Chapter 13
Achievement and
Career Choice
A. Increasingly, during the adolescent period, there are more
pressures for students to achieve and for this achievement to affect adult life
(e.g., the importance of grades in grade 10-12 for college choices, the SAT,
etc.).
B. Adaptive and maladaptive achievement patterns
1. the “high achiever” or highly motivated student
a. is motivated to achieve high standards and to learn, and
enjoy challenges (is intrinsically
rather than extrinsically motivated);
b. engages in activities that are moderately challenging
c. makes attributions (causal inferences) about learning
behaviors and outcomes that attribute success internally
(my
ability and my effort) and attributes failure to cause that can be changed and
overcome in the future (my lack of effort, or difficult task);
d. has a mastery orientation (feel positively about learning,
and about their ability, and have solution-oriented strategies to improve
future performance)
e. hold self-efficacy beliefs—feel that their behaviors will
lead to desired outcomes
f.
set concrete,
specific goals (both long-term and short-term); make plans how to reach those
goals; monitor their progress and evaluate the outcomes
g. have moderate (not too high) levels of drive and anxiety
C. Career Development
1. major theories
During adolescence
career choices move from “tentative” to realistic
Adolescence choose
work that matches their self-concept
The most satisfying
careers are ones that match personality types (e.g., some prefer socializing
with other people; some prefer artistic and creative ventures, etc.)
2. problems with theories
not based on data
career choice complex
and cannot be reduced to simple factors
fails to recognize
that some youth make choices early and some flounder
fails to recognize
choices limited by social class and other factors
fails to recognize
the impact of the family (e.g., parents’ careers, maternal employment), peers,
school influences, gender (both restricted career paths and open career paths),
part-time jobs and internship opportunities
3. A major issue for society has been how the gap between
schooling and the world of work is bridged.
a. some answers
1. better career counseling and guidance
2. career oriented schools
3. work-based and career experiences that include and integrate
learning (e.g., tech prep)
D. Schooling and part-time work
1. The number of students (high school and college) who work
part-time has risen from 25% to 75% and most high school seniors (note that
this is driving age) work from 16 to 20 hours.
2. Most adolescents work in either sales or the fast food
industry, excluding those who do baby-sitting
3. Most work in jobs in which there is little training;
definitely little training in skills important in later adult work
4. Working does not help students’ academics (although there
are advantages of having ones own money [independence, budgeting and saving,
etc]
5. Working more than 15-20 hours in high school and working
during the school week does appear to hurt grades (although one must factor in
extracurricular and other activities)
6. Working long hours
also appears to contribute to “partying” heavily when not working, and those
who work long hours have poorer nutrition, health habits, less sleep, and more
disengagement from family
h. D.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o. C.
p.
2. Explanations for non-achievers with special focus on
minority and poor students
a. are these deficits or culturally different and distinct?
b. Special challenges
1) lack of high achieving adults in cultural group
2) poorer schools
3) peer pressure to not succeed
4) lower parental/family expectations
5) adolescents with “failure syndrome” (those who fail to put forth effort,
attribute failure to low ability)
6) adolescents who seek to protect self-image by avoiding
failure. These behaviors known as
self-handicapping strategies allow them to attribute failure to reasons other
than low ability (nontryers; procrastinators; those who set unreachable goals);