Psychological concomitants and determinants of vocational choice

Abstract

The Vocational Life Patterns (VLP) Q Sort was developed and used to investigate the personality-vocational-choice relationship. Groups of 75 student Ss, 50 Ss for the initial study and 25 Ss for the cross-validation study, were drawn from schools of law, medicine, theology, and engineering. Results of the student Q-sort distributions confirm that the motivational and personality self-concept descriptions of the VLP Q Sort do distinguish these different vocational groups at highly significant levels. Descriptions of the different personality-vocational patterns of the 4 groups are presented. It was concluded that the VLP Q Sort was effective in investigating the personality-vocational-choice relationship, and it was suggested that the procedure provides a means to study the more elusive constructs of personality theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)