The future of career assessment: Integrating vocational interests with self-efficacy and personal styles

This article reviews what is believed to be one of the most important trends in vocational research and career assessment, that is, that body of work integrating vocational interest measurement with the concepts of self-efficacy and personal styles. Beginning with a review of Bandura's self-efficacy theory, recent work in which parallel measures of interests and self-efficacy (or confidence) are used to improve the prediction of vocational choice behavior and the comprehensiveness of career assessment and counseling is examined. Following this, the use of measures of personal styles, such as those on the Strong Interest Inventory, along with vocational interests in vocational research and counseling are reviewed. Implications of both of these trends for future research and for career counseling are discussed.