Career Self-Efficacy: Exemplary Recent Research and Emerging Directions

Abstract

This article discusses what the author views as exemplary work illustrating important directions in research on the applications of Bandura's self-efficacy theory to career theory, assessment, and counseling. The author begins with research on measuring career self-efficacy, following which research testing the postulated behavioral consequences of career self-efficacy expectations is discussed. Notable studies of the learning experiences postulated to lead to the development of strong expectations of efficacy are reviewed. Studies of the possible relationships of efficacy expectations to parallel measures of vocational interests are included. Finally, exemplary studies applying the theory to the career development of diverse groups, studies of interventions designed to increase career self-efficacy, and new research attempting to integrate self-efficacy theory with personality constructs are included. The article is not intended as a comprehensive review of this research but rather to provide highlights of some of the excellent work being done in this area.