Examining the congruence hypothesis in vocational interest research: the case of teacher students

According to the congruence hypothesis, job and study satisfaction will be higher when individual interests and the respective environment (both conceptualised according to Holland’s RIASEC model) are congruent. As our target group were teacher students, all participants who did not intend to become a teacher or did not meet other inclusion criteria (e.g., no missing data on relevant variables) were removed from the sample, resulting in a final sample of N = 1171. Teacher students completed questionnaires on their vocational interests and their satisfaction with course content. To obtain an assessment of the environment (study majors), N = 166 lecturers were asked to rate their courses with respect to Holland’s RIASEC model. As previous findings have indicated that conclusions are influenced by the congruence measure that is used, we applied two different approaches. First, we computed the profile correlation between the individual interest profile and the environmental profile for each individual to measure congruence. Profile correlation scores were then correlated with satisfaction with course content scores. This correlation was significant ( r = .21, p < .001), offering support for the congruence hypothesis. Second, Response Surface Analysis (RSA) was used to predict satisfaction with course content scores from the individual interest and environmental assessment variables and their interaction separately for each interest dimension. Results showed that the relationships between these three constructs were complex, but evidence for the congruence hypothesis could not be found. This makes this study the first study to investigate this hypothesis using RSA methodology.