258 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT
cement together the various segments and determinants of career
development (Super, 1990), SCCT is intended to offer a poten-
tially unifying framework.
Social Cognitive Roots
SCCT is derived principally from Albert Bandura’s general social
cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986). Emphasizing the interplay be-
tween self-referent thought and social processes in guiding human
behavior, SCCT has proven to be immensely heuristic, finding
application in a wide range of psychosocial domains such as educa-
tional achievement, health behaviors, organizational management,
and affective reactions (Bandura, 1986, 1997). In formulating
SCCT, we tried to adapt, elaborate, and extend those aspects of
Bandura’s theory that seemed most relevant to the processes of in-
terest formation, career selection, and performance. We also took a
good deal of liberty in suggesting certain theoretical paths and con-
nections that do not follow directly from general social cognitive
theory.
SCCT is linked to two branches of career inquiry that have
evolved from Bandura’s general framework: Krumboltz’s social learn-
ing theory of career decision making (Krumboltz, 1979; Krumboltz,
Mitchell, & Jones, 1976; Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996) and the
application of the self-efficacy construct to women’s career devel-
opment by Hackett and Betz (1981). Conceptually, SCCT is most
closely aligned with Hackett and Betz’s position, although it also
builds on the major conceptual foundation of Krumboltz’s theory.
Part of SCCT’s purpose is to update and extend these earlier
branches of inquiry by constructing closer ties to advances in social
cognitive theory and its empirical base in both career and noncar-
eer domains.
The similarities and differences with Krumboltz’s position, dis-
cussed in greater detail elsewhere (Lent & Hackett, 1994), are note-
worthy. For example, SCCT shares Krumboltz’s emphasis on the
learning experiences (direct and vicarious) that shape people’s occu-