Influence of Personality on the Vocational Choice of Secondary School Students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between personality and vocational choice of secondary school students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. It specifically sought to ascertain the extent to which sanguine personality, phlegmatic personality, melancholic personality and choleric personality type influence vocational choice of students in Enugu Education Zone. This was done with particular reference to gender and location of the secondary school students thus, four research questions and eight null hypotheses guided the study. A sample size of 449 secondary school students was used as respondents through stratified random sampling out of the entire population of 2245 SS II secondary school students in the 21 co-educational schools in Enugu Education Zone. A Self- Structured questionnaire developed by the researchers called Personality and Vocational Choice Scale (PVCS) was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three research experts. Cronbach Alpha Reliability estimate was used to ascertain the internal consistency of the instrument. Correlation research design was adopted for the study. Data collected from this study were analyzed using mean, and standard deviation, to answer the four research questions posed while the null hypotheses were analyzed using t-test statistic. The result obtained from the analysis showed that sanguine personality, melancholic personality, and choleric
personality of secondary school students influence vocational choice of the students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. The study also revealed that gender of the students has no significant difference on the extent sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric personality influence vocational choice, while the location of the students has a significant difference on the extent sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric personality influence vocational choice. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend among others the establishment and strengthening of counselling services in the secondary schools and the use of psychological test instruments to identify the personality type and vocational interest of the students so as to ameliorate the series of vocational crises been faced by the secondary school students in making vocational choice.