Life goals, values, vocational interests, and personality traits are important factors that influence career and everyday life decision-making. This dissertation presents a framework for how personality traits, interests, and values relate to life goals. There were two studies conducted using structural equation modeling. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study investigating the domain-specific relationship among major life goals, personality traits, interests, and values. The results showed that personality traits are the most fundamental disposition and can predict vocational interests, values, and then goals. Moreover, in certain domains, interests serve as a mediator between personality traits and life goals; values serve as a mediator between personality traits and goals, and between interests and goals. Study 2 is a longitudinal study examining how relationships among major life goals, interests, and personality traits may change over time. The results indicated that personality, interests, and major life goals are stable across time. Both personality and interests are enduring psychological dispositions that can predict future major life goals. The models also show that some variables are more capable of explaining and predicting major life goals when other variables were controlled. Combining these two studies, this dissertation contributes to the deeper understanding of how important psychological dispositions influence individuals0́9 goal settings during emerging adulthood. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies together provide a broader picture of the trajectory of these dispositions0́9 development.

Based on a sample of 114 college students studying education, specific relationships between satisfaction with major and Holland's (1997) RIASEC model of vocational interest themes, Five Factor Model personality traits, and a set of work based narrow personality traits were examined. The Big Five traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness, as well as the four narrow traits of Identity, Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive were examined. Contrary to the hypothesized result, Social scores were not significantly positively correlated with major satisfaction and the Conventional, Investigative, and Realistic themes were not negatively correlated with major satisfaction. As hypothesized, the Big Five traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion were positively and significantly related to major satisfaction, as was Openness. Also as predicted, the narrow traits of Optimism and Work Drive were positively and significantly related to major satisfaction, as was Identity. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated vocational interests account for a non-significant 1.6% of variance in major satisfaction beyond what could be attributed to the other factors. The Big Five traits together account for a non-significant 3.9 % of variance, and narrow traits account for 1.9%, respectively, of the variance in major satisfaction beyond the others. This may be due to the relatively small sample size and the multicolinearity of the personality variables. There were, however, notable differences between the Big Five and narrow traits in terms of major satisfaction. The Big Five traits were generally more strongly related to major satisfaction than were the narrow traits.