| The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of a career development course on the career self-efficacy and vocational identity of community college students. Self-efficacy expectations refer to a person's belief about his or her ability to perform specific behavior. Efficacy expectations determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expanded, and for how long. According to self-efficacy theory, efficacy expectations are derived from four sources of information: performance accomplishment, vicarious experiences, emotional arousal, and verbal persuasion (Bandura, 1986). Hackett and Betz (1981) linked self-efficacy to vocational indecision and applied self-efficacy theory to career decision making. This study expanded the work of Hackett and Betz by applying career self-efficacy theory to a typical career development course and a population that included non-traditional and diverse racial/ethnic community college students.; The population for this study consisted of 154 community college students (n = 154), who were enrolled in three psychology classes during the spring semester 1996; and in three career development classes during the spring semester 1996, the fall semester 1996, and the spring semester 1997. The Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and the Vocational Identity Scale of My Vocational Situation were the instruments used in this study to test all the hypotheses. The study used a pre-post comparison/control group design. An analysis of the demographic characteristics of the participants was conducted by ethnicity, gender, age, and major/career status. Inferential statistics were used to compare the effects of the treatment or lack of treatment on the three groups.; The results showed that the career self-efficacy and vocational identity of the participants increased significantly after completing a career development course. Thus the findings indicate that the typical career development course may enhance the career decision making of community college students. |
