A sample of 2145 adults completed the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI) as well as indicating their occupational choice and the certainty of this choice. The PGI yielded interest and self-efficacy scores and these were used with the occupational choice to calculate a congruence score for interests and one for efficacy. The prediction of career certainty by each congruence measure and their interaction was examined using hierarchical regression. The results indicated that while both interest and efficacy congruence were related to career certainty, efficacy congruence did not add to prediction above that obtained using interests congruence alone, however there was a substantial interaction. The agreement of interest congruence and efficacy congruence was related to a strong positive relation between congruence and certainty; whereas low agreement between interest and efficacy congruence was related to a non-significant relation between congruence and certainty. The results demonstrate the need to focus on both interest and efficacy and their agreement in our assessments and interventions.
Recent work in vocational psychology has focused on the utility of examining both interests and self-efficacy assessments in understanding career decision-making. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT, Lent et al., 1994 and Lent et al., 2000) has posited specifically that that both self-efficacy assessments and interests are crucial in career decisions but further that self-efficacy leads to interest development which then lead to choice. While the research has found that interests and self-efficacy are reciprocally determined (Nauta et al., 2002 and Tracey, 2002a), these results do not detract from the salience of each in the decision-making process. Indeed the joint usage of interests and self-efficacy assessments has become recommend in career counseling (Betz, 2007, Betz et al., 1996, Betz et al., 1996 and Tracey, 2002b). The literature has been supportive of the benefits of using both types of measures with respect to occupational choice and major choice (Betz and Rottinghaus, 2006, Donnay and Borgen, 1999, Flores et al., 2006 and Tracey and Hopkins, 2001) specifically examining the incremental validity of adding one type of measure (e.g., self-efficacy) to the other (i.e., interests). Thus there is support for the additive benefits of using both sets of measures.
The research has supported the conception and measurement of interests and self-efficacy using similar models (Armstrong and Vogel, 2009, Tracey, 1997 and Tracey, 2002b) further enhancing their ease of use. The focus on the current study is to extend the research beyond simple additive models and look at the possibility of multiplicative models of the relation of interests and efficacy perceptions as related to occupational choice.
Using additive models takes account of information in each that is not accounted for in the other. For example, self-efficacy adds to the prediction of occupational choice above that yielded by interests (Tracey & Hopkins, 2001). But this model neglects how each type of measure can affect the other in affecting career choice. Specifically, I hypothesize that interests and efficacy perceptions act in concert to predict occupational choice; with their interaction being a key contributor to prediction.
The specific aspect of career decision-making of focus in this study was occupational choice. The classic definition of occupational choice is that the more congruent the occupation is with interests and efficacy assessment, the better the choice as it will result in greater satisfaction and productivity. The literature supporting this is equivocal (Assouline and Meir, 1987, Spokane, 1985, Spokane et al., 2000, Tranberg et al., 1993 and Tsabari et al., 2005). In this study I am examining occupational choice and certainty of that choice. The hypothesis is that the greater the congruence of interest with the occupation and of efficacy with the occupation, then the greater the certainty of that choice. The certainty of occupational choice is a prominent career decision variable (Daniels et al., 2006, Singaravelu et al., 2005, Temple and Osipow, 1994, Tracey and Darcy, 2002 and Winnie Ma and Yeh, 2005). Durr and Tracey (2009) have provided some initial support for this hypothesis of the relation of career certainty with interest and self-efficacy congruence however they did so by examining interests and efficacy separately. In the current study I will examine the relation of career certainty to interest–occupation congruence and efficacy–occupation congruence in an additive manner as well as an interactive one. Does the level of efficacy–occupation congruence enhance the prediction of the interest congruence–certainty relation? I am positing that efficacy and interests act in a moderating manner, with each moderating the relation of the other with the criterion. For cases where efficacy congruence is high, the relation between interest congruence and certainty should be enhanced; whereas in cases where efficacy congruence is low, there should be a reduction in the interest congruence–certainty relation. The interaction takes into account the extent to which there is agreement in interest and efficacy scores. It is the agreement that increases prediction.
