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Original document was submitted as an honors thesis requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Career choice is often reflected by a student’s choice of major. Personality, vocational interests, and cultural influences are also significant factors in the process of choosing a major. For Latino students, maintaining cultural norms is an important part of career choice, although the influence of cultural norms tends to decrease from first to later generations. The current study examined the influences of acculturation and personality (introversion/extraversion) among 57 Latino/Hispanics students: first-generation immigrant students, those who migrated to the US during childhood/adolescence, and later generation students. We hypothesized that later-generation students are more likely to major in business and social sciences, while first-generation students would be more likely to major in STEM. We found that 75% of first-generation students were business majors; while only 24.49% of later-generation students’ were business majors. Among both groups personality appears to be is more closely related to choice of major than acculturation.

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