About Myself

I am an Honours student with the Research School of Management (RSM) at the Australian National University (ANU), working under the guidance of Associate Professor Thomas Kalliath. My research revolves around the following academic disciplines and specific issues:

Disciplines

• Management
• Organisational behaviour

Research Interests

• Work-family conflict
• Work-family engagement
• Self-efficacy/Self-efficacy beliefs
• Job satisfaction
• Psychological strain

"People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it."
— Albert Bandura

Given the time and resource constraints of this course, my primary research focus will be on self-efficacy, the sources of self-efficacy beliefs, and the effects of self-efficacy beliefs. In particular, for the qualitative project, I will be exploring the ways in which self-efficacy beliefs effect perceived career options, taking into consideration demographic differences such as gender, socio-economic status, and race/ethnicity. Bandura (1986, 1997) argued that self-efficacy beliefs constitute the principal factor of human agency, and are also strong predictors of the level of accomplishment that individuals ultimately achieve. Additionally, Pajares (1997) highlighted that high self-efficacy helps individuals feel calm when approaching challenging tasks, while low self-efficacy may cause individuals to believe that tasks are more challenging than they really are.

In general, qualitative research on self-efficacy has yielded consistent findings: (1) self-efficacy is predictive; (2) self-efficacy has a causal relationship with other variables; and (3) gender differences are highly influential (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Brown and Lent (1996) also found that individuals tend to eliminate possible careers or occupations based on their self-efficacy beliefs and/or outcome expectations. Essentially, the greater the perceived barriers to a career or occupation, the less likely individuals will pursue those careers (Lent et al., 1994). Hence, it follows that adjusting or modifying an individual's self-efficacy or outcome expectations may help the individual to have a higher chance of success and expose him or her to more career options.

More research findings, particularly the theoretical process linking self-efficacy beliefs and perceived career options, will be elaborated upon in subsequent blog posts.

References

Bandura, A. (1986), Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, Worth Publishers, New York, NY.

Brown, S., & Lent, R. (1996), "A social cognitive framework for career choice counseling", The Career Development Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4: pp. 355–367.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994), "Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance", Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 45, No. 1: pp. 79–122.

Pajares, F. (1997), "Current directions in self-efficacy research", Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Vol. 10, No. 1: pp. 1–49.