coordinates of interpersonal initiative and intrapersonal purpose
(Erikson, 1963). This developmental line starts when the curiosity
that prompts children to explore who they are and what they want
eventually leads to questions about the meaning of life and how it
should be lived. Conceptualizing how life should be led includes
forming ideas about how career choices should be made. Career
concepts, as well as the considerations and convictions that accom-
pany them, involve the expectations and explanations that indi-
viduals use to comprehend how to make choices and construct their
careers.
These conceptions affect choices by determining the bases for
choosing. For example, some people believe that “you should choose
the occupation that you are good at,” whereas other people believe
that “you can become anything you want as long as you try hard.”
Once employed, some people believe that “you must stick with the
job you have chosen”; others believe that “if you stay too long in a
job, the boss will take you for granted.” Research on people’s
assumptions about career construction has focused on career choice
misconceptions (Crites, 1965), ordinary explanations (Young, 1986),
and career beliefs (Krumboltz & Vosvick, 1996). Exploration of
how choices are made in one’s family and culture, followed by an
interrogation of these processes, prefigures adolescents’ contrivances
for making career choices and fund of information about self and
occupations. Distorted career conceptions can derail the career
choice process, leading to decisional difficulties such as indecision
and unrealism. Adaptive conceptions about the career choice
process lead to suitable and viable choices throughout one’s career,
not just during adolescence.
4.Career confidenceis the developmental line rooted in feelings
of equality with other people and plotted by the coordinates of
interpersonal industriousness and intrapersonal confidence (Erik-
son, 1963). Self-confidence denotes the anticipation of success in
encountering challenges and overcoming obstacles (Rosenberg,
1979). Confidence can move one from play acting to setting goals
and actualizing roles. In career construction theory, confidence
denotes feelings of self-efficacy concerning one’s ability to success-
170 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT