An Examination of the Applicability of Social Cognitive Career Theory for African American College Students

The purpose of the present study is to extend the literature on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) by examining (a) the applicability of SCCT for African Americans with constructs defined in terms of Holland’s realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional (RIASEC) themes and (b) the role of specific learning experiences (performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, and verbal persuasion) in the formation of corresponding self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results based on a sample of 208 African American college students revealed support for hypothesized relations of self-efficacy with outcome expectations, self-efficacy and outcome expectations with interests and choice goals, and interests with choice goals for all six RIASEC themes. Results revealed partial support for the hypothesized relations of learning experiences with self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Finally, results indicated limited support for the hypothesis that verbal persuasion would be a stronger positive predictor of self-efficacy and outcome expectations than would performance accomplishments and vicarious learning. These findings offer preliminary support for the applicability of SCCT in explaining African American college students’ RIASEC-based interest development and career choice goals. Implications of the findings for career counseling interventions and future research are discussed.

The Impact of Consumer Choice Goals on Inovativeness

Consumer innovativeness is one of the most explored concepts in new product adoption literature. Nevertheless, the intention to adopt novelties, specifically in a product category domain, still needs exploration of what happened during the choice process. Consumers can build their decision about whether to adopt innovation based on their hierarchy of choice goals. The authors propose this hierarchy is driven by the regulatory focus system, based on promotion (justifiability and choice confidence) and prevention goals (anticipated regret and evaluation costs). In order to demonstrate this reasoning, the authors compared “most innovative” versus “less innovative” consumers, regarding their prevention and promotion goals. The most innovative ones demonstrated higher justifiability and choice confidence and showed more capabability of avoiding an anticipated choice regret when compared with the less innovative consumers. The differences explored in the analysis highlight the necessity of further understanding how consumers perform during the choice process of innovative products.

Self Regulation on Innovative Products Choice

This chapter explores how choice goals influence consumers’ innovativeness in a product category domain. The intentions to adopt new products are guided by promotion and prevention self-regulation systems. Thus, two of the choice goals were classified as promotion goals—justifiability and choice confidence—and two were classified as prevention goals – anticipated regret and evaluation costs. Two groups emerged from the analysis: one named “most innovative” and another called “less innovative.” When comparing the groups, the results show that the “most innovative” cluster demonstrated higher choice confidence, higher justifiability and was more capable of avoiding a possible choice regret. The differences found in the group analysis highlight the need of understanding in further detail how consumers behave during the choice process of innovative products. Therefore, the Regulatory Focus Theory has been shown to be very important for understanding the choice process, especially for the innovation adoption.