(2) outcome expectations, and (3) personal goals. These three vari-
ables are seen as basic “building blocks” of career development and
represent key mechanisms by which people are able to exercise per-
sonal agency. Of the three, self-efficacy has received the most atten-
tion in the career literature (Hackett & Lent, 1992; Lent et al.,
1994; Locke & Latham, 1990; Swanson & Gore, 2000). Self-efficacy
refers to people’s beliefs about their capabilities “to organize and
execute courses of action required to attain designated types of per-
formances” (Bandura, 1986, p. 391).
In the SCCT view, self-efficacy is nota unitary, fixed, or decon-
textualized trait; instead, it involves a dynamic set of self-beliefs that
are specific to particular performance domains and that interact in a
complex way with other person, behavior, and environmental fac-
tors. Self-efficacy beliefs are acquired and modified via four primary
sources of information (or types of learning experience): (1) personal
performance accomplishments, (2) vicarious learning, (3) social per-
suasion, and (4) physiological and affective states (Bandura, 1997).
Although the specific effects of these sources on self-efficacy depend
on several factors, personal attainments are typically seen as the
most potent or compelling source of self-efficacy. The experience of
success with a given task or performance domain tends to raise self-
efficacy, whereas repeated failures lower them.
Outcome expectations are personal beliefs about the conse-
quences or outcomes of performing particular behaviors. Whereas
self-efficacy beliefs are concerned with one’s capabilities (Can I do
this?), outcome expectations involve the imagined consequences
of performing given behaviors (If I do this, what will happen?).
Outcome expectations include several types of beliefs about re-
sponse outcomes, such as beliefs about extrinsic reinforcement
(receiving tangible rewards for successful performance), self-
directed consequences (such as pride in oneself for mastering a
challenging task), and outcomes derived from the process of per-
forming a given activity (for instance, absorption in the task itself).
A number of theories, both in the vocational realm (Barak, 1981;
Vroom, 1964) and in other areas of psychology (for instance,
262 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT