The three faces of interests: An integrative review of interest research in vocational, organizational, and educational psychology

Development of the short Creative Expression Interest Scale based on item response theory

This study develops a short Creative Expression Interest Scale (CEIS) among Chinese freshmen based on the perspective of item response theory (IRT). Nine hundred fifty-nine valid Chinese freshmen participated in the Creative Expression Interest survey. Researchers applied the initial data for unidimensionality, item fit, discrimination parameter, and differential item functioning to obtain a short CEIS. The results show that the Short CEIS meets the psychometric requirements of the IRT. Pearson correlation coefficient of theta between the short and long CEIS is 0.922. The marginal reliability of the short CEIS is 0.799. These indicate that the short CEIS developed in this study among Chinese freshmen, meets the psychometric requirements. Although the Short CEIS can eliminate redundant, uninformative items, save time, and improve the quality of data collection. However, the validity of this short scale needs further validation.

Association between Non-Verbal Intelligence and Academic Performance of Schoolchildren from Taza, Eastern Morocco

Interest in identifying factors influencing educational success is growing. It is often observed that a group of students share the same external variables (school environment) yet have different results, which states that individual variables have more impact on the determination of academic performance. Therefore, the present study aimed to substantiate this fact by investigating the association between non-verbal fluid intelligence and academic performance in a population of schoolchildren in Eastern Morocco. The investigation was a cross-sectional study based on a self-administered questionnaire. Items included the standard Raven's progressive matrices. Students' grades were collected from the administrative offices of the visited schools. Significant and positive correlations between the non-verbal intelligence scores and the school results were found: for the general average, the correlation was 0.574; for the school subject French, the correlation coefficient was 0.475; and for mathematics, we found a relatively low coefficient of 0.381. Non-verbal fluid intelligence significantly and positively predicted academic performance (β = .574, p = .000). These results call for policymakers to implement the use of intelligence tests with school directors and teachers as a diagnostic tool to guide support efforts for low-achieving children and even to create pilot classes for the best-performing students.

The Relationship between Parenting Style and Career Planning of Vocational Students by Educational Psychology under Information Technology

It is aimed at studying the role of parenting style on the career planning of vocational students in the context of information technology. This design takes the first-year and second-year students of two higher vocational colleges as the survey objects. From the perspective of educational psychology, firstly, the parenting style scale of these students is constructed, and meanwhile, the dimension design of career planning is carried out. Secondly, through the questionnaire survey, the career planning of students and the status quo of parenting styles are investigated, and the sample data are statistically analyzed by data analysis methods such as standard deviation analysis, cluster analysis, and correlation analysis. Finally, hypotheses are formulated and justified. The results reveal that the total score for career planning and the average score of each dimension are more than 3 points, indicating that vocational students have certain plans for their future careers. There are great differences in the gender of parenting styles, and the parental acceptance/involvement (t = 3.389, p < 0.01) dimension of the parenting style of the first-year students is greatly higher than that of the second-year students. On the dimension of psychological autonomy (t = -2.066, p < 0.05), the score of second-year students is distinctly higher than that of the first year. There are obvious differences in grades from the dimensions of parental acceptance/participation and psychological autonomy. There is no observable difference in whether it is an only child (p > 0.05) and the place of origin (p > 0.05). In terms of the total score and each dimension of career planning, the authoritative type scored the highest, and the neglect type scored the lowest. Parents' participation and acceptance behavior of vocational students are markedly related to their career planning. Parental punishment and acceptance are distinctly positively correlated with the career planning of these students and their two dimensions. Psychological autonomy is memorably associated with the domain of exploration.

Interest-Ability Profiles: An Integrative Approach to Knowledge Acquisition

Cognitive abilities and interests both play an important role in guiding knowledge acquisition, but most previous studies have examined them separately. The current study used a large and representative dataset to integrate interests and abilities using a person-centered approach that examines how distinct profiles of interests and abilities relate to individual strengths and weaknesses in knowledge. Two key findings emerged. First, eight interest–ability profiles were generated from Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), which replicated and extended the interrelations of interests and abilities found in previous studies using variable-centered approaches. Second, each profile’s strongest knowledge scores corresponded to their strongest abilities and interests, highlighting the importance of interest–ability profiles for guiding the development of knowledge. Importantly, in some domains, the lower ability profiles were actually more knowledgeable than higher ability profiles. Overall, these findings suggest that people learn best when given opportunities to acquire knowledge relevant to both their interests and abilities. We discuss how interest–ability profiles inform integrative theories of psychological development and present implications for education and career development.

Educational Psychology-Empowered Creative Practice Strategy and Educational Countermeasures for Cinematography Major

This work aims to improve Cinematography Majors' creative orientation and practical skills and improve related teaching quality. Firstly, this work analyzes the theoretical knowledge and main working principles of Educational Psychology (EPSY). Then, it reviews the current situation and characteristics of the Cinematography teaching through a Questionnaire Survey (QS). Consequently, an EPSY-based teaching effect evaluation model is proposed for Cinematography Majors. The results show that genders have great differences in Cinematography Majors' theoretical knowledge and creative orientation. Girls' theoretical knowledge learning effect is better than boys, with about 84% qualification rate at best. Boys' creative orientation learning effect is better than girls, with the highest qualification rate of about 84%. Meanwhile, students' theoretical knowledge differs greatly from grade to grade and the learning effect increase with the grade. Nevertheless, students' overall creative orientation is not satisfactory. Lastly, students' theoretical knowledge differs greatly given different artistic backgrounds, but the difference in creative orientations is small. Thus, the school can carry out targeted teaching for students according to different genders, grades, and artistic backgrounds, to comprehensively improve the teaching effect of Cinematography. The finding provides technical support and educational countermeasures for improving the teaching effect of Cinematography and the reform of Cinematography teaching.

Stereotypical descriptions of computer science career interests are not representative of many computer scientists

Using responses from a large respondent-initiated online survey, we find that the career interests of many current and aspiring computer scientists in the United States diverge from a popular and official depiction of computer scientists' interests used for career and workforce development worldwide. Distinct profiles of career interests emerged from the data. These profiles suggest that many women in the field value social and artistic expression in a way not currently recognized by established depictions of computer scientists' interests. Better capturing the diversity of interests in computer science might help to boost women's, and men's, engagement in this STEM field.

Evidence for “Pushed Out” and “Opt Out” Factors in Women’s Career Inclusion Across the World of Work in the United States

There is an ongoing debate over the extent to which women “opt out” and/or are “pushed out” of various occupations ( Kossek et al., 2017 ). To advance this debate, we explore the correspondence of women’s interests in stereotypically masculine work activities with the work activities of their occupations/occupational-aspirations. We examine 42,631 responses to a survey of employed and unemployed persons in the United States and analyze associations along all six of Holland’s ( 1997 ) interest/work-activity dimensions. Overall, we find support for a “pushed out” perspective as women’s interests in hands-on/practical, analytic/scientific, and managerial/sales-related work activities are less strongly associated with being employed in occupations with those activities – in comparison to similarly interested men. However, these effect sizes are small and we find support for “opt out” dynamics in relation to hands-on/practical occupations. Altogether, our results indicate the need to continue looking beyond women’s vocational interests as explanations of their underrepresentation.

Economic Justice and Vocational Psychology: Towards Community Change

In the present paper, we join the current dialogue in the field of vocational psychology regarding how neoliberal economic trends across the world have influenced the development of theory and approaches to vocational psychology. We propose an alternative perspective, that viewing career development from an economic justice lens, can provide an alternative to the existing neoliberal influence. An economic justice lens may aid us in moving from solely focusing on individual interventions and outcomes to those that help to create community-level change which in turn help create a more just economy for all. This is more than simply providing interventions to individuals in a community but requires shifting the locus of change to the community level. We detail four proposed career outcomes that center community-level change: Networking, Conscientization, Participation, and Liberation. Opportunities to utilize participatory action research, social network analysis, and other practice methods are encouraged. Finally, we offer examples of how vocational psychologists can take active roles in an economic justice approach to vocational psychology.

Assessing Interests in the Twenty-First-Century Workforce: Building on a Century of Interest Measurement

Recent research has re-emphasized the importance of vocational interests for understanding workplace attitudes and behavior. As a result, there is a renewed interest in the assessment of vocational interests in organizations. Numerous interest assessments have been developed over the past century, and they are now administered to millions of people throughout the world. Nevertheless, there is still work to be done, particularly as interest assessments are increasingly being used in organizational settings. This article reviews developments in interest assessments and discusses the implications of their use for both research and practice. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of examining vocational interests in organizational contexts and proposes future research directions.

The Role of Autonomy Support and Job Crafting in Interest Incongruence: A Mediated Moderation Model

Interest incongruence, or the mismatch between employees’ vocational interests and their work environments, tends to induce negative work attitudes and behaviors among employees. Combining conservation of resources theory and person–environment fit research, we propose a mediated moderation model explaining how autonomy support and job crafting mitigate the detrimental effects of interest incongruence on job satisfaction and absenteeism. Using data collected across two time periods from a sample of 428 Chinese employees from diverse occupations, we found that autonomy support buffered the relationships between interest incongruence and job satisfaction and interest incongruence and absenteeism. Moreover, job crafting also had a buffering effect on these relationships and further mediated the moderating effect of autonomy support. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for employees coping with interest incongruence in organizations.

Improving Gifted Talent Development Can Help Solve Multiple Consequential Real-World Problems

Fully developing the talents of all students is a fundamental goal for personal well-being and development and ultimately for global societal innovation and flourishing. However, in this paper we focus on what we believe is an often neglected and underdeveloped population, that of the gifted. We draw from the cognitive aptitude and gifted education research literatures to make the case that solutions to consequential real-world problems can be greatly enhanced by more fully developing the talents of the intellectually gifted population, which we operationalize in this paper as roughly the top 5% of cognitive talent. Should well-supported high achievers choose to solve them, these problems span health, science, economic growth, and areas unforeseen. We draw from longitudinal research on intellectually precocious students and retrospective research on leaders and innovators in society, showing that mathematical, verbal, and spatial aptitudes are linked to societal innovation. We then discuss two remaining fundamental challenges: the identification of disadvantaged and marginalized groups of students who have traditionally been neglected in selection for gifted programming suited to their current developmental needs, and the building of skills beyond academic ones, specifically in the related areas of open-minded thinking and intellectual humility.

Factor Structure of the "Top Ten" Positive Emotions of Barbara Fredrickson

In order to contribute to the consolidation in the field of Positive Psychology, we reinvestigated the factor structure of top 10 positive emotions of Barbara Fredrickson. Former research in experimental settings resulted in a three-cluster solution, which we tested with exploratory and confirmatory methodology against different factor models. Within our non-experimental data (N = 312), statistical evidence is presented, advocating for a single factor model of the 10 positive emotions. Different possible reasons for the deviating results are discussed, as well as the theoretical significance to various subfields in Positive Psychology (e.g., therapeutical interventions). Furthermore, the special role of awe within the study and its implications for further research in the field are discussed.

Sometimes hot, sometimes not: the relations between selected situational vocational interests and situation perception

Vocational interests are traditionally conceived as stable preferences for different activities. However, recent theorizing suggests their intraindividual variability. This preregistered experience sampling study examined intraindividual variation in selected vocational interests states and related situation and person factors ( N = 237). Results indicate that the three interest dimensions Investigative, Artistic, and Social interests did vary intraindividually but less so than other phenomena’s dimensions (e.g., personality and happiness). At the within-person level, the focused interest states were related to specific situation characteristics, also after controlling for related personality dimensions and happiness. These relations were either specified a priori, based on the concept of congruence or person-environment fit, and tested in a strictly confirmatory manner, or identified using a more exploratory approach. Furthermore, aggregated states of the three selected interest dimensions mainly varied below their corresponding trait levels. This suggests that interest trait levels could represent an upper limit for aggregated interest states that could be due to method-related or construct-related reasons. The results demonstrate the situational character of interests and provide novel approaches for studying vocational interest in daily life.

Unterscheiden sich die Forschungsinteressen von Frauen und Männern in der Psychologie?

Zusammenfassung. Auf die Mitte der 1990er Jahre angestoßene Debatte über den steigenden Frauenanteil unter den Psychologiestudierenden folgte eine Reihe von Studien, welche unter anderem geschlechtsspezifische Interessenschwerpunkte untersuchten. Bis heute zeigt sich zu solchen Präferenzen ein insgesamt gemischtes Bild und es liegt noch keine umfassende Untersuchung über einen größeren Zeitraum vor. Daher wurde untersucht, (1) ob sich die Forschungsinteressen von promovierenden Frauen und Männern in der Psychologie unterscheiden und (2) welche zeitlichen Trends hierbei ausgemacht werden können. Analysiert wurden 17 971 in der psychologischen Referenzdatenbank PSYNDEX nachgewiesene Dissertationen aus dem deutschen Sprachraum der Jahre 1968 bis 2017. Die individuellen Forschungsinteressen wurden anhand standardisierter Schlagwörter der Dissertationen mit Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) identifiziert. Zeitliche Trends wurden mit Multilayer Perceptrons (MLP) untersucht. Es konnten 48 Interessenbereiche identifiziert werden, wobei sich nur in zwei Bereichen zeitlich konstant größere Unterschiede zwischen Frauen und Männern zeigten: „Mutter-Kind-Beziehung und Entwicklung im Kleinkindalter“ wurde mit einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit von Frauen, „Statistik und Methoden“ stärker von Männern adressiert. Weitere Unterschiede unterlagen zeitlichen Schwankungen. Die Befunde stützen insgesamt die Annahme, dass die Ähnlichkeiten zwischen Frauen und Männern überwiegen. Eine englische Übersetzung als Rohfassung dieses Artikels finden Sie als Elektronisches Supplement 1.