2013;73.
Doing what you know: The power of social influence on the career decisions of working class Americans within a Metropolitan context.
Theresa T Boswell
UIID-AD: 2387
Abstract
A review of the literature indicates the important factors to be considered when working with African Americans within a career decision-making process. A few of the important constructs include: one's racial identity and reference group orientation, contextual influences by way of family influence and role models, perceptions of barriers through real or perceived racism and discrimination, and the factors involved in the development of academic and career self-efficacy. All of these influence career interests, and thus influencing eventual career outcomes (Cross & Vandiver, 2001; Luzzo&McWhirter, 2001; Ritchie et al., 1997; Fouad et al., 2007; Hackett & Byars, 1996). This study is an attempt to conceptualize the experiences that influence the career decision-making process of African Americans. Lent, Brown, and Hackett's (1994) Social Cognitive Theory (SCCT) and Fouad and Kantamneni's(2008) Contextual Factors Model are used as a framework to explain the personal and environmental experiences within individual, group, and societal contexts. Eight African American men and women between 35 and 53 years of age, in working class occupational job choices, were interviewed to gain an understanding of how they ascribe meaning to contextual factors that influence their career decision-making process. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews were analyzed to identify experiences that support the literature, in particular that career development involves the interaction of individual and contextual influences. The basic interpretive qualitative method was used to understand how people interpret their experiences, such as an individual's meanings made about work. (Creswell, 1994; Crotty, 1998). Findings indicated that individual, group, and societal factors influenced the career decision-making process of working class African Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
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