development have expanded at a healthy pace over the past few
decades, a number of authors have noted the scientific and practical
advantages of considering commonalities among the various career
theories and prospects for more integrative frameworks (Borgen,
1991; Hackett, Lent, & Greenhaus, 1991; Osipow, 1990). One viable
approach to theory integration is to develop constructs and concep-
tual scaffolding to bridge some of the differences in competing theo-
ries, thereby helping to create a more organized, coherent account of
career behavior (Lent & Savickas, 1994).
In this vein, we suggested that it may be useful to build unifying
models that, according to Hackett and Lent (1992),
(a) bring together conceptually related constructs (e.g., self-
concept, self-efficacy); (b) more fully explain outcomes that
are common to a number of career theories (e.g., satisfaction,
stability); and (c) account for the relations among seemingly
diverse constructs (e.g., self-efficacy, interests, abilities, needs).
[p. 443]Other writers have also noted the need to impose greater con-
ceptual order on the mass of variables and findings that character-
ize the career literature. Brown (1990), for example, asks, “What
are the relationships among values, needs, aptitudes, and interests
as they operate in concert to influence occupational choice mak-
ing?” (p. 346).
SCCT was designed to address such questions, to help con-
struct useful conceptual bridges, to identify major variables that
may compose a more comprehensive explanatory system, and to
sketch central processes linking these variables together. In partic-
ular, SCCT highlights certain experiential and learning or cogni-
tive processes that can help to account for important, if sometimes
overlooked, phenomena in other career theories, such as how types
develop in Holland’s scheme, what factors are responsible for dif-
ferential role salience in Super’s theory, or how people acquire abil-
ities in Dawis and Lofquist’s theory. Inasmuch as learning processes
SOCIAL COGNITIVE CAREER THEORY 257