A Social Cognitive Framework for Studying Career Choice and Transition to Work.

Abstract

This article describes a social cognitive framework for understanding the processes through which people form academic and occupational interests, make educational and occupational choices, and achieve varying levels of success in their school and work performance. Anchored primarily in Bandura's (1986) general social cognitive theory, the framework focuses on the interplay among several variables (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals) that enable students and workers to exercise personal agency in their career development. It also considers how these sociocognitive variables interact with other key aspects of persons and their environments (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, social supports, barriers). In addition to overviewing the theory and its empirical base, we consider some of the theory's implications for promoting the development of students' academic and occupational capabilities and for facilitating their transition to the workplace. A response to this article may be found at TD/INT 57.140.