Profiling Religious Fundamentalisms Associations With Vocational Interests

What is it about?

Religion is a shaping force in the world today, increasingly expressed and integral to the flow and function of the workplace. The relationship between religious identity and work function is clearly present. However, no lines of research have explored how religion explains the variations in vocational interest, despite speculation that it does so. Fundamentalist beliefs provide an opportunity to examine how career interests are related to personal values. This study examined the relationship between fundamentalism and the Artistic and Investigative Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional types, types speculated to be most dissimilar to fundamentalism, by testing the incremental importance of religious fundamentalism beyond personality traits in the shaping of vocational interests. Results suggest that, even after controlling for variation attributed to personality, religious fundamentalism is negatively related to Artistic interests yet has no relationship to Investigative interests. Issues of diversity and implications for career counselors are discussed.

Featured Image