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…