Learning Experiences in Career Exploration and Decision-Making: A Test of the Career Self-Management Model

Abstract

The proposed study had two objectives. First, it refined a recently developed measure of five types of learning experiences that, according to social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent & Brown, 2013), inform self-efficacy and outcome expectations in the domain of career exploration and decision-making. Second, it used the new measure to test hypotheses that (a) career exploration and decision-making learning experiences predicted both career decision self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and (b) these learning experiences related to career exploration goals indirectly via self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Data were collected via an online survey from 215 college students in introductory psychology courses. Hypothesized relationships among the learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals were tested using hierarchical linear regression. Non-parametric bootstrapping was used to test mediation (indirect effects) hypotheses.