Instrumentality, expressiveness, and self-efficacy in career activities among Japanese working women

Abstract

Instrumentality, expressiveness, and self-efficacy for Holland's (1973, 1985) six model environments, i.e., the realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional environments, were assessed for 412 Japanese female clerical workers. Subjects were classified into an androgynous, instrumental, expressive, or undifferentiated group based on two-way median split. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that instrumentality was related to self-efficacy across the six environments, whereas expressiveness was related to self-efficacy only for the artistic, social, and conventional environments. The sum of self-efficacy across the six environments was highest for the androgynous group, followed by the instrumental, expressive, and undifferentiated groups. Implications for Japanese women's career development and the sex differences in career self-efficacy are discussed. © 1991.