Professional choice self-efficacy: predicting traits and personality profiles in high school students

Motivation to succeed is not enough: motivated students need to know how to plan/organize their steps on their way to success

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students' performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students' success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students' performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students' success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success.

Associations Between Outcome Resilience and Sociodemographic Factors, Childhood Trauma, Personality Dimensions and Self-Rated Health in Middle-Aged Adults

BACKGROUND

We examined how sociodemographic factors, childhood trauma, personality dimensions, and self-rated health were associated with outcome resilience and how different stressors influenced depressive symptoms.

METHODS

An outcome resilience score for 213 adults was derived by means of a residualization approach. Associations between outcome resilience and sociodemographic and personality factors were evaluated using linear regression. In addition, associations between log-transformed depressive symptoms and the stressors were analyzed using multiple linear regression. A Pearson correlation coefficient between self-rated health and outcome resilience was also computed.

RESULTS

Higher neuroticism was negatively and higher conscientiousness was positively associated with outcome resilience. Better self-rated health was associated with higher outcome resilience. Somatic disease events and onset of chronic mental disorders were associated with more depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Outcome resilience was significantly related to neuroticism, conscientiousness, and self-rated health. Strong associations between depressive symptoms and the stressors somatic disease event, and chronic mental disorder were observed.