Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Career Development :: Career Development Papers

Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Career Development Strategic interventions are required to keep young people who are disadvantaged because of poverty, cultural obstacles, or linguistic barriers from dropping out of school. Recent studies showing a relationship between a student's belief structure and behavior suggest that self-efficacy beliefs may be an important focus for intervention. This ERIC Digest discusses ways in which self-efficacy beliefs are influenced by various internal, external, and interactive factors and reflected in career-related outcome expectations and performance. It examines ways of channeling self-efficacy beliefs toward positive outcomes that lead to the development and expansion of career goals and expectations. It presents strategies for enhancing the self-efficacy and career development of students that draw upon contextual, problem-based, and community-based learning practices and promotes self-monitoring and self-assessment. Beliefs and Perceptions According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is mediated by a person's beliefs or expectations about his/her capacity to accomplish certain tasks successfully or demonstrate certain behaviors (Hackett and Betz 1981). Bandura postulates that these expectations determine whether or not a certain behavior or performance will be attempted, the amount of effort the individual will contribute to the behavior, and how long the behavior will be sustained when obstacles are encountered (ibid.). Self-efficacy expectations, when viewed in relation to careers, refer to a person's beliefs regarding "career-related behaviors, educational and occupational choice, and performance and persistence in the implementation of those choices" (Betz and Hackett 1997, p. 383). They are reflected in an individual's perception about his/her ability to perform a given task or behavior (efficacy expectation) and his/her belief about the consequences of behavior or performance (outcome expectation)(Hackett and Betz 1981). The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) developed by Lent, Hackett, and Brown (1996) draws upon Bandura's self-efficacy theory. It offers a framework for career development, explaining the interplay between educational and vocational interests, career-related choices, and performance. SCCT highlights the relationship among social cognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy) and their relationship with other variables in the individual's socio-contextual environment, such as gender, race/culture, family, community, and political components (ibid.). Chen (1997) contends that this integration of self and social context offers an opportunity for individuals to gain a sense of control over their career development and increase their career-related self-efficacy expectations. Self-Efficacy and Learning When individuals have low self-efficacy expectations regarding their behavior, they limit the extent to which they participate in an endeavor and are more apt to give up at the first sign of difficulty.

Angles and Demons by Dan Brown Essay

Angles and Demons by Dan Brown was a reading choice out of curiosity rather than real interest because of the Da Vinci Code by the same author. I wanted to see what other works of fiction Dan Brown came up with before his controversial book. This book had me raising my eyebrows more than a few times with story line but that did not stop me from turning the pages until I got to the end. Angels and Demons basically follows the same formula as the Da Vinci Code. It begins with a murder which only Robert Langdon seems capable of solving with his knowledge of religious iconology and history; a strong female character, Vittoria Vetra, daughter to the murder victim Leonardo Vetra, assists Langdon in his â€Å"quest†; a hired assassin who is delusional, a fanatic and has unquestionable loyalty to his belief carries out an unforeseen but well-crafted plan; an ancient secret society, the Illuminati, is out to get revenge on the Church; finally, an unexpected mastermind who calls himself as Janus, works behind the curtains. An anti-matter canister was stolen from CERN when Leonardo Vetra was murdered and this is assumed to have a life span of 24 hours before the batteries die and it explodes. Brown remains true to using archaic bits of knowledge to leave a trail for Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra to follow from Switzerland to the Vatican City in order to find the missing anti-matter canister and find the murderer of Leonardo Vetra. The plot thickens when the anti-matter canister bomb threatens the Vatican and the conclave in the process of choosing the new Pope. The book ends dramatically with a seemingly miraculous event followed by the declaration of a new Pope. Though I enjoyed the chase more from Angels and Demons rather than the Da Vinci Code, I must say that, as a priest, Brown seems have some issues with the Church to come up with troubling concepts for his books. First you have Leonardo Vetra, a priest who turns away from the Church. He becomes a leading physicist of CERN and, together with his adopted daughter, tries to find God through science and research. They seem to be successful with the development of the anti-matter, which was stolen when Vetra was murdered. You also have a Pope who sired a child with a nun, though through artificial means. The child later becomes his camerlengo, the Pope’s Chamberlain. The camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, unaware of his paternal parentage, murders the Pope upon knowing his dark secret with the belief that he is both cleansing and protecting the Church. Though the book is admittedly a work of fiction, it borders on tarnishing how Catholics and non-Catholics may view the Church and its priests. Brown puts into question the honesty and loyalty of priests to the Mother Church and their commitment to the vow of celibacy, as seen with the Pope. It is appalling to think that Jesus’ surrogates on Earth would be the first ones to violate their vows. Brown also pits religion versus science. Leonardo Ventra is murdered for his research on anti-matter which can supposedly prove the beginning of life, that science can prove God’s existence. I’d like to think that religion is a matter of faith and science is a matter of fact, the two just can’t mix when it comes to explaining God. Then you have the camerlengo who is himself delusional and a fanatic in his belief that the Church, and not science, is the saving power of the world with himself at the wheel of salvation. He goes to great lengths to get the world’s attention, discredit Science and put the Church on a pedestal for the world to see. Angels and Demons made me uncomfortable with the image of the Church that it created – a divided, secretive, vindictive and vulnerable body. Readers, both Catholics and non-Catholics should be discriminating of the events in this book, lest they forget that this is only a work of fiction.

Gender and the Media Essay

Socialisation is the way an identity is defined throughout life for a person. Children are seen a blank slate that is going to have a personality and roles set by the environment he lives in. A child generally has an idea on what gender they are by the time they are 2 years old. A boy will portray himself with the colour blue, would be very hyperactive and tend to bully girls. Females would be more mature, refer themselves to the colour pink and socialise with other girls, this is called primary socialisation. Personalities are defined through interactions with people that are close to them, there society’s values and they learn the attributes of their sex at a young age and they know what is expected of them as a certain sex. The person is reinforced by social praise and punishment so the person can learn from mistakes and good deeds. Media has played a massive part on how socialisation as occurred to an individual. I am directly concerned with how the media affects young women within today’s society, particularly through the use of gender stereotyping within young women’s magazines, mainly through articles and advertisements. Here, the ideas and beliefs already created by the media are useful to advertisers because they are socially accepted ideologies. They know that they will influence women. It has been stated in the past that it is these media interpretations of ‘The Perfect Woman’ that have been the cause for so many women becoming increasingly pressured into looking good and so dieting, keeping fit etc. This can, in extreme cases lead to serious psychological diseases such as anorexia and bulimia, where one of the main causes has been identified as social pressure. Society affects how people perceive themselves, Body Image awareness still exists in our society. Many people living on our society are influenced by the media and the fashion industry. Both are equally responsible for the increased number of people suffering from eating disorders. Fashion industries tend to only feature whose figures vary from eight to ten. Their androgynous waif-like figures are presented as representative of the everyday woman. In doing so the average woman in the street is forced to measure herself against an unrealistic ideal. Most models are above average height, have naturally lithe bodies and are aged between sixteen and thirty. Their image is constructed and manipulated by a predominately male homosexual industry which appears reluctant to show women as curvaceous individuals. Celebrities themselves fall foul of the dominant media representation of women. When society thinks of a family we automatically think of the nuclear family in which there is a mum, dad and often two or three children. This type is seen as the statistical norm until the 1980’s where it was considered abnormal to deviate from this ideal family type and there were characteristics that came with this which were seen as socially acceptable. Children were seen as the outcome of a loving heterosexual couple and each person i. e. the mum and dad should have distinctive roles within the family. The mother should be concerned with motherhood and household chores. The father should protect the family and be a disciplinary role model, as well as their main role being defined as the breadwinner, this meaning they often bring in the most money. The mother should be the housekeeper who attians the house and looks after the children as they grow up. A young male would grow up learning the princilpes of the father and the young female would grow up adobting the mather principles. Post modernism shows that gender is the main topic in an individual’s life as events that have occurred are directly linked to a individuals gender. Post modernism gives the individual more choice and that is the basis of post modernism, choice! The individual is more independent on their life choices; such old life ambitions of marriage and children are not compulsory but are a option that some people may seek. Unlike pre modernism and modernity where marriage and kids are ultimate goals and people automatically assume that this is the right path to follow. This gives way to new events that once were either not existent or unethical such as unisex and inter-racial marriages. It shows a deterioration of religion and supernatural belief, which leaves great division among people in identity and lifestyles. People are now working more flexible times, fashion has changed in such away that people can wear what they want, food is more oriental and music comes in a wide variety. Identity has separated into many huge groups such as social classes, ethnic group, age and gender. This leads to unrest to certain groups that want change as people now have a sense of spreading opinion and arguing their rights. Certain groups such as feminists, Marxist ideology and ageist rights. As choice and individual opinion now can be widely credited it gives chance for concern to be broadcasted such as the feminist supporters wanting females to be treated as equals among men. The first wave of feminism gave people the ideology in 1928 when they got the vote, which provoked the idea of gaining more such as the 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960’s when women burned the bra’s, this caused great reasoning between the two gender differences. Karl Marx however says that society not the individual is the important issue as that eventually the working class will soon rule society. This radical change has brought in new changes such as ‘the new man’ that is a unique gender that of a masculine and unemotional male, the new man focuses on his physical appearance and pays attention to diet, personality and self image, he is more emotional and doesn’t fit in with a patriarchy idea. As post modernism has totally effected today’s society it shows how an individual can make all the differences and how self concern and freedom is the new ideal but this idea could change and evidence suggests that it could lead to pre modernism of the old age as though it is a long term cycle of a society but critics say this is the final situation of society and the end solution is total equality among genders, races and age. This idea of choice could lead in any direction depending on current affairs within society yet time is not a important issue as this process could last a log time.

Doctrine of Estoppel in Australian Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Doctrine of Estoppel in Australian Law - Essay Example But then, if the plaintiff has said or done something that induced/caused the defendant to change his or her behavior and that reliance was reasonable, the courts hold the discretion to deny the remedy to the plaintiff. Estoppel is not a remedy "at law" in the jurisdictions of common law, but is based on the principles of equity. In most cases, it is only a defense used by the defendant to prevent the plaintiff from enforcing established legal rights, or from relying on a set of facts that would give rise to enforceable rights this can be in the form of words uttered or actions performed, if that enforcement or reliance can be seen as unfair to the defendant. Because its effect is to defeat generally enforceable legal rights, the scope of the remedy is often very limited. In the case of a debt, for instance, an estoppel could be claimed if the creditor tells the debtor that he has been forgiven of his debt, but then there has not been a formal termination of the debt. If later the creditor demands that the debt should be paid back, but the debtor, reling on the earlier information that the debt has been forgiven him, has innocently spent the money on something else, the creditor may be estopped from relying on the usual contractual right to repayment because it would be unfair to allow the creditor to change his mind. Estoppel provides a way in which promises can be legally binding, even when there is no consideration. Estoppel is reliance based and, and you should note that reliance was never sufficient to constitute a consideration. In strict terms, Estoppel has nothing to do with contract, which means it is not part of contract law in the traditional sense. It is something that exists as a separate body of law - just like negligence or trespass. Its importance is that it has impacted on the law of contract by making it possible to argue for legal obligations which are contract-like but which do not satisfy the traditional requirements of consideration. Estoppel has therefore had an important impact on contract, but, it should be kept in mind that estoppel is a general doctrine which operates in all sorts of other areas as well. A lot of learned commentators of great influence have argued that there should be, if there never was, but one doctrine of estoppel by conduct in Australian law. Their argument captured by Mr. Spence in his book as the desirability of the unification of common law and equitable estoppel, and he advocates for a model of unification in which equitable estoppel would be extended to cover assumptions of fact, thereby swallowing up the common law doctrine. This method of unification was advocated and explained by MasonCJ in his judgment in CommonwealthvVerwayen 2. Their major worry in relation to equitable estoppel is whether it is fundamentally concerned with preventing unconscionable conduct or with protecting reasonable reliance. They are wont to ask if equitable estoppel is essentially concerned with the representor's misconduct, or with the representee's plight This is basically what the learned authors, Meagher, Heydon and Leeming, mean when they said in their book3 that "there are influential proponents of the view that there now should be, if there has not always been, but one doctrine of estoppel by conduct". What it seems to me that they are saying is that there should

Financial Mangement Decisions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial Mangement Decisions - Essay Example With an interest of capital at 10% seeing from the NPV table we multiply the values with the respective year cash flow. Then we add all the present values and subtract the initial investment to reach the NPV. The NPV is $1,021,901. The NPV shows a huge and positive value of $1.2 million. The accounting theory says that any project with a positive NPV should be accepted. This criterion is met and it is the most important criteria since it keeps the time value of money into consideration for the whole stream of the cash flows. Any changes done in the above cash flows can and cannot change the decision. However this depends on the value of the change at the end of the project. The additional building would have to be further depreciated and this may cause the change in decision. And depending on the amount of money invested the NPV could also become negative leading to a change in decision. Also it needs to be noted that the payback period is very close to the 3 year policy of the company. If the payback period changes and goes over the 3 year mark, then the project would be rejected. Question - Many corporate acquisitions result in losses to the acquiring firms' stockholders. Accordingly, why do firms purchase other corporations Are they simply paying too much for the acquired corporation A co-worker asks your opinion. Specifically state the reasons for your argument. According to a research done by Sara Moeller, Frederik ... 1,021,901 3) Based on your answer for question 2, do you think the project should be accepted Why Assume Superior has a P/B (payback) policy of not accepting projects with life of over three years. Yes, the project should be accepted based on the calculations done above. The NPV shows a huge and positive value of $1.2 million. The accounting theory says that any project with a positive NPV should be accepted. This criterion is met and it is the most important criteria since it keeps the time value of money into consideration for the whole stream of the cash flows. The criterion set by Superior is also met as the payback is less than three years (2 years 11 months). Since both criterions are met, it is advised that this project should be accepted. 4) If the project required additional investment in land and building, how would this affect your decision Explain. Any changes done in the above cash flows can and cannot change the decision. However this depends on the value of the change at the end of the project. The additional building would have to be further depreciated and this may cause the change in decision. And depending on the amount of money invested the NPV could also become negative leading to a change in decision. Also it needs to be noted that the payback period is very close to the 3 year policy of the company. If the payback period changes and goes over the 3 year mark, then the project would be rejected. Part Two Question - Many corporate acquisitions result in losses to the acquiring firms' stockholders. Accordingly, why do firms purchase other corporations Are they simply paying too much for the acquired corporation A co-worker asks your opinion. Specifically state the reasons for your argument. In your own words, please provide a

Labour Dispute (identify Top 5 major issues between faculty and Essay

Labour Dispute (identify Top 5 major issues between faculty and university at St.FX university) - Essay Example Francis Xavier University. In the year 2012, a conflict was observed to take place between the StFX Association of University teachers and the StFX Administration board. In order to satisfy their demands, the teachers were further identified to call for a strike which further disrupted the entire education process of the university (McEvoy, 2012). Based on this understanding, the paper intends to identify the five major issues raised during the dispute among the faculties and the administration of StFX University. With reference to the news article written by Sean McEvoy with the title â€Å"StFX Professors O.K. Strike Option†, certain issues can be identified in the rudiments of the dispute between the faculty members of the university and the administration board. Among the various issues, inappropriate remuneration package, inadequate medical amenities, lack of job security along with financial problems can be identified as the four most significant problems caused through the dispute. Above all, the most significant issue that was identified with reference to this dispute was the lack of cooperation and coordination within the workforce and the administration board of the University. From an overall perspective, it can be observed that the faculty members of the university were not satisfied with the return they were able to avail through their employment in StFX University owing to the aforementioned issues which required greater consideration from the administration (McEvoy, 2012 ). By calling for a strike and disrupting the entire education process within the University, the faculty members wanted to ensure a comparative pay structure which shall be sufficient to satisfy their personal needs and assist StFX to obtain a competitive position in comparison to its sister institutions. According to McEvoy (2012), the issue concerning the weak pay structures was further observed to be informed to the administration in various instances. However, as no

Introduction to managerial accounting slp Assignment

Introduction to managerial accounting slp - Assignment Example With its many stores around the world, considering its chain, 16,120 stores in over 49 countries, over 10,000 stores in the United States, and many other outlets in the rest of the globe makes the company an international coffee powerhouse. The main products are the drip brewed coffee and expresso-based hot coffee drinks. As a good customer of Starbucks coffee products, I took a keen interest to study the company’s managerial accounting analysis in planning and controlling processes. This paper thus looks into how the managerial accounting works for planning and controlling processes in Starbucks. The financial records are the financial agents of any firm in matters concerning accounting management. Using the internal control process, it is true that the internal control of Starbucks over financial reporting includes maintaining records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect Starbucks’ transactions and give logical assurance that the transactions are recorded as necessary for preparation of our financial statements. Secondly, these managerial accounting principles give some logical facts and assurances that receipts and expenditures are made in accordance with management authorization (Gilligan & Wilson, 2009). Finally, the managerial accounting facts provide reasonable assurance that unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of company assets that could have a material effect on the Starbucks’ financial statements would be prevented or detected on a timely basis. In analyzing the roles of the managerial accounting in Starbucks, it is important to determine the facts about managerial accounting. According to Maital & Seshadri, (2007), managerial accounting is basically concerned with providing information to personnel within Starbucks’ organization so that they can plan, make decisions, evaluate performance, and control operations. There are no rules and regulations associated with this field since the information is intended solely