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• Personality traits and vocational interests are important predictors of eight major life goals. • Vocational interests are stronger predictors of major life goals than the Big Five personality traits. • The patterns of results were consistent across two independent samples from two counties. Life goals reflect people's aspirations of what they want to become and what kind of life they want to live. In two student samples from the United States (N = 385) and Iceland (N = 1338), we used hierarchical regression and relative weights analyses to first replicate Roberts and Robins (2000) finding that Big Five personality traits predict major life goals, and then to test whether vocational interests have incremental validity in explaining major life goals over and above personality traits. Overall, vocational interests explained larger amounts of variance in major life goals than personality traits, and added incremental validity above and beyond personality traits. Expectations about specific linkages were largely confirmed across the two samples, providing implications for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality traits and vocational interests capture different aspects of human individuality that intersect in certain ways. In this longitudinal study, we examined developmental relations between the Big 5 traits and RIASEC vocational interests over 4 timepoints from late adolescence to young adulthood (age 16-24) in a sample of Icelandic youth (N = 485) well-representative of the total student population. Results showed that interests and personality traits were similarly stable over time, but showed different patterns of mean-level change. There was evidence of personality maturation but a lack of cumulative changes in interest levels. For the most part, gender differences in developmental trends were minimal. In addition, latent growth curve analyses revealed broad and specific correlated changes between personality and interests. Changes in general factors of personality and interests were moderately related (r = .32), but stronger correlated changes were found among specific personality-interest pairs that share situational content. Overall, results reveal how interests and personality are related across different types of continuity and change. While there was little correspondence between group-level changes, substantial correlated change occurred at the individual level. This means that when a person's personality changes, their interests tend to change in predictable ways (and vice versa). Integrative theories that link different aspects of psychological functioning can benefit by incorporating these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).