مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

As originally conceived, social cognitive career theory (SCCT) consisted of interconnected models of career and academic interest, choice, and performance (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000). These models emphasized content aspects of career development, that is, the types of activity domains toward which people are drawn, and at which they are likely to succeed and persist, in educational and occupational settings. More recent SCCT models have complemented this content emphasis with an increasing focus on process aspects of career development, such as the means by which people help to regulate their affect, adapt to changing circumstances, and direct their own goal-relevant behavior at school and work. For example, the SCCT satisfaction model highlights the processes that promote well-being outcomes at work, regardless of the specific type of work they perform (Lent & Brown, 2006a, 2008).

The new SCCT model of career self-management (CSM) focuses on a wide array of adaptive career behaviors that people employ to adjust to and thrive within educational and work environments across the career lifespan (Lent & Brown, 2013). These behaviors are considered mechanisms of personal agency in that they allow individuals to take part in their own career development, adaptation, and renewal. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include career exploration, decision-making, job-searching, identity management, and navigation of normative (e.g., work entry, retirement) and unpredictable (e.g., job loss) transitions.

Although the earlier SCCT models have attracted a good deal of inquiry (e.g., see Brown & Lent, in press; Lent, 2013; Sheu et al., 2010), few studies have been designed specifically to test the predictions of the self-management model given its recent formulation (Lim, Lent, & Penn, 2015; Tatum, Formica, & Brown, 2015).