My scholarship and publications are primarily focused in four major areas:
1. Applications and extensions of the Social Cognitive Career Theory. I have been particularly interested in the math and science applications of the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). My colleague Romila Singh and I worked on three projects funded by the National Science Foundation that examined reasons for persistence and departure from engineering, incorporating SCCT with Turnover Theory. The first project, Stemming the Tide, is available here. We continued that research in a second study with male engineers (NSFGears) to both describe male engineers’ experiences and to compare men and women engineers. Along with Edward Levitas, we obtained a third NSF grant to examine the role of gender and race with engineering teams. You can learn more about this project by visiting our joint research page here.
2. Cross-cultural interest assessment: I am interested in examining the role of race and ethnicity in vocational interests. Interestingly, we have found over the years that race/ethnicity has a much smaller effect size influencing interests than does gender. Most interventions have focused on ways to promote racial/ethnic minority individuals’ interests in math and science careers, but findings suggest that research and interventions need to examine environmental factors and barriers to math/science career choices.
3. Contextual issues in career development. A third area of research relates broadly to contextual issues in career counseling and career development. Rosie Bingham and I developed a model (Fouad & Bingham, 1995) that explicitly incorporates culture into career counseling. I also conducted a meta-analysis of the role of race/ethnicity in career decision making and choice with my colleague Angela Byars-Winston (Fouad & Byars-Winston, 2005). We documented that race/ethnicity plays a much stronger role in career expectations than it does in aspirations.
Also, building on a qualitative study investigating the construction of the meaning of career for Asian Americans, my students and I have examined the influences of family expectations on career decisions. We developed a Family Influence Scale (Fouad et al., 2010) that is helping us to explore the role of family expectations and supports across cultures (including Korea, India, Turkey, Portugal, Italy, and Israel).
4. Competence. The final area of research may be roughly classified as “professional issues.” I have been involved for more than 20 years in helping to clarify benchmarks in trainees’ attaining competence as psychologists. More information on benchmarks tools are available on the APA Education Directorate website.
I am also a strong advocate for ensuring the cultural competence of psychologists. The outcome of a number of efforts within the American Psychological Association was co-chairing the Writing Team (with Patricia Arredondo) for the creation and successful approval of the Multicultural Guidelines for Psychologists.
Recent Research Projects
My active research team focused primarily on topics related to career development and/or cultural competence. Team projects were developed to help meet students’ research goals. Projects often led to publication in peer-reviewed academic journals. Many students on the team also submitted proposals to present at the APA Annual Convention. Dissertations completed by my previous students are available by selecting the graduates tab above.
This is a partial list of research questions my team has recently investigated:
- Perceptions of opportunity for ethnic and racial minorities
- Sources of outcome expectations for students engaged in career exploration
- Workers’ adaptation to the personal and environmental changes that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic
- See my team’s article in The Journal of Career Assessment
- Literature review of women’s career development
- Effects of major exploration interventions on career indecision
- See our article in The Career Development Quarterly