Latent profile analysis: A review and “how to” guide of its application within vocational behavior research

Latent profile analysis (LPA) is a categorical latent variable approach that focuses on identifying latent subpopulations within a population based on a certain set of variables. LPA thus assumes that people can be typed with varying degrees of probabilities into categories that have different configural profiles of personal and/or environmental attributes. Within this article, we (a) review the existing applications of LPA within past vocational behavior research; (b) illustrate best practice procedures in a non-technical way of how to use LPA methodology, with an illustrative example of identifying different latent profiles of heavy work investment (i.e., working compulsively, working excessively, and work engagement); and (c) outline future research possibilities in vocational behavior research. By reviewing 46 studies stemming from central journals of the field, we identified seven distinct topics that have already been investigated by LPA (e.g., job and organizational attitudes and behaviors, work motivation, career-related attitudes and orientations, vocational interests). Together with showing descriptive statistics about how LPA has been conducted in past vocational behavior research, we illustrate and derive best-practice recommendations for future LPA research. The review and "how to" guide can be helpful for all researchers interested in conducting LPA studies.