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Title: Process of Career Goal Formation
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Baird, Chardie L. |
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Process of Career Goal Formation Presented: New Orleans, LA, Annual Meetings of the Southern Sociological Society, 2006 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Southern Sociological Society Keyword(s): Attitudes; Career Patterns; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Modeling; Occupational Aspirations; Self-Esteem; Women; Women's Studies Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. [The] study analyzed students performing poorly, based on GPA and standardized tests, in high school. Despite their past performances, one group decided to attend college. The other group decided to end their education after they graduated high school. "The group that's worse off in terms of mental health [later in life] is the group that planned for the probable," Baird said. "The shoot for the stars group has a higher level of self esteem and a higher sense of mastery. We think that this basically lends evidence to the theory of self-worth." The Theory of Self-worth says people are reinforced by trying, not succeeding, Baird said, "There is some inherent benefit in trying, because people will support us and won't see us as lazy because they saw that we tried to do it," she said. The Deprivation Theory opposes the self-worth theory. This perspective predicts people who fail to achieve goals face negative mental health consequences, Baird said. "Deprivation Theory predicts what most of us expect," Baird said. "It's a dominant theory in sociology, and the self-worth theory is newer." Baird and Reynolds both expected the opposite of what they found. They predicted the "planning for the probable" students to have better mental health than the "shooting for the stars" group. "We wanted to come away with rigorous evidence that would say we need unrealistic teenagers to wake up and smell the coffee in terms of their career plans," Reynolds said. "I really thought we were doing a disservice by letting below-average students think they can become anything they want." In essence, students who attended college but failed had better mental health than students who did not go to college. Quotes are from The Shorthorn, the University of Texas at Arlington, "Study Done to Test Theroy", by Melissa Hall. |
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Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. "Process of Career Goal Formation." Presented: New Orleans, LA, Annual Meetings of the Southern Sociological Society, 2006. |