ward occupations that allow the expression of their personality traits.
This is most clearly seen in inventories of vocational interest, such asthe Holland (1985) Self-Directed Search, which provides scores for sixcategories of interests. Individuals with enterprising and social voca -
tional interests tend to be extraverts; those with artistic interests tend to
be open. Investigative interests are found among intelligent introverts,and conventional interests among those closed to experience. Not sur -
prisingly , open people report interest in a wider variety of occupations
of all sorts (Costa et al., 1984).
Similar relationships are found when other vocational interest in -
ventories, with different categorizations of interests, are used. And after
age 25 vocational interests are known to be extremely stable. Some ofthe best early evidence for stability in personality was provided byStrong’s (1955) 25-year retest of vocational interests.
When we move from vocational interests to actual occupation, the
data become less clear. Open people may be interested in the occupa-tion of poet or concert pianist, but how many of them have the talent orthe financial resources to make a career of these interests? At this pointin history at least, one’s gender and educational level are the primarydeterminants of occupational choice and economics is the major incen-tive. By and large, people take the highest-paying job they are qualifiedfor, regardless of their preferences. Given a choice, they will gravitatetoward the positions best fitted to their temperament—but most of usare not really given a choice. Nevertheless, studies do show that sales-people are more likely to be extraverts than introverts, and that cooksare less open to experience than are creative writers (Cattell et al.,1970). Data from the Myers–Briggs T ype Indicator (MBTI) suggest thatmost psychologists are high in Intuition, or what we would call Open -
ness; those who are also high in Agreeableness are more likely to be cli -
nicians, whereas those low in Agreeableness gravitate toward experi -
mental psychology (Myers & McCaulley , 1985).
We know from studies in Boston (Costa & McCrae, 1978) and in
Baltimore (McCrae & Costa, 1985a) that individuals who have started anew career or switched to a different line of work are more likely to beopen than closed to experience. This is as true for women as it is formen. Longitudinal studies have also allowed us to separate cause fromeffect: People are not open because they were broadened by a new voca -
tional experience; instead, they were open to experience years before226 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD