Career self-efficacy, career outcome expectations and vocational interests among Japanese university students

The Social Cognitive Career Model proposes that career interests arise from beliefs about capability to execute a course of activity (self-efficacy), and beliefs about the consequences of performing particular activities (outcome expectations). In our study, 301 Japanese university students were given questionnaires including the Vocational Preference Inventory and scales assessing Career Self-efficacy and Career-outcome Expectations. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated both self-efficacy and outcome expectations were significantly related to vocational interests. Outcome expectations accounted for significant incremental variance in explaining interests across six of Holland's vocational environments. Implications of social cognitive theory for career development and interventions among Japanese university students are discussed.     

Construct and concurrent validity of the Korean Career Indecision Inventory

Construct and concurrent validity of the Korean Career Indecision Inventory were examined. Data were collected from 238 South Korean college students. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the original five-factor model. As hypothesized, scores were significantly correlated with various variables such as scores on the Korean versions of the Career Decision Scale (r =.49), the Vocational Identity Scale in My Vocational Situation (r=-.63), the Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Scale (r=-.47), and Negative Affectivity (r=.37). These results support construct validity inventory. Students who indicated they were undecided about their careers had significantly higher scores than those who indicated they had decided on a career, supporting concurrent validity. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Developmental trajectories and reciprocal associations between career adaptability and vocational identity: A three-wave longitudinal study with adolescents

The purpose of this longitudinal study was two-fold. First, we investigated patterns of stability and change in career adaptability and vocational identity in adolescents. Second, we examined reciprocal associations between career adaptability and vocational identity. In addressing both research aims we tested the moderating effects of gender, school-type, and age. Participants were 1151 (58.7% female) adolescents. They filled in measures that appraised career adapt-abilities and vocational identity processes three times during a school year. Latent growth curve analyses highlighted slight longitudinal decreases in career concern, control, and confidence especially in boys, vocational school students, and middle-to-late adolescents. Also, over time boys and students attending vocational schools reported less in-depth occupational exploration, less identification with present vocational commitments, and more flexibility and self-doubt about their careers. Findings of cross-lagged path analyses highlighted reciprocal associations between career adaptability and vocational identity. Career adaptability positively predicted adolescents' ways of dealing with vocational exploration and commitment. Vocational commitment and reconsideration of commitment predicted career adapt-abilities in time. These results indicate that career adaptability and vocational identity are dynamic and interrelated dimensions of adolescent career development. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Students' perceptions and reported use of their memories after a memory-improvement course

23 college students who had taken a memory-improvement course completed a questionnaire at three different times: the beginning of the course, the end of the course, and two months after the end of the course. The questionnaire assessed the students' perceptions of their memory abilities, e.g., how good their memories were and how confident they were in their memories and knowledge about their memories, and their reported use of the memory techniques; it did not assess actual memory performance or ability. The students' responses to the questionnaire were compared with those of 23 control students who completed the questionnaire at the same three times. The memory students reported more positive changes in how they perceived their memory abilities and knowledge, and these reported changes in perceptions were still evident two months later. The students also reported that they were still using their memory techniques two months later.     

Examining Career Readiness in a Liberal Arts Undergraduate Career Planning Course

This study explored a career planning course at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities’ College of Liberal Arts. The course aimed to improve students’ career readiness through reflections about their liberal arts education. Individual interviews explored how the course affected students’ ability to articulate the value of their education to potential employers. The authors found that students learned how to articulate career competencies and developed an understanding of what a liberal arts education entails and how it aligns with career readiness. Implications for career development practice are highlighted.     

Unpacking the role of self-esteem in career uncertainty: A self-determination perspective

The aim of this study is to explain why students with high self-esteem have lower career uncertainty than students with low self-esteem. Based on self-determination theory, students with high self-esteem would have higher efficacy in making decisions, which would encourage them to choose a major for self-concordance, such as interest and ability, and increase their course involvement. Both factors are assumed to be related to lower career uncertainty. Data from a national survey of the Taiwan Higher Education Database within the Survey Research Data Archive from juniors at 92 colleges and universities in Taiwan (N = 7418) were analyzed to examine the model. Results supported the proposed model by showing that students with high self-esteem had lower career uncertainty because they chose a major for self-concordant reasons and had a strong motivation to learn, both of which contribute to lower career uncertainty.     

Gender differences in motivations for course selection: Academically talented students in an intensive summer program

This study examines the motivational factors contributing to course selection in a sample of students enrolled in an intensive three-week academic experience for exceptionally talented adolescents. Our sample included 947 gifted adolescents, of whom 3.7% were Black, 73.5% were White, 2.2% Hispanic, 0.1% Native American, 19.8% Asian, and 0.6% categorized themselves as other. Girls and boys selected different types of classes, with course participation falling along traditional gender-stereotyped lines. Boys and girls both performed exceptionally well, and said they chose their course because the subject was interesting, useful for future goals, and challenging. Females more often than males enrolled in classes because they perceived them as challenging, different from usual, not offered at school, and as making them more well-rounded. Males more often than females tended to select classes because they thought they would do well and/or because they viewed these classes as being useful for future schooling or career. However, these gender differences varied by the type of course the students took. The resulting complex picture of students' motivations is discussed in terms of the need to specify both the contexts in which males and females make their academic choices, and the interactive determinants of their motivations.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third Annual Esther Katz Rosen Symposium on the Psychological Development of Gifted Children, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, February 19–20, 1993.     

Assistance with learning competence and decision-making in schools and further education

721 first-year university students were asked about the amount of help they had received or might have received at their pre-tertiary institutions in developing their learning competence and in course/university/career decision-making. Over all items, nearly 30% felt they had been helped minimally, 40-45% slightly to moderately, and nearly 30% moderately to very much. They felt they had been helped most with learning competence concerns, less with their career and educational decision-making, and least of all with handling distracting personal worries. There were no significant differences by sex or by type of institution previously attended. The correlation between perceived amount of help and A-level scores was not significant. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the possible contribution of learning competence to attainment and the need for realistic educational and career decision-making.     

Gender differences in social consequences of perceived overweight in the United States and Australia

This study investigated attitudes about body weight and appearance in a group of young adults. Undergraduate psychology students at the Flinders University of South Australia and at the University of Vermont were asked about their weight and dieting, consciousness about their body, the degree to which their weight had interfered with social activities, their perceptions about the causes of obseity, and their stereotypes about fat and thin men and women. Although 20% of the sample was overweight, 50% of subjects perceived themselves to be overweight to some degree. As expected, weight was a much greater issue for women, who felt more overweight, dieted more, expressed more body consciousness, and reported that weight had interfered more with social activities than did men. Also as expected, Vermont students reported greater frequency of dieting, more concern about weight, and more body consciousness than did students in Australia. Finally, men and women in both cultures stereotyped obese targets significantly more negatively than they did nonobese targets. The results indicate excessive and maladaptive concerns with weight in general, and among women and U.S. students in particular.     

The Career and Educational Aspirations of Gifted High School Students: A Retrospective Study

In this study the authors used a retrospective method to obtain information about the career aspirations of gifted high school juniors (69 boys and 125 girls). An instrument called the Occupations List (OL) was administered to obtain information about career alternatives considered by each respondent at various ages. The career alternatives considered in an early life period were compared with those considered later in terms of their prestige level and gender traditionality. The career and educational aspirations of gifted boys and girls were also compared. The implications for counseling gifted students with career concerns are discussed.     

“Boys Can Be Anything”: Effect of Barbie Play on Girls’ Career Cognitions

Play with Barbie dolls is an understudied source of gendered socialization that may convey a sexualized adult world to young girls. Early exposure to sexualized images may have unintended consequences in the form of perceived limitations on future selves. We investigated perceptions of careers girls felt they could do in the future as compared to the number of careers they felt boys could do as a function of condition (playing with a Barbie or Mrs. Potato Head doll) and type of career (male dominated or female dominated) in a sample of 37 U.S. girls aged 4–7 years old residing in the Pacific Northwest. After a randomly assigned 5-min exposure to condition, children were asked how many of ten different occupations they themselves could do in the future and how many of those occupations a boy could do. Data were analyzed with a 2?×?2?×?2 mixed factorial ANOVA. Averaged across condition, girls reported that boys could do significantly more occupations than they could themselves, especially when considering male-dominated careers. In addition, girls’ ideas about careers for themselves compared to careers for boys interacted with condition, such that girls who played with Barbie indicated that they had fewer future career options than boys, whereas girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported a smaller difference between future possible careers for themselves as compared to boys. Results support predictions from gender socialization and objectification theories.     

Talking about subject choice at secondary school and career aspirations: conversations with students of Chinese background

Interviews with 15 boys and 12 girls from Chinese backgrounds are reported. The interviews, which centred on option/subject choices and career aspirations, were based on the results of a survey of 794 secondary-school students. This survey had indicated that the Chinese students included were more similar in their responses to ethnic-majority than to other ethnic-minority students. Conversation analysis of the interviews revealed three themes: students attributed their choices to (i) their liking for the subject/teacher; (ii) the link between school subjects and careers; and (iii) institutional frameworks. There was a marked omission of reference to issues related to ethnicity or gender. These findings are discussed in the context of other studies of Chinese ethnicity.     

Achievers and underachievers: A comparative study of fear of success,education and career goals,and conception of woman's role among high school senior girls

Two groups of 16 high school senior girls, achievers and underachievers, were compared on the following variables: educational and career goals, conception of woman's role, and fear of success (FOS). Chi-square analyses showed significant differences between groups with regard to their goals. Achievers aspired significantly higher than underachievers in their educational goals. In addition, they were significantly more contemporary in their career goals and more committed to these goals than the underachievers. In contrast to underachievers, achievers also had a more contemporary view of the roles women should assume in society and, on the other hand, showed more FOS in fantasies about women succeeding in contemporary roles, but these differences did not reach statistical significance.     

A Comparative Study of Declared and Undeclared College Students on Career Uncertainty and Involvement in Career Development Activities

As reported in current research, many if not most freshmen and sophomores in colleges and universities who are declared as well as undeclared about their academic majors express uncertainty about their careers and lack the level of involvement in the career development process (especially self-assessment, career exploration, and career decision making) necessary to make educated career decisions. This research study, using both quantitative and qualitative research processes, identifies and examines differences and similarities in career uncertainty and in levels of involvement in the career development process between declared and undeclared college students.     

The predictive efficiency of Holland's SDS summary codes in terms of career choice: A four-year follow-up

This study was designed to investigate the predictive efficiency of the primary and secondary summary codes of Holland's Self-Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS) in terms of expressed career choice 4 years later. In 1974, 126 voiationally undecided high school seniors were given the SDS, followed by a revision of Trow's Vocational Choice Inventory (VCI) in which they were asked to express a career choice or a state of indecision. In 1978, this same group was mailed a posttest VCI; the responses of 84 subjects were then analyzed. The subjects' expressed career choices on both the 1974 and 1978 VCI were compared to the primary and secondary summary codes on the SDS which they had taken in 1974. Inspection of the responses indicated that 21.4% of the subjects had made career choices predicted by their primary summary codes and 51.2% had made vocational choices found among their secondary summary codes. Only 27.4% chose a career area not predicted by their 1974 SDS results. The results of this study appear to lend support to the validity of using the SDS summary codes to predict eventual career decisions.     

Professionalising teachers in career dialogue: an effect study

As a result of the changing notions of work, schools are increasingly acknowledging that they have a strong responsibility in guiding students not only in their academic growth, but also in their career development. This paper presents the results of a study about the effects of teacher training on career dialogues promoting career competency development in students. For the quantitative part of the study, a quasi-experimental research design was used to measure effects among 2291 students. Video recordings of conversations were used to do qualitative research. The results show that only when off-the-job training is followed by on-the-job coaching, the professionalising of teachers proves to be effective as measured on student level. Students notice that the guidance conversations are more appreciative, reflective and activating and that they focus more on self-image development, work and career action. The observations made with regard to the guidance conversations also show that these conversations become more career related.     

Parents’ Beliefs about High School Students’ Spatial Abilities: Gender Differences and Associations with Parent Encouragement to Pursue a STEM Career and Students’ STEM Career Intentions

In the present study, we investigated whether parents’ beliefs about their high school aged adolescents’ spatial abilities (i.e., spatial visualization, mental manipulation, and navigation abilities) differed based on their child’s gender. We also examined whether these beliefs related to parents’ encouragement of their child to pursue a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) career as well as students’ actual STEM major and career intentions. Data were collected from 117 pairs of U.S. high school students and one of their parents. We found that parents of young men thought their child had higher mental manipulation and navigation abilities than did parents of young women, even after statistically controlling for adolescents’ actual spatial abilities. Parents who perceived that their child had higher mental manipulation ability were more likely to encourage their child to pursue a STEM career, and those students were more likely to report that they intended to pursue a STEM career. These findings suggest that parents’ beliefs about how good their child is at spatial tasks may be based more strongly on gender stereotypes than on their child’s actual spatial abilities. Helping to make parents aware of these beliefs could be a potential lever of intervention to increase women’s participation in STEM careers.

     

Career awareness and personal development: a naturalistic study of gifted adolescent girls' concerns

The role of social interaction and the importance of humor in the development of gifted adolescent females' beliefs about career options are explored in this paper. Findings are based on a qualitative study which utilized participant-observation and interviewing during a four-month career exploration seminar for gifted females. The results of this study indicate that gifted girls experience a unique conflict between expectations directed at gifted students, and their status as females. The use of humor functioned as a coping device to promote relaxation and release tension.     

The Effects of Cognitive Restructuring and Decision-Making Training on Career Indecision

The authors designed a cognitive restructuring intervention for individuals having difficulty with career decision making and compared the intervention to a decision skills intervention and a no-treatment control. The cognitive restructuring intervention was more effective than were both decision-making training and the control condition in reducing anxiety about career decision making and in encouraging vocational exploratory behavior. Cognitive restructuring clients also reported more use of the skills they had learned, were more satisfied with the decisions they made, and found the treatment program more useful in making career decisions than did clients in the other two groups.     

let your life speak: assessing the effectiveness of a program to explore meaning,purpose, and calling with college students

Typical career planning courses assist students with the self‐assessment process, career exploration, and decision making. Although this assistance is helpful, college students are increasingly concerned with issues of meaning and calling (P. Braun, 2005). The authors describe and test the effectiveness of the Let Your Life Speak course, a program to help students articulate their framework of life meaning and increase their sense of vocational calling. Results indicate an increase in sense of vocational calling, greater confidence in ability to achieve goals, and a deepened framework of life meaning. Moreover, 96% reported they would recommend the course to others.