The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include the temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, self-regulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiveness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life.

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Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective

Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced selfawareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress. Many philosophical, spiritual, and psychological traditions emphasize the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being (Wilber, 2000). Despite this, it is easy to overlook the importance of consciousness in human well-being because almost everyone exercises its primary capacities, that is, attention and awareness. Indeed, the relation between qualities of consciousness and well-being has received little empirical attention. One attribute of consciousness that has been much-discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness. The concept of mindfulness has roots in Buddhist and other contemplative traditions where conscious attention and awareness are actively cultivated. It is most commonly defined as the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present. For example, Nyanaponika Thera (1972) called mindfulness “the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us at the successive moments of perception” (p. 5). Hanh (1976) similarly defined mindfulness as “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality” (p. 11). Recent research has shown that the enhancement of mindfulness through training facilitates a variety of well-being outcomes (e.g., Kabat-Zinn, 1990). To date, however, there has been little work examining this attribute as a naturally occurring characteristic. Recognizing that most everyone has the capacity to attend and to be aware, we nonetheless assume (a) that individuals differ in their propensity or willingness to be aware and to sustain attention to what is occurring in the present and (b) that this mindful capacity varies within persons, because it can be sharpened or dulled by a variety of factors. The intent of the present research is to reliably identify these inter- and intrapersonal variations in mindfulness, establish their relations to other relevant psychological constructs, and demonstrate their importance to a variety of forms of psychological well-being.

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The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being

Attention to the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. The difficulty in studying teachers’ beliefs has been caused by definitional problems, poor conceptualizations, and differing understandings of beliefs and belief structures. This article examines the meaning prominent researchers give to beliefs and how this meaning differs from that of knowledge, provides a definition of belief consistent with the best work in this area, explores the nature of belief structures as outlined by key researchers, and offers a synthesis of findings about the nature of beliefs. The article argues that teachers’ beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry but that this will require clear conceptualizations, careful examination of key assumptions, consistent understandings and adherence to precise meanings, and proper assessment and investigation of spec...

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Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning Up a Messy Construct:

Preface Chapter 1 The challenge Chapter 2 The nature of the evidence: A synthesis of meta-analyses Chapter 3 The argument: Visible teaching and visible learning Chapter 4: The contributions from the student Chapter 5 The contributions from the home Chapter 6 The contributions from the school Chapter 7 The contributions from the teacher Chapter 8 The contributions from the curricula Chapter 9 The contributions from teaching approaches - I Chapter 10 The contributions from teaching approaches - II Chapter 11: Bringing it all together Appendix A: The 800 meta-analyses Appendix B: The meta-analyses by rank order References

Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement

The MOS social support survey.

Assessing Attachment Following Divorce: Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Divorce Reaction Inventory.

We were delighted to receive an invitation from Bruce Walsh, editor of the Journal of Career Assessment, to assemble a special issue devoted to advances in social cognitive career theory (SCCT). This was an opportunity that was too good for us to pass up. The only question was, how should we organize the issue? We ultimately decided to emphasize SCCT’s relevance to the career development of a diverse range of persons (e.g., students of color; those facing economic challenges; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] workers; international students and workers) and to issues touching on social justice (e.g., inclusion of underrepresented persons in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] fields; understanding the career needs of the unemployed; management of multiple roles in the service of gender equity). Much of the earliest impetus for developing SCCT was to extend the study of career behavior to a broader range of persons and situations than those highlighted by earlier career theories. Indeed, career scholars had exhorted the field to move beyond its primary fixation with the career development of White, male, middle class, and relatively well-educated persons (e.g., see Fitzgerald & Betz, 1994). Vocational psychology inquiry had also often focused nearly exclusively on students and workers in the United States. Fortunately, the past 20 or so years have seen much progress in the diversification of career development theory and research, and the field seems poised to dramatically extend these advances, relying on a new generation of social justice-minded and internationally oriented theorists and researchers. Career self-efficacy theory (Hackett & Betz, 1981), the precursor of SCCT, emphasized the ways in which women’s career behavior can be limited (and also fostered) through social, familial, and educational influences that become internalized, in part, through perceptions of personal capabilities, or self-efficacy beliefs—a construct adapted from Bandura’s (1986) general social cognitive theory. Hackett and Betz’s seminal insights were later generalized to the experiences of other understudied groups, such as women of color (e.g., Hackett & Byars, 1996). SCCT built on this sturdy foundation by incorporating additional features of Bandura’s theory (e.g., outcome expectations, goals) and highlighting a range of ‘‘person input’’ (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, ability, trait)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1069072716657811

Social Cognitive Career Theory in a Diverse World: Guest Editors’ Introduction

Interest in the roles of environmental supports and barriers in career and educational development has increased steadily over the past few decades, enough to warrant a meta-analysis of this vast a...

Relationships Among Supports and Barriers and Career and Educational Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

"Perceived social support among college students: Three studies of the psychometric characteristics and counseling uses of the Social Support Inventory": Correction to Brown, Brady, Lent, Wolfert, and Hall.

The purposes of this article are to (a) summarize the status of career intervention research since Spokane and Oliver’s seminal meta-analysis of vocational intervention outcome and (b) discuss in m...

Steven D. Brown

Papers

Assessing Attachment Following Divorce: Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Divorce Reaction Inventory.

Social Cognitive Career Theory in a Diverse World: Guest Editors’ Introduction

Relationships Among Supports and Barriers and Career and Educational Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

"Perceived social support among college students: Three studies of the psychometric characteristics and counseling uses of the Social Support Inventory": Correction to Brown, Brady, Lent, Wolfert, and Hall.

The Outcomes of Vocational Interventions Thirty (Some) Years Later