Relationships Among Undergraduates' Occupation Attributional Style, Work Values, Career Decision Making Self-efficacy And Job Search Behavior

Occupation is not only a means for an individual to earn a living, but also a way for an individual to realize his self-worth. In the 21st century, as a result of the information integration and economy globalization, people are able to flow freely on a global scale and individuals have more autonomy when choosing jobs. Occupational development has become the core of personal development. People's awareness of career decision making is increasing rapidly and job search behavior has become an important part in social life. This study will focus on the relationships among undergraduates'occupation attributional style, work values, career decision making self-efficacy and their job search behavior, trying to improve the vocational guidance theory and provide undergraduates with better employment guidance, so it is of great theoretical and practical significance.This study is divided into three parts: in part one, the "occupation attributional style questionnaire" (Adrian Furnham, 1992) is amended and a test on the psychological testing index of the questionnaire is conducted; in part two, a job search behavior questionnaire is prepared; in part three, the relationships among undergraduates'occupation attributional style, professional values, career decision making self-efficacy and job search behavior are explored. A total of 515 undergraduates chosen randomly from Binzhou Vocational College, Binzhou University and Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine participated in the study. The instruments include the "occupation attributional style questionnaire" amended by the researcher, the "work values questionnaire" authorized by Tieh-Hsiung Wu and other Taiwan scholars, the "graduates'career decision making self-efficacy questionnaire" amended by Peng Yongxin and Long Lirong, and the "job search behavior questionnaire" designed by the researcher.The main findings are as follows:1. the amended "occupation attributional style questionnaire". After analysis, from eigenvalues and the results of the gravel map, five factors have been drawn: the stability entirety of negative events; the stability entirety of positive events; the internality controllability of positive events; the internality controllability of negative events; and externality. This is in accordance with the demarcation of attributional dimensions by Wiener and other researchers. The Crobachαcoefficient of the two subscales are respectively 0.82 and 0.80, KOM value is 0.718, and Freedom is 780, which indicate the questionnaire is statistically significant. Besides, its cumulative rate of interpretation is 41.605% and proves good reliability and validity. So the questionnaire can be used to evaluate undergraduates'occupation attributional style.2. the self-compiled "job search behavior questionnaire". According to the theoretical analysis of the job search behavior dimensions, the level of factor analysis is limited to five factors. KOM value is 0.758 and Freedom is 300, which indicate statistical significance. Five factors are chosen for principal component analysis: job search intensity; short-term or long-term job search (also includes job search intensity components); the nature of job search—self or relation job search; and job search frequency. The cumulative total variance amount of interpretation is 51.467%. The Crobachαcoefficient of the questionnaire is 0.75, which shows the questionnaire has eligible psychometric index and can be used to measure undergraduates'job search behavior.3. There is significant gender difference in undergraduates'occupation attributional style, work values and job search behavior, girls score much higher than boys. There is no significant gender difference in undergraduates'career decision making self-efficacy. Undergraduates from different schools differ greatly on occupation attributional style, work values and career decision making self-efficacy. As a whole, vocational college undergraduates score higher than ordinary university undergraduates.Undergraduates from the two types of schools do not have significant difference on the total score of job search behavior, but there are significant differences between the dimensions of the sub-scale scores, as reflected in the scores on the dimension of job search intensity and short-term or long-term job search: vocational undergraduates score higher than ordinary university undergraduates. This proves vocational undergraduates work harder at job searching. However, on the level of self and relation job search which are on the dimensions of job search frequency and the nature of job search contents, undergraduates from ordinary university score higher than those from vocational college, which indicates that ordinary university undergraduates are more flexible and have higher frequency in job search.There is a highly significant positive correlation among undergraduates'occupation attributional style, work values and career decision-making self-efficacy, and as a whole, there is also a highly significant positive correlation between career decision making self-efficacy and job search behavior.Taking occupation attributional style, work values and career decision making self-efficacy as independent variables and job search behavior as dependent variable, a multiple stepwise regression analysis has been conducted. The result shows two variables go into the regression equation. These two variables can interpret 5.7% of the variance in career efficacy variables. Increasing demographic variables, gender and age also go into the regression equation.4. The result of path analysis shows that among the factors influencing the undergraduates'job search behavior, career decision making self-efficacy may be an "intermediate variable". Work values affect job search behavior indirectly, through the variable of career decision making self-efficacy; however, career decision making self-efficacy affect job search behavior directly and notably. Occupation attributional style also affect job search behavior indirectly, through work values and career decision making self-efficacy, and the direct impact of occupation attributional style on job search behavior is also smaller.