- The expression of a primary choice (or goal)
- Actions, such as enrolling in a particular training program
that is designed to implement one’s choice - Subsequent performance attainments (successes, failures) that
form a feedback loop, affecting the shape of future career
behavior
The conceptual partition between goals and actions draws on
similar distinctions made by earlier models of career decision mak-
ing (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996; Tiedeman & O’Hara, 1963). We
believe this partition is important because it highlights the inter-
mediate role of personal agency (via goals) in the choice-making
process; emphasizes that choices are dynamic rather than static acts;
and illuminates certain variables and decision points at which inter-
vention might profitably be directed.
As hypothesized earlier within the interest development model,
self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly promote particular
career-related interests (paths 1 and 2). Interests, in turn, serve as
an important influence on goals (intentions or plans to pursue a
particular career path; see path 3), and goals stimulate actions
designed to implement one’s goals (path 4). One’s goal-related
actions (for instance, enrolling in a calculus class) lead to particu-
lar performance experiences (path 5), the outcomes of which (such
as receiving a failing grade) help to revise or crystallize self-efficacy
and outcome expectations (path 6) and, thereby, help solidify or
redirect one’s choice behavior.
It should be noted that our choice model shares certain fea-
tures with prior career choice models. For example, as in Holland’s
theory (Holland, 1997), SCCT assumes that under optimal con-
ditions people tend to select career options that are congruent with
their interests. The notion that persons with, say, artistic interests
will tend to gravitate toward artistic work environments is some-
times colloquially referred to as the “birds of a feather hypothesis.”
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