Relationships of Career Self-Efficacy and Personality Variables with Status of Academic and Career Choice among Arab Students

Abstract

The present study was done to explore the predictive utility of self-efficacy expectations in career decision-making, vocational indecision, occupational preference and self-efficacy expectations, external orientation and instrumentality in the status of academic and career choice. A set of questionnaires was administered to 95 Qatari men, 145 Qatari women, and 89 Kuwaiti women and each sample was examined separately. Analysis indicated that, compared with women, men had higher mean preference and self-efficacy expectations regarding nontraditional occupations and they had lower preference and self-efficacy expectations regarding traditional occupations. Also, students who had decided on an academic major or career, compared with those who had made tentative decisions and the undecided, had higher scores on self-efficacy expectations in career decision-making, occupational self-efficacy expectations, and instrumentality, and lower scores on vocational indecision and external orientation. Results and implications are discussed in the context of the Arabian environment.