Disengaging From Unattainable Career Goals and Reengaging in More Achievable Ones

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Author(s)
Creed, Peter A
Hood, Michelle
Year published
2014
Metadata
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Participants were 181 university students who completed measures of career development (self-efficacy, perceived barriers, distress, planning, and exploration) and goal adjustment capacity (disengagement and reengagement). We expected (a) that when contemplating unachievable goals, those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals (i.e., to disengage and reengage) would report less distress, more career planning, and more exploration; and expected (b) that the relationships between goal adjustment and the outcome variables (distress, planning, and exploration) would be moderated by self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers. ...
View more >Participants were 181 university students who completed measures of career development (self-efficacy, perceived barriers, distress, planning, and exploration) and goal adjustment capacity (disengagement and reengagement). We expected (a) that when contemplating unachievable goals, those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals (i.e., to disengage and reengage) would report less distress, more career planning, and more exploration; and expected (b) that the relationships between goal adjustment and the outcome variables (distress, planning, and exploration) would be moderated by self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers. We found that those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals by disengaging and reengaging reported more exploration. Less distress was associated with disengagement, but not reengagement, whereas more planning was associated with reengagement, but not disengagement. Additionally, we found moderating effects for self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers; that is, having higher levels of efficacy and perceiving fewer barriers protected when goal adjustment capacity was lower.
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View more >Participants were 181 university students who completed measures of career development (self-efficacy, perceived barriers, distress, planning, and exploration) and goal adjustment capacity (disengagement and reengagement). We expected (a) that when contemplating unachievable goals, those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals (i.e., to disengage and reengage) would report less distress, more career planning, and more exploration; and expected (b) that the relationships between goal adjustment and the outcome variables (distress, planning, and exploration) would be moderated by self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers. We found that those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals by disengaging and reengaging reported more exploration. Less distress was associated with disengagement, but not reengagement, whereas more planning was associated with reengagement, but not disengagement. Additionally, we found moderating effects for self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers; that is, having higher levels of efficacy and perceiving fewer barriers protected when goal adjustment capacity was lower.
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Journal Title
Journal of Career Development
Volume
41
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2014 SAGE Publications. This is the author-manuscript version of the paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Specialist studies in education
Human resources and industrial relations
Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Applied and developmental psychology