Chapter 10: Developing and Using Parallel Measures of Career Self-Efficacy and Interests With Adolescents

One of the most popular areas of application of Bandura’s (1986) self-efficacy theory is to the field of career development and career counseling. Going back to the writings of Frank Parsons in 1909, the field of career psychology includes as one of its most important objectives understanding and facilitating the career decision-making processes, including educational decisions, undertaken by adolescents and young adults. Called by theorist Donald Super (1957) the “Exploration” stage of career development, the adolescent years are those in which the young person arrives at a sense of his/her identity as far as educational and career options. This “identity” includes the critically important variables of preferences for career activities and self-concept regarding one’s vocational abilities. It also includes the variables of objectively measured aptitudes and abilities, as well as work needs and values, but these will not be discussed in this chapter. Readers are referred to Walsh and Betz (2001) for an overview of the use of these variables in vocational assessment.