Current Projects 

A key focus of our lab is conducting research with real-world applications. Read about some of our current projects, below: 

Whole-Person Career Assessment: Developing Integrative Fit Measures

Most existing career assessments focus on single individual differences in a disconnected manner. This means that each assessment only considers a limited portion of available occupational information to assess person-occupation fit. In this project, we are developing an integrative set of career assessments incorporating five individual differences: vocational interests, personality, work values, knowledge, and skills. Together, these assessments connect to over 90 occupational variables (from O*NET) to offer greater utility and flexibility for career guidance and research purposes. This work is supported by a grant from the American Psychological Foundation. 

Community College Student Success (CCSS) Study

The Community College Student Success (CCSS) Study is a 4-wave, 1-year longitudinal study aimed at understanding the experiences of community college graduates transitioning into the workforce or higher education. This research explores a range of psychological and educational factors that have been shown to predict student success. The overall goal is to help community college students successfully navigate transitions into full-time work. Future waves of data collection are also planned to extend this longitudinal study. 

Strong Interest Inventory National Dataset

This project includes several papers that examine the vocational interests of 1.3 million people across the United States. The papers are focused on (a) examining subgroup differences in vocational interests, (b) comparing the predictive power of interest fit measures, and (c) examining interest supply and demand in the U.S. labor market. 

Houston Occupational Personality (HOP) Study

The Houston Occupational Personality Study (HOPS) is a 5-wave, 1-year longitudinal study examining personality development among recent Bachelor's degree recipients. This research assesses participants' personality traits, goals to change personality, and actual personality changes during the transition from school to work. The project also assesses other individual differences, such as interests, values, and skills, and a wide range of career and life outcomes. Future waves of data collection are planned to extend this longitudinal study. 

Personality, Interest, and Life Goal (PILG) Development

This project examines the development of personality, interests, and life goals from adolescence to young adulthood. Two representative samples of Icelandic youth were tracked over a 12-year period, with additional data collection underway.  A series of papers have been published using these datasets, broadly focused on examining how long-term psychological development relates to people's career and educational experiences. 

Other Applied Projects

We are also working on several applied projects aimed at developing free career exploration tools for public use. This includes collaborations with The World Bank and the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET).