A causal model of predictors of research productivity and science-related career goals among counseling psychology graduate students.

摘要

The present study investigated predictors of research productivity and science-related career goals in a sample of graduate students in counseling psychology. It was hypothesized that Holland personality and perceptions of the research training environment (RTE) influence interest in research and research self-efficacy. These latter two variables, in turn, were hypothesized to influence research productivity and career goals. It was further hypothesized that the students' gender and year in the doctoral program would contribute to this causal model as additional predictor variables. A sample of 287 graduate students (representing a response rate of 55%) from 15 randomly selected APA-accredited counseling psychology doctoral programs was surveyed by mail to test these hypotheses.;The structural equation modeling procedure revealed that career goals and research productivity could be predicted by the aforementioned factors. As hypothesized, Holland personality was directly related to research interest, such that students with Investigative interests were more interested in research. The causal model also suggested that a favorable RTE leads to interest in research, both directly and via research self-efficacy. As predicted, gender was directly related to research self-efficacy, such that men reported greater research self-efficacy than women. Year in doctoral program was positively, directly related to both research productivity and research self-efficacy. Career goals were strongly predicted by research interest, and research productivity was ultimately predicted by a combination of year in program, research interest, career goals, and research self-efficacy. This model provided a very good fit to the data.;The present findings have implications for theories and applications of research training. The present study may contribute to theories of research training by presenting a comprehensive examination of all of the major factors previously investigated in the literature as predictors of research productivity and science-related career goals within the context of a causal model. The present model may also aid graduate training programs by helping to identify points in the students' development as researchers at which different aspects of research training are most important, potentially leading to program interventions designed to help students become scientists.