Social cognitive theory predictors of entry into engineering majors for high school students.

摘要

A great deal of research now supports the usefulness of self-efficacy theory in understanding women's career development. Self-efficacy theory states that the gender-role socialization of females may be less likely than that of males to facilitate the development of strong career-related self-efficacy expectations. Women and girls are either not encouraged, or are actively discouraged, from engaging in activities that serve to increase and strengthen their expectations of personal efficacy. Women's continued underrepresentation in professions such as engineering is hypothesized to be at least partially due to weak self-efficacy expectation with regard to behaviors required for the successful pursuit and performance of those occupations.;The early self-efficacy research has been expanded through social cognitive theory, which continues to highlight self-efficacy as a central construct. Social cognitive theory suggests that self-efficacy, outcome expectations and interests are central to career choice and development.;The present study utilizes structural equation modeling and logistical regression to examine how social cognitive theory explains which high school students will enter engineering majors. This study is unique in its longitudinal design, and its specific focus on engineering.;Results of the study indicate that minority male students who intend to major in engineering during high school are the most likely to choose to major in engineering. Women with low positive outcome expectations for engineering who do not intend to major in engineering are among the least likely to enter into engineering. Predictors for students entering engineering were different from those entering science, suggesting that engineering is unique in some important ways.;The tested structural equation model was not a good fit with the observed correlations for this study, and was a poor predictor of choice of an engineering major. A larger sample size may have yielded different results, however. Furthermore, none of the self-efficacy measures emerged as significant predictors of choice of an engineering major in the final logistical regression analysis. It was hypothesized that the relative homogeneity of the sample, obtained from an engineering recruiting event, may have restricted the range of self-efficacy effects that exists in the general high school population. Suggestions for future research are presented.