Career indecision as a function of entity theories of intelligence and person: The mediating roles of negativity, adaptability, and self-efficacy, and the moderating role of positive parenting behaviors

• Main Author: Masangkay, Maria Althea N.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Vocational guidance; Students > Psychology; Educational counseling; Educational psychology; Education; Higher > Parent participation
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5782
• Institution: De La Salle University

Peoples implicit theories are unconscious core beliefs about the fixity (entity theory) or malleability (incremental theory) of personal attributes. This study investigates the effect of entity theories of intelligence and person on career indecision through three proposed mediators: career decision-making adaptability, career decision negativity due to pessimistic views and anxiety, and career decision self-efficacy. Path analyses of the data from 486 college students shows full mediation of the effect of entity theory of intelligence on career indecision through adaptability and self-efficacy; thus, stronger entity theory of intelligence lowers adaptability that erodes self-efficacy, thereby causing greater career indecision. The proposed mediation model for entity theory of person was not supported, but entity theory of person was found to have a direct influence on career indecision, suggesting that a stronger entity theory of person leads to greater career indecision. Furthermore, moderated mediation models were tested to examine the interaction of career-specific parent action with negativity and adaptability in increasing self efficacy. The results showed that under low and average parent action, the self-efficacy levels of students with low and high negativity were not statistically different, but under high parent action, students with high negativity had significantly higher self-efficacy than those with low negativity; under low parent action, the self-efficacy levels of students with low adaptability were significantly lower than those with high adaptability, but under average and high parent action, the self-efficacy levels of students with low adaptability and high adaptability were not statistically different; and lastly, increasing parent action reversed the negative influence of both entity theories on self-efficacy through high negativity, and weakened the negative influence of entity theory of intelligence on self-efficacy through low adaptability.