Internal and External Barriers, Cognitive Style, and the Career Development Variables of Focus and Indecision

Abstract

One hundred and thirty final year high school students were administered scales tapping optimism/pessimism, self-esteem, external career barriers, career decision-making self-efficacy, career maturity and career indecision. It was hypothesised, first, that cognitive style (optimism/pessimism) would influence both internal (self-esteem) and external career-related barriers, second, that internal barriers would interact with external barriers and impact on career decision-making self-efficacy, and third, the previously mentioned variables would subsequently affect the career development variables of career maturity and career indecision. Results demonstrated that cognitive style was influential in determining the perception of internal barriers (for females and males) and external barriers (females only). Internal and external barriers, along with optimistic/pessimistic cognitive style, were found to influence career decision-making selfefficacy (in males, but not in females). There was no evidence that internal and external barriers interacted to influence career decision-making self-efficacy. Finally, it was found that career decision-making self-efficacy, internal and external barriers, and optimistic/pessimistic cognitive style were able to predict career development attitude (males and females), career development knowledge (females only) and career indecision (males only). Results are discussed in the context of Carver and Scheier's (1981) control theory.

Emotional Intelligence and Optimistic Cognitive Style in Certainty in Career Decision Making

“…In the final analysis this meant whether optimism would add substantially to the contribution made by stability-impulsiveness in predicting career certainty. Optimism had previously been identified as correlating with career certainty [21] or likely to be linked to career decision making, [22]. We found indeed that optimism scores were significantly and positively related to career certainty (r = .29) and also to emotional intelligence variables (r = .29 to .64).…”

“…Optimism is defined as a generalised tendency to expect positive outcomes in life [20]. Cognitive style has been researched to some extent in relation to career decision making, with findings from one study suggesting that lower levels of optimism are associated with increased career indecision [21]. It is thought that cognitive style, in particular, optimism, is key within career development and career decision making for adolescents and adults within a university setting.…”

Career adapt-abilities scale — Netherlands form: Psychometric properties and relationships to ability, personality, and regulatory focus

“…In addition, self-esteem is Dutch CAAS strongly associated with locus of control (people's belief that they can control events that affect them), and both self-esteem and locus of control are part of the higher-order construct of core-self evaluations representing the fundamental evaluations that people make about themselves and their functioning in their environment (Judge, Van Vianen, & De Pater, 2004). Finally, people with high self-esteem more often engage in various forms of exploration and planning, such as career planning (Creed, Patton, & Bartrum, 2004;Creed, Patton, & Prideaux, 2007), and financial planning (Neymotin, 2010). Altogether, we expected that self-esteem would be positively related to all four constructs of adaptability (Hypotheses 1).…”

Az egyetem melletti munkavégzés segítő és gátló tényezői diákszemmel – kérdőíves felmérés a BCE, BGE és BME mesterszakos hallgatói körében

“…Tekintettel arra, hogy a karrierúton betöltött szakmai szerepek értelmezésében és megformálásban, a karrieralkalmazkodást vizsgáló empirikus kutatások széles köre (Brown -Lent, 2013;Creed et al, 2004;Duffy, 2010;Jadidian -Duffy, 2012;Judge -Bono, 2001;Luzzo, 2006;Rottinghaus et al, 2012) igazolta a moderátortényezők tudatosulásának jelentőségét, vizsgálatunk kiterjedt a hallgatók karriertudatossági szintjének mérésére is. A karriertudatosság fogalmát jelen vizsgálatunk során úgy definiáltuk, mint a hallgató azon képességét, mellyel megítéli, mennyire van tisztában saját hosszú távú foglalkoztathatósági és nö-vekedési feltételeivel.…”