The current study hypothesized that undergraduates enrolled in a career explorations course would report significant gains in career decision-making self-efficacy and vocational identity during a semester. A repeated measures MANOVA was used to assess 88 students' precourse and postcourse self-efficacy for five tasks related to career decision…

This study, inspired by the efforts of NASW to improve the public perception and understanding of social work, focused on the perceptions and attitudes of college students regarding the profession of social work. The sample included 678 undergraduates at a state university who represented a wide variety of majors. Findings indicate that students'…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Big Five personality factors, measured by the NEO Personality Inventory Five-Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992), and vocational confidence across Holland's hexagon, measured by the Skills Confidence Inventory (SCI; Betz, Borgen, & Harmon, 2005), were useful in discriminating among…

This paper describes the results of a questionnaire survey of UK Year 3 biology undergraduates' career aspirations, and their perceptions of employment in teaching, research and conservation. Although most students sought material benefits in their potential careers, even more wished to gain job satisfaction. None of the careers in biology was…

The construct of "other-directed versus self-directed career choice" has existed for quite some time. The current focus of vocational psychologists and counselors has made them question the relevance of this construct for contemporary American society. Many counselors today challenge the assumption that a career choice based on others'…

The effects of a career development course on career decision-making self-efficacy were investigated. The course was primarily designed to help undecided students with career decision making. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent group design compared students who completed the course (n = 30) with a quasi-control group of students who were enrolled in…

The main purpose of this study was to examine early childhood education teachers' attitudes toward teaching, and their relationship to internal-external locus of control and sociotropy and autonomy orientations. The participants in this study were limited to 180 undergraduate students enrolled in early childhood education in three different…

Presents a model of career decision-making which includes: a delineation of the internal psychological process of decision-making; identification of important developmental and personality characteristics of the decision maker; and specification of immediate or anticipated environmental factors influencing decision-making. (Author)

During the coming years the need for professionals to work with the nation's elders will increase several fold. This will place a great responsibility on university educational programs to prepare enough qualified future professionals to work in the greatly expanding field of gerontology. Prior research has identified several nonacademic and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine persuasion and personality variables as predictors of entrepreneurial intention in a cross-cultural sample. Design/methodology/approach: Undergraduates in the USA and the Republic of Ireland completed measures of personal efficacy, achievement motivation, ambiguity tolerance, attitudes toward…

The research reported in this article explored the impact of the undergraduate placement experience on medical, nursing, and allied health students' perceptions of careers in aged care. Data were collected from undergraduate students (48) and graduates (26) via individual (46) and group (7) interviews; data were thematically analyzed.…

Interviews with 20 African American and Latino undergraduates who had chosen careers identified key influences on career decision making: personal attributes, expectations and behaviors of significant others, past learning experiences (home, school, and community), and interpretation of experiences. Results supported a need for more role models…

It is widely recognized that the current and projected shortage of adequately-educated IT professionals could be greatly reduced if more female and minority students would major in IT disciplines, yet the dramatic under-representation of these populations appears to be worsening. This under-representation is reflected in Drexel University's…

Undergraduates (n=138) were placed in two groups: one received either Realistic Job Preview (RJP) or Traditional Job Preview (TJP); other group received both. Differences in job acceptance rates were found only in second, in which 71.4% picked TJP. Job previews affected self-selection, and expectancy theory was supported as model. Subjects with…

Following up on the transition to university and university persistence, 119 (44 males; 75 females) students who had not graduated (within seven years) from a large, commuter Canadian university were interviewed. "Leavers" were not a homogenous group but could be divided into categories of departure: transferred to another university…