Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relationships between Personality Factors and Career Interests

Relationships among the Big Five personality factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), career interests, and career self-efficacy (using Holland’s realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional types for both of the latter) were examined. Among a sample of 147 college students, self-efficacy mediated four out of five personality-interest relationships that have been found to be robust across a number of other samples. The findings generally support social cognitive career theory’s model of interest development and have implications for career counselors who are working to help clients understand their interest assessment results.