Beyond person-environment congruence: Career adaptability, career personality styles, and thinking styles

The main objectives of this study were to explore the relationship between career personality styles and career adaptability and the role of thinking styles in such relationship. Eight hundred and eleven Chinese students, who were trained as pre-service kindergarten teachers, responded to the Career Personality Styles Inventory, the shortened Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised, and the Career Adapt-Ability Scale - Short Form. Results suggested that the career personality styles (i.e. social, enterprising) that fit the vocational environment of kindergarten teaching the most positively predicted the students' career adaptability, both directly and indirectly through creativity-generating thinking styles. Moreover, the artistic and investigative career personality styles indirectly predicted students' career adaptability through creativity-generating thinking styles, while the conventional and realistic career personality styles showed no significant effect on the students' career adaptability. The findings imply that beyond the notion of person-environment congruence, some career personality styles can consistently predict career adaptability through thinking styles. Implications for career counseling and education practice are discussed.