TESTING THE JOINT ROLES OF CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN THE PREDICTION OF CAREER INDECISION

Career decision-making self-efficacy and the Big Five traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness were examined as predictors of career indecision in a sample of 181 undergraduates. Participants completed an online survey. I predicted that the Big Five traits and career decision-making self-efficacy would (a) interrelate moderately and (b) each relate significantly and moderately to career indecision. In addition, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would partially mediate the relationships between the Big Five traits and career indecision, while the Big Five traits were predicted to moderate the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career indecision. Finally, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would account for a greater amount of unique variance in career indecision than the Big Five traits. All predicted correlations were significant. Career decision-making self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship of Extraversion to career indecision and partially mediated the relationships of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness to career indecision. Conscientiousness was found to moderate the relationship of career decision-making self-efficacy to career indecision such that the negative relation between self-efficacy and career indecision was stronger in the presence of high conscientiousness. This study builds upon existing research on the prediction of career indecision by examining potential mediating and moderating relationships.

UNDERSTANDING CAREER ASPIRATIONS AMONG YOUNG WOMEN: IMPROVING INSTRUMENTATION

The purpose of this study was to improve an instrument used to assess career aspirations (the Career Aspiration Scale) so the revised measure can be used with confidence by counseling psychologists in research and practice. Three studies were conducted with a total of 583 undergraduate and graduate women. Results of these studies provided support for the reliability and validity of the Career Aspiration Scale-Revised when used with undergraduate and graduate women. Results from confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the three-factor solution had good model fit, thus supporting a revised measure with three subscales assessing achievement, leadership, and educational aspirations. Suggestions for future research and practice using the Career Aspiration Scale- Revised are provided.