How our work influences who we are: Testing a theory of vocational and personality development over fifty years

•Examines vocational developmental influences on traits from childhood to adulthood.•Proposes and tests aspects of a theory of vocational and personality development.•Reports effects of vocations on 50-year development paths for Openness/Intellect.•Reports multiple effects of vocations on adulthood personality traits. This study examines the developmental influences of occupational environments on personality traits from childhood to adulthood. We test aspects of a theory of vocational and personality development, proposing that traits develop in response to work experience following corresponsive and noncorresponsive mechanisms. We describe these pathways in the context of situations of vocational gravitation and inhabitation. In a sample from the Hawaii personality and health cohort (N = 596), we examined associations of childhood and adulthood personality traits, with occupational environments profiled on the RIASEC model. Mediations tests confirmed that work influenced personality development from childhood to adulthood for Openness/Intellect. We observed multiple reactivity effects of occupation environments on adulthood traits that were not associated with corresponding selection effects.