مقاله سال ۲۰۱۷

A social cognitive model of career self-management (CSM) was developed recently to help explain processes through which people contribute to their own educational and career development throughout the lifespan (Lent & Brown, 2013). Designed to complement earlier social cognitive models that focus on content aspects of career development (e.g., the type of fields people wish to pursue), the CSM model is aimed at process aspects of career behavior that transcend particular career fields – for instance, the mechanisms involved in exploring and deciding on career options, searching for work, balancing work and non-work roles, managing sexual identity in the workplace, and negotiating a variety of work transitions. A few recent studies have been designed specifically to test the model’s predictions in the context of job searching (Lim, Lent, & Penn, 2016), multiple role planning (Roche, Daskalova, & Brown, in press), managing sexual identity (Tatum, Formica, & Brown, in press), and making career decisions (Lent, Ezeofor, Morrison, Penn, & Ireland, 2016).

The general goal of the present study was to expand examination of the CSM model in relation to career exploration and decision-making. Figure 1 displays the general classes of variables that are assumed to predict enactment of adaptive career behaviors and the positive outcomes that may result from them. These predictors include the social cognitive variables of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals; person inputs, such as personality traits; and both distal and proximal contextual influences on adaptive career behaviors. Within this model, selfefficacy refers to individuals’ perceived ability to perform specific tasks necessary for career preparation, entry, or adjustment (Lent & Brown, 2013). Outcome expectations refer to the anticipated (positive or negative) consequences of engaging in adaptive behaviors, and goals involve people’s intentions to perform these behaviors (e.g., to engage in career exploration).

In the context of career exploration and decision-making, self-efficacy is hypothesized to contribute to goals and actions, both directly and through outcome expectations. For example, those with stronger career decision-making self-efficacy are more likely to develop positive expectations about the outcomes of engaging in career planning. Together, self-efficacy and positive outcome expectations are seen as promoting goals to pursue career exploration and decision-making activities. These goals, in turn, motivate goal-consonant actions. In addition, both goal-setting and implementation are aided by favorable traits (e.g., conscientiousness) and environmental supports, such as the availability of necessary resources. Positive decisional outcomes (e.g., lessened decisional anxiety, increased decidedness) are seen as likely to result from active engagement in career exploration and decision-making, facilitative traits and environmental factors, and self-efficacy, which enhances the performance of adaptive career behavior (e.g., by helping to regulate skill use and promote persistence).