Motivational effects of vocational identity ideals: The importance of goalcommitment and self-efficacy

In a sample of students enrolled in teacher education programs, we investig ated the role of vocational commitments and experimentally induced expectan cies of self-efficacy in predicting motivational effects of idealized job i dentities. After they had indicated the extent to which they were committed to the goal of becoming a teacher, students were asked to specify various attributes characteristic of ideal teachers. Half of them was asked to focu s on attainable attributes, whereas the other half was asked to focus on un attainable attributes of ideal teachers. Control participants described an ideal pupil. Students were then administered a series of social competence tasks dealing with problems that were either relevant or irrelevant to the job of a teacher. Students were given 15 min to provide solutions for a num ber of freely eligible problems. Of all participants, students who focused on attainable attributes of ideal teachers and were also highly committed t o the goal of becoming a teacher spent the highest proportion of time at te acher-relevant problems. In contrast, students who selectively focused on u nattainable attributes and who also lacked a sense of commitment to their v ocational goals tended to avoid working on teacher-relevant tasks.