Predicting Career Decision-Making Difficulties by Emotional Intelligence: Does It Make a Difference for Women in Engineering?

• In Event: 61.071 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 10 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 61.071-6 - Support and Success for Engineering Majors in Higher Education

Abstract

When getting started in an undergraduate program of study, students’ career choice likely remains tentative as commitment depends upon experiences and opportunities that may occur along the way. The college experience of women in engineering is different from that of their male classmates. There is a body of literature supporting the link between emotional intelligence and career decision-making difficulties, without considering the context in which students make vocational choices. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of gender in the prediction of career indecisiveness by the four trait EI factor among students in engineering which is still a non-traditional field for women, and to compare it with the same effect among students from education majors.

Author

• Forouzan Farnia, Texas A&M University - College Station