A comparison of the interests and personality traits of engineers and liberal arts students

Abstract

The Strong Vocational Interest Blank and the Bernreuter Personality Inventory were administered to 237 male engineering students and 166 male liberal arts students. Among the conclusions reached are the following: (1) Strong scores differentiate rather clearly between engineers and liberal arts students, C grades discriminating better than A grades. (2) Engineering students score high, and significantly higher than liberal arts students, on chemist, engineer, production manager, farmer, carpenter, printer, policeman, and mathematics—physical science teacher. (3) Liberal arts students score high, and significantly higher than engineering students, on YMCA secretary, social-science teacher, musician, banker, office man, sales manager, salesman, advertising man, and lawyer. (4) On the Bernreuter test, liberal arts students get higher scores on neuroticism and lower scores on self-sufficiency than do engineering students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)