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Social Cognitive Career Theory

Robert W. Lent, Steven D. Brown, Gail Hackett

A number of trends or shifts in direction—some relatively subtle,
others more dramatic—have been occurring in theory and research
on career development over the past several decades. One of these
trends involves an increasing focus on cognitive variables and
processes that help to govern career behavior. Observing this trend,
Borgen (1991) comments, “The cognitive revolution has quietly
overtaken vocational psychology, leaving the field ripe for more ex-
plicit integration” (p. 279).
Accompanying this quiet cognitive revolution has been an
equally important trend toward viewing people as active agents in,
or shapers of, their career development. This emphasis on personal
agency (or self-direction) actually has deep roots in the study of
career behavior and the practice of career counseling (Borgen,
1991). In a sense, those who study career behavior have been re-
discovering what career counselors typically accept as self-evident—
that people help construct their own career outcomes; that their
beliefs (for example, about themselves, their environments, and
possible career paths) play key roles in this process; that we are not
merely beneficiaries (or victims) of intrapsychic, temperamental, or
situational forces; and that behavior is often flexible and suscep-
tible to change efforts. Indeed, counselors’ faith in personal agency
is reflected in the very term career choice.And their emphasis on

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