Basic Interests Taxonomy: A Proposal for a Comprehensive Assessment of Interests in Brazil

• Grant number: 25/07777-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Felipe Valentini
• Grantee: Gustavo Henrique Martins
• Host Institution: Universidade São Francisco (USF). Campus Campinas. Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Vocational interests represent patterns of preference, aversion, or indifference toward professional activities. Although widely used, the RIASEC model is limited in its ability to capture the complexity of the contemporary world of work. More specific assessments, at the level of basic interests, provide more detailed results and, consequently, promote greater self-knowledge. This project aims to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of basic interests adapted to the Brazilian occupational context. In Study 1, the Basic Interests Test (TIB) will be developed using embedding techniques to relate basic interests to the descriptions of the 626 occupational families from the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO), complemented by jingle-jangle fallacy analyses to check for conceptual redundancies. In Study 2, Confirmatory Factor Analyses will be conducted for each basic interest, followed by an Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) to test the TIB's second-order factor structure. With a sample of 1,000 participants, this study aims to gather evidence of validity and reliability estimates for the instrument's dimensions. In Study 3, the predictive capacity of basic interests in relation to undergraduate majors will be tested and compared to the RIASEC model, using logistic regressions in a sample of 600 graduating university students. As main outcomes, the project aims to propose a new Brazilian taxonomy of basic interests, develop a technical manual for the TIB, and create an interactive dashboard categorizing occupational families according to the identified interests.