Attributional Retraining Increases Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy

Abstract

This study examined whether 60 college students (41 women and 19 men), grouped according to their career locus of control, were differentially affected by a videotaped career intervention. The intervention was an attributional retraining procedure designed to persuade students to attribute low levels of confidence in making career decisions and career‐related failures to a lack of effort. Results indicated that the career decision‐making self‐efficacy (CDMSE) of students who initially exhibited an external career locus of control significantly increased after the attributional retraining procedure ( p < .05), whereas the students who initially exhibited an internal career locus of control demonstrated no significant increase in CDMSE after attributional retraining.