Would You Like Your Partner to Share Your Interests? Vocational Ideal-Partner Standards of Singles and Couples

Abstract

To examine the alignment between individuals’ vocational self-concepts and their vocational ideal-partner standards, we collected data from two Croatian heterosexual samples: 271 couples and 335 single participants. Using the short form of the Personal Globe Inventory, participants rated their own vocational interests and those they desired in an ideal partner. We assessed various dimensions of similarity, including normative and distinctive partner-ideal congruence, actual partner congruence, ideals agreement, and self-ideal similarity across the full interest profile and theoretical interest dimensions. The findings indicate that participants generally preferred ideal partners with elevated vocational profiles. Trait-wise self-ideal similarity was significant but modest across all RIASEC types, along with the Ideas-Data and Prestige but not the People-Things dimension of the Personal Globe. Significant distinctive self-ideal profile agreement emerged in both samples. Among couples, actual partners’ vocational interests were more closely aligned with ideal preferences than self-reported interests reflecting gender normativity of vocational interest profiles. The similarity between an actual partner’s vocational profile and the ideal partner’s profile modestly predicted relationship satisfaction, particularly for women, emphasizing the importance of ideal standards in vocational interests. These findings support the idea that vocational interests contribute to processes of partner selection and couple functioning. We discuss our results in the context of assortative mating preferences and gendered occupational stereotypes