Ajzen, 1988), accord outcome expectations play a key role in moti-
vating behavior.
Outcome expectations are acquired through learning experiences
similar to those that inform self-efficacy. For instance, outcome ex-
pectations regarding particular career actions derive from people’s
appraisal of the outcomes (such as rewards) they received for per-
forming relevant actions in the past; observation of the outcomes pro-
duced by other people; attention to self-generated outcomes (such as
self-approval) and the reactions of others; and sensitivity to physical
cues (such as level of emotional arousal or sense of well-being) dur-
ing task performance. Outcome expectations are probably also influ-
enced by self-efficacy when outcomes are determined by the quality
of one’s performance.
Goals may be defined as the determination to engage in a par-
ticular activity or to effect a particular future outcome (Bandura,
1986). By setting personal goals, people help to organize, guide, and
sustain their own behavior, even through overly long intervals,
without external reinforcement. Thus goals constitute a critical
mechanism through which people exercise personal agency or self-
empowerment. Although environmental events and personal his-
tory undoubtedly help shape behavior, behavior is not wholly
determined by the vicissitudes of a nonspecific reinforcement his-
tory, by genes, or by other nonvolitional factors; it is also motivated,
in part, by people’s self-directed goals and by the other social cog-
nitive factors with which goals interrelate.
SCCT posits a complex interplay among goals, self-efficacy, and
outcome expectations in the self-regulation of behavior (Bandura,
1986). For instance, self-efficacy and outcome expectations affect
the goals that one selects and the effort expended in their pursuit.
Personal goals, in turn, influence the development of self-efficacy
and outcome expectations (for example, goal attainment enhances
self-efficacy). As with outcome expectations, goals (defined in var-
ious ways) are represented in a variety of other psychological theo-
ries, such as the theory of work motivation and performance that
Locke and Latham (1990) proposed. The goal construct also plays
SOCIAL COGNITIVE CAREER THEORY 263