Reliability of SCCT questionnaires in Iran

Reliability of SCCT questionnaires in Iran Sohrab Abdi Zarrin*, Iran Baghban**, Mohammad Reza Abedi**, Hossein Molavy** *Department of Career Counseling, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. **Scientific Board, University of Isfahan, Iran. Abstract The study examined the reliability of SCCT questionnaires In Iran; SCCT (Social Cognitive Career Theory) originally designed to explain the processes by which people develop interests, make choices, and achieve performances of varying quality in educational and career-relevant contexts. 650 high school students for samples from Isfahan in Iran were taken as participants to examine the reliability of these questionnaires. Six questionnaires that measure interest, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, occupational consideration, social support and social barriers in six personality type (Social, Artistic, Investigative, Realistic, Conventional and Enterprising) were examined and reliability of this questionnaires calculated by SPSS. Results show that Cronbach alpha coefficients for six questionnaires in six personality type is very high (from./69 to up). In this study reported 36 reliability and these results highly support the reliability of SCCT questionnaires. Key words: SCCT, reliability, questionnaires, Isfahan, Iran Efforts by career counseling to answer the question of how individual differences contribute to important vocational outcomes have resulted in the emergence of several integrative theories. Interest is central constructs in such theories. One of the most influential theories regarding career interests is that of Holland. In this theory, Holland (1985, 1997) divides both people and environments into some combination of six interest domains. These six domains are hexagonally organized, and include Realistic (outdoors, mechanical), Investigative (science, math), Artistic (art, language), Social (helping, teaching), Enterprising (selling, business) and Conventional (details, clerical), collectively known as RIASEC. REALISTIC(R): These people usually have good physical skills and enjoy creating things. they like working with their hands, and prefer working with things rather than people. They are generally conventional in political and economic opinions. INVESTIGATIVE (I): These people tend to center around activities which are scientific. They like solving problems and prefer thinking things through. They have a tendency toward creative and original thoughts. ARTISTIC (A): These people like situations which offer opportunities for self-expression. There is generally little interest in problems that are very structured, and they are less assertive about their own opinions and capabilities. SOCIAL(S): The extreme types are very sociable with humanistic orientations. They express themselves well and like group attention. They like situations with group problem solving, and establishing relationships with others. They often describe themselves as popular and good leaders. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1091

ENTERPRISING (E): Usually very good with words and are effective in transmitting ideas and in leading. They are self-confident and dominant, and prefer roles of leadership. They are generally impatient with precise work. CONVENTIONAL(C): These people prefer very organized settings, such as large organizations. They like well established rules in order to know what is expected of them. They describe themselves as stable, well controlled, and dependable. Prediger & Vansickle (1992) demonstrated that these six types exist in two-dimensional space defined by the dimensions People/Things and Data/Ideas. In a series of structural meta-analyses, Tracey and Rounds (1993) demonstrated support for both the circular arrangement of the RIASEC types and for the presence of Prediger s two dimensions underlying them. Holland s (1985, 1997) theory and approach to career counseling is one of the most dominant and widespread (Swanson & Gore, 2000). Unlike many other approaches, Holland s model puts assessment and assessment devices in the center of its procedures and makes special use of them (Reardon & Lenz, 1999; Barak & Cohen, 2002). Holland s themes are arguably the most influential taxonomy in vocational psychology, and some have persuasively argued that basic interests provide the optimal level of information for conceptualizing interests. So, by the 1970s, interests could be viewed from the general (Holland-based themes), the specific (basic interests), and in relation to occupational groups (Occupational Scales) (Chartrand, Borgen, Betz & Donnay, 2002). Lent, Brown, & Hackett (1994) developed Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) based on Bandura s (1986) social-cognitive theory and Hackett and Betz s (1981) career self-efficacy theory. In terms of psychology of interest, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent et al ;1994, 2000) has received a good deal of empirical attention. SCCT theory contains set of personal and environmental variables that are assumed to jointly guide the academic and career development process. Among its personal variables, the theory emphasizes the role of selfefficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and goals in enabling people to help steer their own career-related efforts. Environmental variables, such as social supports and barriers, are seen as having the potential to either promote particular choice options for individuals. SCCT was introduced to explain the career development of adolescents and young adults from a socio-cognitive behavioral framework that focuses on the triadic interaction among person, environmental, and behavioral influences in academic and career development. SCCT has received a good deal of empirical attention with a number of studies finding support for the theory basic predictions regarding interest, choice, and performance criteria (Lent, Brown, Nota and Soresi; 2003). According to SCCT people develop goals to pursue academic and careerrelevant activities that are consistent with their interests as well as with their self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Method Participants Participants were 650 boy students attending high schools in Isfahan town in Iran. They were studied in first, second, third and fourth grade in high school and in the majors of them was general, mathematics, science and humanity. Their average age was 15.57 years (SD = 1.15) and their average in mean of education in terms of 1-20 was 17.52 score (SD = 1.8). Procedure and instruments Students completed a battery of measures in their regular classes after coordination with the regional board of education and responsible and administer of schools. The battery included COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1092

demographic and along with measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, choice consideration, and social supports and barriers corresponding to each of the six RIASEC types. The measures were Persian language versions of the scales used by Lent et al (2003) and Lent, Paixo, Silva and Leito (2010). We used translated from the original English and then backtranslated to English for validity of scales. Participants rated their self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and occupational consideration in relation to 42 occupational titles, with each of the six Holland types represented by seven titles. Sample occupational titles for the R type were auto mechanic and electrician; for Investigative, biologist and geologist; for Artistic, musician and artist; for Social, high school teacher and social worker; for Enterprising, business executive and sales manager; and for Conventional, accountant and bank teller. The items and instructions for these measures were adapted from Gore (1996; Gore & Leuwerke, 2000). In measuring self-efficacy, participants were asked to indicate their confidence in their ability to become a successful worker in each of the 42 occupations along a 10-point scale, ranging from 0 = No Confidence to 9 = Complete Confidence. On the outcome expectations measure, the instructions noted a variety of positive outcomes, such as independence, creativity, or prestige, which people may consider when thinking about possible occupational choices. Participants were then asked to rate each occupational title in terms of the degree to which you would get what you wanted from each occupation (0 = Not Very Much; 9 = Very Much). Interests were assessed by having participants rate how much you think you would like or dislike the work activities that people in each of these occupations perform (0 = Strongly Dislike; 9 = Strongly Like). On the occupational choice consideration measure, students indicated how seriously they would consider each occupation as a possible career for yourself (0 = Not Very Seriously; 9 = Very Seriously). These procedures produced six sets of self-efficacy, outcome expectation, interest, and choice consideration scores (one set for each of the six Holland themes). Scores on each scale were derived by summing item responses and dividing by 7. Higher scores on these scales reflected more positive self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations, stronger interests, and more serious consideration of the occupations within a particular Holland theme. The social support and barrier scales were adapted by Lent et al. (2003, 2010) from previously developed measures of the perceived positive and negative environmental influences on students academic progress (e.g., Lent et al., 2001). Students were asked to indicate the types of reactions they might expect to receive from important people in their lives if were to choose various occupational paths. Six broad occupational paths were described, corresponding to each Holland theme. For instance, for the Realistic theme, participants were told to imagine that you wished to enter an occupation that involved manual, technical, agricultural, electrical, or technical skills (e.g., electrician, mechanic). They were then presented with the item stem, If I were to enter such a field, I would... followed by four support (e.g., feel support for this decision from important people in my life ) and four barrier statements (e.g., receive negative comments or discouragement about this choice from friends ). Students indicated their level of agreement with each statement (1 = Strongly Disagree; 7 = Strongly Agree). In this way, each Holland theme was assessed with four support and four barrier items. Scores for the support and barrier scales were computed by dividing the summed item responses by 4. Higher support scores implied expectations of greater social support relative to the choice of a particular Holland occupational cluster; higher barrier scores reflected the perception that choice of a particular Holland cluster would be met by negative social reactions. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1093

Gore (1996; Gore & Leuwerke, 2000) reported that 84-item versions of the self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, and choice consideration scales (14 items for each Holland theme) yielded adequate internal consistency reliability estimates and related to one another in theory-consistent ways. Lent et al (2003, 2010) used the current, shorter (42-item) version in their study of Italian high school students, finding that the 7-item self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, and occupational consideration scales yielded internal consistency reliability values ranging from.80 to.94. They also found that the 4-item social supports and barriers measures produced internal consistency estimates ranging between.72 and.86. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a correlated six-factor latent structure of the social cognitive measures, and path analyses indicated that the six factors related to one another in theory-consistent ways (Lent et al, 2005; Lent et al, 2010). Result Reliability Internal consistency of the SCCT Questionnaires in terms of six personality type (Social, Artistic, Investigative, Realistic, Conventional and Enterprising) computed by Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients of the interest scales. SCCT Questionnaires involved the Interests, Self-efficacy, Outcome expectations, Occupational consideration,social support and Social barriers. Results are presented in Table 1. As can be seen, alpha coefficients of the SCCT Questionnaires are very good, yielding a mean alpha coefficient high for scales. Table (1) - Cronbach Alpha Coefficients for Holland six type interests in SCCT Questionnaires Questionnaires R I A S E C Interest./90./78./88./87./85./91 Self-efficacy./90./73./83./82./85./86 O- Expectations./88./74./88./85./87./90 O-Consideration./90./70./87./89./89./91 S-Support./91./74./79./79./80./82 S-Barriers./75./90./89./87./86./91 As viewed in table (1) Cronbach Alpha Coefficients for Holland six type personality (RIASEC) in SCCT Questionnaires (Interests, Self-efficacy, Outcome expectations, Occupational consideration, Social support and Social barriers). Discussion the base of research on SCCT is expanding across cultural and national lines (e.g., Kantas, 1997; Lent, Taveira, Sheu, & Singley, 2009; Sahin, 2008; Van Vianen, 1999), more research involving non-western samples, collectivist cultures, and developing countries is needed. Third, crosscultural and cross-national research on SCCT should consider use of methods addressing conceptual and measurement equivalence issues (Lent & Sheu, 2010; Miller & Sheu, 2008). Vocational assessment is most commonly performed in school, college and university settings, more so than in private practice, community mental health centers, and other outpatient settings (Watkins, 1993). It has been an effective tool in helping students engages in career planning and exploration, including such activities as selecting a major, planning for employment, and choosing extracurricular activities of interest (Harmon, Hansen, Borgen & Hammer, 1994). To help these young people in their career development, studies based on SCCT which is used to describe adolescent and young people career development can be so helpful. In this theory, barriers and supports in adolescents environments that are mediated through career self-efficacy COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1094

and outcome expectations are proposed to predict career interests and Occupational consideration. Further exploration of the SCCT has practical implications for practice. Instructional practices that examine the impact of the SCCT variables in a academic environment may lead to valuable information that helps explains academic behaviors. Courses designed to develop and advance information technology concepts may benefit from assessing students previous experiences. Furthermore, the internal consistency coefficients of scales are high; that is, they are in the satisfactory range for vocational assessment. Reliability reported in this study is similar to study of Lent et al (2010) in high school students in Portugal and Lent et al (2003) Italian high school students that confirmed the reliability of SCCT Questionnaires (Interests, Self-efficacy, Outcome expectations, Occupational consideration, Social support and Social barriers) in terms of inter culturally studies. Studies such as these call attention to the importance of SCCT and suggest that adolescents from different countries do experience the career development process as different. Additionally, these studies highlight the need for theory-driven research on the vocational/career development of youth people. The current findings extend research on SCCT by examining the theory s interest models across all six Holland themes and in a sample of Iranian high school students. This pilot study more attention to reliability of Questionnaires that is so important in base of theory. Using SCCT to understand academic performance, educators can enhance students learning experience. Information education that incorporates data acquired about past performance, selfefficacy, outcome expectations, and Occupational consideration into the curriculum may help students improve their individual academic performance. Of course, Social support and Social barriers are so important variables that must be attention. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1095

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