Revisiting the big six and the big five among Hong Kong university students

Abstract

The present study replicated investigation of the link between Holland’s six career interest types and Costa and McCrae’s big five personality traits in a Chinese context. A sample of 79 university students from Hong Kong evaluated their own abilities and responded to the Short‐Version Self‐Directed Search (SVSDS) and the NEO Five‐Factor Inventory. Results demonstrated external validity for the SVSDS, and suggested that even when students’ self‐rated abilities were taken into account, career interests and personality traits still significantly overlapped, although each construct made a unique contribution to the variance in the data. The specific ways in which the dimensions of career interests and personality traits were related to one another were generally consistent with those documented in the literature. The implications for educational research and educational practice in the Chinese context are discussed.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Wu Jieh‐Yee Education Research Fund as administered by the University of Hong Kong for supporting this project. My very special thanks go to the research participants.