.
From the above results, it was identified that the vocational interest types as defined by Holland's theory of vocational interest types and Big Five of personalty related, although not strongly related, to the thinking styles as defined by Sternberg's theory of mental self-government. The present study supports the previous studies of the relationships of vocational interest types and personality to thinking styles.
The implications from the present study are as follows.
Teachers could teach and train their students to develop thinking styles and their flexibility in the employment of thinking styles in various situations, because thinking styles can be developed through teaching and training. And career counsellors could help their students explore their career more comprehensively by using those different inventories together, because they measure different constructs and, in turn, those constructs can supplement each other.