The relationship between vocational interests and intelligence: Do findings generalize across different assessment methods?

This study set out to look more closely at how vocational interests connect to intelligence. The literature already points to fairly stable links between the two, as Ackerman and Heggestad (1997) reported. One limitation runs through most of that earlier work: vocational interests were almost always measured with questionnaires and little else. That raises a reasonable question. If you change the way interests are assessed, do the same correlations hold up?

To get at that, the present research paired two questionnaires with a nonverbal test of vocational interests. Participants also completed measures of general intelligence along with verbal, numeric, and spatial ability, plus a memory task. In total, 138 people took part, all tested in a computerized format.

A positive relationship turned up between spatial ability and both Realistic and Investigative interests. What matters here is that the pattern showed up regardless of method: the questionnaires produced it, and so did the nonverbal test. On that basis the link looks reasonably robust across assessment approaches rather than being an artifact of how the questions were asked. The findings are considered alongside existing work in the field.

Key words: vocational interests; assessment of vocational interests; intelligence; RIASEC.