A social -cognitive analysis of self -efficacy for multiple role management, outcome expectations, goals and psychological well-being

Denise Gretchen-Doorly, Fordham University

Abstract

Social-cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) was used to investigate relationships between adult women's beliefs about their abilities to succeed in multiple roles, the outcomes they expect from a multiple role lifestyle, the goals they set for themselves, and the impact of these processes on their psychological well-being. A pilot study was conducted using multiple measures for the dependent and independent variables to determine the feasibility of using structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized measurement model in the full study. A total of 67 women enrolled in summer graduate school courses at a large, private, urban university completed a paper-and-pencil survey packet and mailed their responses to the principal investigator. Bivariate and canonical correlational analyses conducted on the pilot study data revealed that the measures chosen to represent the latent variables in the measurement model were significantly correlated with one another, indicating a problem with multicollinearity. Additional bivariate and canonical correlational analyses revealed that self-efficacy for multiple role management, and, to a lesser extent, outcome expectations were the only independent variables significantly correlated with the outcome variable of psychological well-being. Based on these results, single indicators were chosen to operationalize the independent variables of self-efficacy for multiple role management and outcome expectations and the dependent variable of psychological well-being. A total of 216 professional women ranging in ages from 21 to 25 completed a revised survey packet using the Internet and a specially designed web survey. Multiple regression analyses indicated that a self-efficacy for multiple role management and outcome expectations accounted for 29% of the variance in psychological well-being in this sample. Implications of these results were presented and treatment recommendations emphasizing the importance of raising women's self of confidence in managing multiple roles and of developing realistic, positive outcome expectations for multiple role lifestyles were discussed.

Subject Area

Cognitive psychology|School counseling|Womens studies

Recommended Citation

Gretchen-Doorly, Denise, "A social -cognitive analysis of self -efficacy for multiple role management, outcome expectations, goals and psychological well-being" (2005). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3166570.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3166570

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