Antecedents and Outcomes of Self-Determination-Based Motivational Interest Profiles in STEM: A Latent Profile Analysis Investigating the Role of Complexity Congruence and Person-Vocation Fit

Date

2026-3-12

Author

Çıkan, Fuat

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Traditional vocational interest assessments often fail to capture the motivational mechanisms underlying career outcomes. To address this gap, this dissertation integrated Holland’s theory, Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and interest complexity to propose a comprehensive person-environment fit model. Four studies were conducted involving STEM employees and STEM students. Study 1 developed the STEM Environment Complexity Scales to measure perceived environmental complexity and create person-environment complexity congruence indices. Studies 2 and 3 established the psychometric properties of the new scales, providing evidence for their validity and reliability. The main study utilized Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify motivational profiles towards career domains based on autonomous and controlled motivational regulations. Results revealed distinct patterns: while employees exhibited a clear polarization between "autonomous" and "poorly motivated" groups, students additionally displayed a third "mixed" profile, characterized by moderate levels of autonomous and controlled motivational regulations. Members of this profile exhibited high grades but low satisfaction. Environment and interest complexity interaction and perceived occupational fit significantly predicted membership in autonomous profiles. Furthermore, autonomous profiles were associated with higher academic/job satisfaction, affective occupational commitment, career persistence intentions and performance. These findings suggest that adaptive vocational outcomes in STEM depend not only on interest codes but also on fit perceptions and a match between the individual’s interest complexity and the environment’s complexity level. Consequently, the results indicate that vocational interest assessments should extend beyond the sole measurement of intrinsic enjoyment to incorporate the full spectrum of motivational regulations, including internal and external pressures, personal importance, and values.

Subject Keywords

Person-Vocation Fit, Vocational Interests, Self-Determination Motivation, Environment-Interest Complexity, Latent Profile Analysis

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118772

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis