Childhood Personality Found To Predict Adult Career Paths, UK

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 10 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The career path of a child, as young as the age of six, can be predicted by measuring their personality.

This is the key finding of research published on Wednesday 9 January 2008, at the Annual Conference of the Division of Occupational Psychology of the British Psychological Society at the Stratford-Upon-Avon Holiday Inn.

Dr Stephen Woods, from Aston University and Sarah Hampson, from the Oregon Research Institute in the US, analysed data from a study which began in the 1950s and 1960s. At the beginning of the study, the participants were children aged six to 12 years of age. Each child had their personality assessed by their school-teacher. At the end of the study, the participants, who were by then mostly in their late 40s, completed a survey about their current and past jobs.

The findings from this study indicate that both gender and childhood personality traits predicted people's occupations in later life.

Young girls viewed by their teachers as less imaginative and curious were more likely to be working with data, filing records and doing other rule-regulated work in middle age. In contrast, young boys viewed by their teachers as less imaginative and curious were more likely to be working in physical jobs in middle age, such as construction or manufacturing.

Conversely, boys and girls rated by their teachers as more imaginative and curious, were more likely to be working in the arts, or in research and sciences.

The key childhood personality trait which was found to predict occupations was 'Openness to Experience'. This trait describes a child's curiosity, imagination, and interest in ideas.

British Psychological Society