Hardin Erin E, Longhurst Melanie O
Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee.
Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University.
J Couns Psychol. 2016 Mar;63(2):233-239. doi: 10.1037/cou0000119. Epub 2015 Oct 5.
Despite robust support for the basic theoretical model of social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) and predictions that, for example, increases (or declines) in self-efficacy would lead to subsequent increases (or declines) in interest, there has been surprisingly little longitudinal research that has directly examined the extent to which members of different groups (e.g., women and men) actually do experience changes in critical social-cognitive variables over time early in their curricula in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Knowing the extent to which such changes occur in typical introductory undergraduate courses is important for targeting interventions to increase persistence of underrepresented groups in STEM. We measured social-cognitive-career-theory-relevant variables near the middle and at the end of the 1st semester of a gateway introductory chemistry course and found that women had lower STEM self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, and STEM interest than did men, even after controlling for actual course performance. Although there were no detrimental changes across the semester for women or men, men experienced a small but significant increase in their perceived support for pursuing a STEM degree, whereas women did not.
尽管社会认知职业理论的基本理论模型得到了有力支持（伦特、布朗和哈克特，1994年），并且有预测称，例如自我效能感的提高（或下降）会导致随后兴趣的增加（或下降），但令人惊讶的是，很少有纵向研究直接考察不同群体（如女性和男性）的成员在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域课程早期，随着时间的推移，在关键社会认知变量方面实际经历变化的程度。了解在典型的本科入门课程中此类变化发生的程度，对于针对干预措施以提高STEM领域中代表性不足群体的留存率非常重要。我们在一门入门化学基础课程的第一学期中期和期末附近测量了与社会认知职业理论相关的变量，发现即使在控制了实际课程成绩之后，女性的STEM自我效能感、应对自我效能感和STEM兴趣仍低于男性。尽管整个学期女性和男性都没有出现有害变化，但男性在追求STEM学位方面的感知支持有小幅但显著的增加，而女性则没有。
