Cross-Cultural Comparison of The

The Career Development Quarterly June 2013 • Volume 61 141

© 2013 by the National Career Development Association. All rights reserved.

Received 09/15/11Revised 01/22/12

Accepted 01/31/12DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00043.x

Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Effects of Optimism, Intrinsic Motivation, and Family Relations on Vocational Identity

Yun-Jeong Shin and Kevin R. Kelly

This study explored the effects of optimism, intrinsic motivation, and family relations on vocational identity in college students in the United States and South Korea. The results yielded support for the hypothesized multivariate model. Across both cultures, optimism was an important contributing factor to vocational identity, and intrinsic motivation partially mediated the link from optimism to vocational identity. In addition, family relations moderated the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation with American students but not Korean students. With Korean students, family relations moderated the direct link from optimism to vocational identity. These results have significant implications for counseling to promote vocational identity development for diverse college students.

Keywords: vocational identity, cross-cultural comparison, optimism, intrinsic motivation, family relations

Vocational identity can be defined as the clarity and stability of people’s interests and abilities and their capacity to explore, plan, and establish goals (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980). Super, Savickas, and Super (1996) observed that positive vocational identity serves as the founda-tion for making occupational choices that ensure optimal career devel-opment outcomes. Forming a vocational identity is essential because career construction is a subjective matter and “a reflection of oneself” (Savickas, 2005, p. 54).

Vocational identity development is related to several positive career out-comes, including career interest differentiation (Nauta & Kahn, 2007), exploratory behavior (Gushue, Scanlan, Pantzer, & Clarke, 2006), self-efficacy, and academic major–career congruence (Leong, 1998). Vocational identity is also positively related to psychological well-being; people with clear and stable career goals are more likely than those with diffuse and unstable goals to perceive a high degree of purpose in their lives (Strauser, Lustig, & Ciftci, 2008). Inhibited vocational identity development, in contrast, can lead to career indecision, role confusion, and negative men-tal health consequences such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem (Leong & Morris, 1989; Strauser et al., 2008). Thus, establishment of a robust vocational identity is essential for achieving positive career outcomes.

Yun-Jeong Shin, Graduate School of Education, University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea; Kevin R. Kelly, School of Education and Allied Profession, University of Dayton. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yun-Jeong Shin, Graduate School of Education, University of Seoul, Seoulsiripdaero 163, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 130-743 (e-mail: [email protected]).

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142 The Career Development Quarterly June 2013 • Volume 61

It is therefore important for career counselors to develop more powerful and targeted interventions to promote vocational identity development. Related to this goal, researchers have identified three sets of antecedents of vocational identity development. First, intrapersonal characteristics (e.g., personality traits) are related to vocational identity development. For example, Sweeney and Schill (1998) found that men with self-defeating personality characteristics tend to have poorly integrated vocational identities. Lopez (1989) reported that anxious students have ill-defined vocational identi-ties. Conversely, researchers have discovered that college students with positive and flexible perspectives about self, others, and the future tend to report higher vocational identity development (Kelly & Shin, 2009; Pat-ton, Bartrum, & Creed, 2005). It is important to better understand how personality characteristics are related to vocational identity development.

Second, relational influences are critical in vocational identity develop-ment (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007). Multiple studies have highlighted the role of family relations in vocational identity development. For ex-ample, family-of-origin patterns (Hargrove, Inman, & Crane, 2005) and parental support for career (Alliman-Brissett, Turner, & Skovholt, 2004) are positively associated with identity commitment and career decision-making confidence. Furthermore, Schmitt-Rodermund and Vondracek (1999) reported that parent–child engagement in social activities is positively related to adolescent career exploration. Given that vocational identity is affected by family relations variables (Flum & Blustein, 2000), more research on the effects of family relations appears to be promising.

Third, it is important to consider vocational identity as a form of adaptation to the social context. Several researchers have stressed the importance of broad cultural contexts in understanding vocational identity development (e.g., Blustein, 1988; Fouad & Kantamneni, 2008). Schmitt-Rodermund and Silbereisen (1998) stated that different cultures provide different ranges of opportunities because of variation in government control and lifestyle options. For example, East German adolescents who grew up under a communist regime had fewer career choices available than ado-lescents in West Germany, where there was a strong economy and much less central government control (Reitzle, Vondracek, & Silbereisen, 1998). As a result, West German youth were slower to develop their vocational identities because they had many more choices. Thus, vocational identity development seems to be sensitive to one’s cultural context.

Vocational identity development can be viewed as a process that reflects individual, familial, and cultural influences. Fouad and Kantamneni (2008) emphasized the need to understand multiple contexts and proposed a three-dimensional model that highlights the reciprocal and dynamic influ-ences of contextual factors on career development. From this perspective, vocational identity development is influenced not only by personality but also by proximal relationships and cultural context. Building on Fouad and Kantamneni’s model, we posited a moderated mediation model (Edwards & Lambert, 2007) in which optimism and intrinsic motivation (personality characteristics) and their interaction with family relations (proximal rela-tionships) affect vocational identity formation. In addition, we explored the relation of individual and proximal relationship variables to vocational identity development across individualistic and collectivist cultures. Our purpose was to conduct a comprehensive exploration of factors influenc-



ing vocational identity development to inform the interventions of career counselors working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Theoretical Background and HypothesesOptimism

The construct of optimism has been defined a number of ways. Scheier and Carver (1992) defined optimism as the belief that good, as opposed to bad, things generally will occur in one’s life; this definition focuses on anticipation of positive events. Dember, Martin, Hummer, Howe, and Melton (1989) defined optimism as a positive outlook on life, which suggests a more general tendency to take a positive view of the events and circumstances of one’s life. Both definitions imply that optimism is a stable trait across time and situations.

Optimism has been studied across cultures (Chang, Asakawa, & Sanna, 2001; Y. T. Lee & Seligman, 1997). Research has suggested that West-erners tend to be unrealistically optimistic and Easterners tend to show more emotional dialecticism (e.g., not only less optimism but also less pessimism; Chang et al., 2001). Y. T. Lee and Seligman (1997) also suggested that Americans are more optimistic than Asians.

Previous research indicated that optimism is positively related to vocational identity (Kelly & Shin, 2009). For example, Patton et al. (2005) found that optimism positively influenced career expectations and sequentially predicted career goals, planning, and exploration. In addition, Lounsbury, Levy, Leong, and Gibson (2007) found that optimism had a large positive correlation with identity (r = .68, p < .01). Even though there are cultural differences in optimism, the relation between optimism and vocational identity seems similar across culture. S. H. Lee (2006) reported that optimism is highly related to career attitude maturity in college students in South Korea. In another study in South Korea, Kwon and Lee (2004) found that less optimistic students experienced difficulties with career identity and academic adjustment. Taken together, these results suggest that a generalized positive outlook on life has a significant influence on vocational identity development in the cultures of the United States and South Korea. Thus, Hypothesis 1 was that optimism would be positively associated with vocational identity across cultures.

Mediation Effect of Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation has long been considered a central aspect of vocational identity. A primary tenet of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) is that intrinsically motivated individuals act to satisfy their need for autonomy, engage in activities for their own sake, and experience the pleasure and satisfaction derived from those activities. A substantial body of theoretical and empirical research suggests that intrinsically motivated individuals mobilize themselves to engage in goal-directed actions, includ-ing career exploration activities, which in turn lead to vocational identity development (Jordaan, 1963). Blustein and Flum (1999) suggested that intrinsically motivated individuals seek self- and interest-relevant information and consequently achieve higher levels of vocational identity. Robbins et al. (2004) suggested that college students who are not intrinsically motivated tend to have unstable goals, which makes it difficult for them to set goals



and maintain direction. Guay, Ratelle, Senécal, Larose, and Deschênes (2006) reported that higher autonomy in college students contributes to initiation of career exploration and decision-making processes. Thus, research indicates that intrinsic motivation in the career decision-making process is essential to building an adequate vocational identity.

In cross-cultural investigations, the need for autonomy has been closely examined because of its controversial nature (e.g., Oishi, 2000). Although 30 years of empirical research have supported the general claim that people of all cultures need to feel autonomous, some researchers have argued that autonomy is important only in individualistic societies (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oishi, 2000). However, Flum and Blustein (2000) contended that intrinsic motivation, which can be created by perceiving that one’s behavior is self-initiated and self-regulated, is a universal phe-nomenon. Individuals in the career decision-making process who value both their own interests and group harmony and choose to consider both values in a self-determined way can be considered as intrinsically motivated.

The existence and importance of intrinsic motivation across cultures are supported by research on individualism and collectivism (Gelfand, Bhawuk, Nishii, & Bechtold, 2004; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). In collectivistic societies, fulfilling duties and obligations and contributing to the group are central components of intrinsic motivation (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Gelfand et al. (2004) found that employees in col-lectivistic societies reported higher intrinsic motivation than those in individualistic societies. Thus, we anticipated that the relation of intrinsic motivation to vocational identity would be reflected in both American and Korean groups in the present study.

It is also useful to think of how optimism and intrinsic motivation act together to influence vocational identity formation. For example, optimistic individuals may be more likely to act out of choice than to respond to external pressure; optimism may enhance intrinsic motivation and acceler-ate development of vocational identity (Guay, 2005). Scheier and Carver (1992) suggested that optimistic individuals tend to strive toward attain-ing desired outcomes. Indeed, optimism has been positively related to intrinsic motivation among elementary and high school students (Shogren, Lopez, Wehmeyer, Little, & Pressgrove, 2006). Thompson and Gaudreau (2008) reported that intrinsic motivation was a significant mediator in the relationship between optimism and task-oriented coping. In contrast, the pervasive negative expectations associated with pessimism can inhibit self-determined activities. On the basis of these empirical findings, Hypothesis 2 was that intrinsic motivation would mediate the relationship between optimism and vocational identity development.

Family Relations as a Moderator of the Effect of Optimism on Vocational Identity We suggest that the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation on the link between optimism and vocational identity development is universal. However, we expect the strength of this relation to differ across American and Korean groups because of cultural differences. We were particularly interested in the influence of family relations on the link between opti-mism and vocational identify. We defined family relations as the presence of family support and free expression of positive and negative affect.



Family relations. The nature and the quality of family relations have been posited as explanatory factors in career development by several theorists (Holland, 1997; Super, 1957). For example, Super (1957) suggested that family relations can facilitate one’s self-concept in a career. Savickas (2002) suggested that achieving independence and assertiveness in close relation-ships is essential to forming the sense of control and competence necessary to make career decisions. A meta-analysis of family-of-origin influences revealed that the quality of family relations is a consistent and significant antecedent of career development processes and that family relations and vocational identity are significantly associated (Keller & Whiston, 2004). Johnson, Buboltz, and Nichols (1999) reported that higher family cohesion and expressiveness and lower conflict were associated with higher levels of vocational identity. Lopez (1989) reported that emotional independence and freedom from conflict were strongly related to vocational identity for college students. Thus, the theorized association of proximal family rela-tions to vocational identity development has been empirically supported.

Moderating role of family relations. Trait activation theory asserts that per-sonality traits require trait-relevant situations for their expression (Lievens, Chasteen, Day, & Christiansen, 2006). The interaction between situational factors and relevant personality traits shapes adaptive behavior across situa-tions (Shoda & Lee Tiernan, 2002). The same could be true for vocational identity formation. Optimism can be triggered into active career exploration and decision making by situational cues, such as having supportive and encouraging family relations with limited conflict. Lack of family support and strained family relations can suppress trait-relevant responses, such as having a positive outlook and acting out of one’s own interest and satis-faction to explore and build a future career path. The established positive association between personality and family support (Bruck & Allen, 2003) and vocational identity (Hargrove et al., 2005) suggests the possibility that family relations influence vocational identity via optimism. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was that the quality of family relations would moderate the direct path from optimism to vocational identity.

Cross-Cultural Examination of the Hypothesized Moderated Mediation ModelCulture is another crucial construct in the study of individual and contextual factors on vocational identity development. Although some individual and contextual factors, such as optimism and family relations, may have similar influences on vocational identity across cultures, these associations can vary (Leong, 2002). Researchers have suggested that individualistic and collectivistic cultures provide distinct expectations for family involvement in career development and decision making (Kagitçibasi, 1997). Many researchers have emphasized the impact of close and positive family rela-tions on intrinsic motivation development in North American samples (Kagitçibasi, 2005; Ryan & Deci, 2000). For example, Ryan and Deci (2000) reported that autonomy-supporting families, compared with con-trolling families, had a significant impact on their children’s higher intrinsic motivation. In addition, individualistic cultures communicate family sup-port through acknowledging feelings and perceptions and minimizing the use of pressure and control; this strategy gives individuals the chance to perceive themselves as competent and autonomous (Supple, Ghazarian,



Peterson, & Bush, 2009). In other words, individualistic cultures enhance independence, a core value of Western culture.

In collectivistic cultures, career decisions involve some personal choice but also require consideration of the future welfare of the entire family. Fouad et al. (2008) suggested that people with a collectivistic orientation negotiate between personal and family desires in their career choices. In collectivist cultures, families influence the career decision-making process by imposing expectations and values consciously and unconsciously on their members. It is common for people with a collectivistic orientation to value family needs over personal preferences. For example, Korean parents have strong expec-tations for their children to attain jobs with high security and prestige; this expectation is conveyed in both demanding and subtle forms (Kim, 1993). Thus, it is possible that family support is less salient in fostering self-directed motivation in career decision making for college students from collectivist cultures. Therefore, Hypothesis 4 was that family support would moderate the indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation with American college students but not with Korean college students.

In summary, we proposed and tested a moderated mediation model in which (a) intrinsic motivation mediates the relation between optimism and vocational identity and (b) family relations moderated the direct and indirect effects of optimism to vocational identity through the links between optimism and intrinsic motivation and between optimism and vocational identity across two cultures.

MethodParticipants

The participants were 164 college students at a large U.S. midwestern university and 183 college students at a large university in Seoul, South Korea. Among the American college students, 76% were European Ameri-can in ethnic origin; 99% of the students from the Korean sample were of Korean ethnicity. Among the American students, there were 42 first-year undergraduates (25.6%), 41 sophomores (25%), 52 juniors (31.7%), and 29 seniors (17.7%). Among the Korean students, there were 36 first-year undergraduates (19.7%), 60 sophomores (32.8%), 48 juniors (26.2%), and 39 seniors (21.3%). The mean ages of the American and Korean col-lege students were 20.84 years (SD = 2.96) and 23.52 years (SD = 2.30), respectively; the mean grade point averages (GPAs) for the American and Korean students were 3.10 (SD = 0.59) and 3.39 (SD = 0.68), respectively.

ProcedureStudents were informed of the objectives of this study. Those who agreed to participate completed English and Korean versions of the following instruments and a demographic form via an online website. The detailed information of the procedure to create the Korean version of the survey and the pilot study results to test consistency of responses are included in the Appendix.

InstrumentsOptimism. We assessed optimism with three items from the Life Orientation Test–Revised (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), which measures



optimism and pessimism The LOT-R is a 10-item measure with a 4-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Creed, Patton, and Bartrum (2002) reported consistency reliability coefficients of .62 for optimism and .78 for pessimism. The reliability coefficient for the LOT-R in this study was .67. Chang, Maydeu-Olivares, and D’Zurilla (1997) studied the convergent and discriminant validity of the LOT-R and found that optimism was correlated with depression, psychological well-being, positive affect, and negative affect at –.42, .53, .52, and –.43, respectively. These results support the convergent and discriminant validity of the LOT-R Optimism scale.

Intrinsic motivation. We assessed intrinsic motivation by using eight items from the Intrinsic Motivation subscale of the Career Decision Making Autonomy scale (CDMA; Guay, 2005). Each item is rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = does not correspond at all, 7 = corresponds completely). Guay (2005) reported test–retest reliability coefficients in the range of .91 to .95. The reliability coefficient for the CDMA in this study was .92.

Vocational identity. My Vocational Situation (Holland et al., 1980) consists of three scales, including the Vocational Identity subscale that has 18 true/false items. False responses, which are scored as 1, indi-cate higher vocational identity. The Vocational Identity subscale has a maximum score of 18. Holland et al. (1980) reported reliability coef-ficient alphas for the subscale in the range of .86 to .89 for samples of high school students and employed adults. Holland (1991) reported test–retest reliability for vocational identity at 1- to 3-month intervals as .75. See Leong and Morris (1989) for findings supporting the construct validity of the Vocational Identity subscale. The reliability coefficient for vocational identity in this study was .88.

Family relations. We used 30 items from the Family Environment Scale–Form R (FES-R; Moos, 1989) to measure family relations, which reflect the degree to which family members are perceived to be involved with each other, open to expression of positive and negative feelings, and free from conflict. There are three subscales: (a) Cohesion, with nine items reflecting familial commitment, support, and help (e.g., “There is a feeling of togetherness in our family”); (b) Expressiveness, with nine items reflecting free expression of thoughts and feelings (e.g., “We tell each other about our personal problems”); and (c) Conflict, with nine items expressing anger, aggression, and conflict (e.g., “Family members often criticize each other”). Test–retest coefficients ranged from .52 to .91 for the FES-R subscale scores for 2-, 3-, and 12-month intervals (Moos, 1986). These estimates suggest that the scale is reasonably stable across time. A family relation score was derived by subtracting the Conflict subscale score from the sum of the Cohesion and Expressive subscale scores. Total subscale scores ranged from 0 to 9; the possible total family relation scores ranged from –9 to 18, with higher scores indicating a greater perception of cohesive, expressive, and conflict-limited families. The reliability coefficient for family relations in this study was .81.

ResultsPreliminary Analyses

We compared the effect of cultural group on the demographic variables; there were cultural differences in age, t(341) = 9.40, p < .005, and GPA,



t(345) = 4.37, p < .005. Therefore, we controlled for these variables in calculating the zero-order correlations among optimism, intrinsic motivation, family relations, and vocational identity. The age- and GPA-controlled and -uncontrolled zero-order correlations for the American and Korean samples were very similar; we concluded that age and GPA would not significantly affect the outcome analyses.

Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and zero-order correla-tions for the primary variables for the American and Korean students. Consistent with our expectation (Hypothesis 1), optimism was significantly associated with vocational identity for both groups. Contrary to expec-tations, Korean students reported higher optimism than did American students. Before testing the mediation and moderated mediation models, we centered all variables by subtracting the mean from each variable. This procedure helps to eliminate nonessential multicollinearity between the variables and provides for easier interpretation of regression coefficients (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003).

Test of MediationWe analyzed the mediation and moderated mediation models according to the approach recommended by Edwards and Lambert (2007) for simultaneously testing combined moderation and mediation effects. We used the SPSS syntax provided by Edwards and Lambert. By integrating moderated regression analysis and path analysis, Edwards and Lambert suggested that mediation should be tested in the form of both direct and indirect effects. This approach explains how paths constituting these effects vary across levels of the moderator variable.

First, we tested the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation between op-timism and vocational identity across the cultures. Supporting Hypothesis 2, optimism positively predicted intrinsic motivation (β = .15, t = 2.14, p = .024), which positively predicted vocational identity (β = .25, t = 2.95, p = .001) with the American sample. With the Korean sample, there also was a significant positive relation between optimism and intrinsic motivation (β = .34, t = 4.64, p < .005). In addition, intrinsic motivation was related

TABlE 1

Means, Standard Deviations, and Zero-Order Correlations for American and Korean Samples

Variable

Note. N = 164 for American college students; N = 183 for Korean college students. Correlations for American students are below the diagonal; correlations for Korean students are above the diagonal.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

1. Optimism2. Intrinsic

motivation3. Family

relations4. Vocational

identity

American Sample

Korean Sample

F(1, 345) 1 2 8.65

34.47

8.59 10.98

3 4M MSD SD 1.85

12.01

5.62 5.09

9.51

35.02

9.00 9.14

1.59

10.28

4.45 4.63

21.13***

9.00***

0.57 12.32***

—

.15*

.37*** .23**

.33*

—

.11

.25***

.18*

.10

—

.16

.25**

.25***

.22**

—



to vocational identity (β = .22, t = 2.44, p = .011) for Korean students. Optimism had a significant direct effect on vocational identity for both American students (β = .18, t = 2.49, p = .02) and Korean students (β = .19, t = 2.56, p = .015), even after accounting for the indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation.

Finally, we compared the mediation models for the American and Korean samples by entering culture as a covariate, to see whether the mediation model of optimism to vocational identity via intrinsic motiva-tion differs across cultures. The results suggested that there was not a significant effect for culture (β = .01, t = .05, p = .96), indicating there were no cultural differences in the mediation model of optimism to vocational identity via intrinsic motivation. In other words, the indirect and direct effects of optimism on vocational identity were significant for both American and Korean students. We also checked the critical ratio for group differences between the paths from optimism to intrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation to vocational identity, and optimism to vocational identity. Critical ratios are parameter estimates divided by their corresponding standard errors. A critical ratio > 1.96 indicates that a regression coefficient is significantly different from zero at the .05 significance level. The critical ratios for all three paths were less than 1.96, which confirmed that there were no group differences in the relationships among optimism, intrinsic motivation, and vocational identity. Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported for both groups.

Moderated Mediation EffectTable 2 presents the results for Hypotheses 3 and 4. Regarding Hypothesis 3, we anticipated that the direct effect of optimism on vocational identity would be moderated by family relations. The moderation effect of family relations on the direct link between optimism and vocational identity was not significant for American students (see Figure 1). However, the direct relation between optimism and vocational identity was moderated significantly by family relations (β = –.15, p = .041) for Korean students. Specifically, the statistically significant R2 change value was .02 (p = .04), reflecting the addition of family relations as a moderator in the direct path from optimism to vocational identity for Korean students.

Given these results, we examined the conditional direct effect of optimism on vocational identity at three values of family relations with Korean college students: mean, one standard deviation above the mean (+1 SD), and one standard deviation below the mean (–1 SD). The conditional direct effect results indicated that two of the three conditional direct ef-fects were positive and significantly different from zero at the mean (B = 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.13, .87]) and –1 standard deviation (B = 1.01, 95% CI [.50, 1.50]) moderator values. A comparison of the simple slopes for low and high family relations indicated that the rela-tion between optimism and vocational identity was steeper for Korean students with poorer quality of family relations (B = –0.98, CI [–1.78, –0.36]). Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported for Korean college students because family relations moderated the direct relation between optimism and vocational identity rather than the indirect relation of optimism with vocational identity via intrinsic motivation. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported for Korean but not American college students.



With regard to Hypothesis 4, we predicted that the indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation would be mod-erated by family relations. With the American sample, the cross-product term between optimism and family relations on the path from optimism to intrinsic motivation was statistically significant (β = .23, p = .04; see Figure 1). The statistically significant R2 change value of .04 (p < .005) for American students reflected the addition of family relations as a moderator in the path from optimism to intrinsic motivation. To better understand this moderation effect, we examined the conditional indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity at three values of family relations with American college students: mean, one standard deviation above the mean (+1 SD), and one standard deviation below the mean (–1 SD).

With American students, the conditional indirect effects were positive and significantly different from zero at the mean (B = 0.08, 95% CI [.01, .20]) and +1 standard deviation (B = 0.20, 95% CI [.08, .40]) moderator values. We compared the simple slopes for low and high family relations and found that the indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation was steeper for American students with more positive family relations (B = 0.20, 95% CI [.07, 0.47]). At the same level of optimism, American college students with more positive family relations reported stronger vocational identity than those with less positive family relations.

TABlE 2

Parameter Estimates for Direct and Indirect Effects of Moderated Mediation Model

Variable and Sample

Note. N = 164 for American college students; N = 183 for Korean college students. All variables were centered on the mean.*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Optimism American Korean

Family relations American Korean

Optimism × Family Relations American Korean

Optimism American Korean

Intrinsic motivation American Korean

Family relations American Korean

Optimism × Family Relations American Korean

b t R 2 DR 2

.19* .32***

.11 .04

.21** –.03

.12 .18*

.23** .17*

.32*** .14*

.09 –.15*

2.24 4.46

1.25 0.49

2.55 –0.36

1.49 2.35

3.46 2.24

4.04 2.00

1.07 –2.05

.07** .11***

.40*** .14***

.04** .01

.00 .02*

Direct Effects on Intrinsic Motivation

Direct Effects on Vocational Identity



We also examined the moderation effect of family relations on the indi-rect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation for Korean students. The interaction between optimism and family relation was not statistically significant. In other words, the model involving the indirect relation between optimism and vocational identity mediated by intrinsic motivation pertains to Korean students at all levels of quality of family relations. Thus, Hypothesis 4 was supported as family relations significantly moderated the indirect relation between optimism and vo-cational identity with the American but not the Korean college students.

DiscussionThe purpose of this study was to investigate the theoretical model (see Figure 1), which posited that optimism would be associated with intrinsic motivation, family relations, and vocational identity. We predicted that intrinsic motivation would operate as a mediator between optimism and vocational identity. We then determined whether family relations ampli-fied or attenuated the relation between optimism and vocational identity. In addition, we explored cultural differences in the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation and the moderation effect of family relations on the vocational identity–optimism path. The results supported our first hypoth-esis regarding a significant and positive association between optimism and vocational identity. The second hypothesis also was supported as intrinsic motivation mediated the path from optimism to vocational identity. Our third hypothesis was partially supported; family relations moderated the direct link from optimism to vocational identity for Korean students only. The fourth hypothesis was fully supported; family relations moderated the indirect effect of optimism on vocational identity via intrinsic motivation for American but not Korean students.

The focus of this study was on understanding individual and contextual factors and their interaction relevant to vocational identity development

FIGURE 1

The Moderated Mediation Model With American and Korean College Students

Note. Boldface values indicate coefficients for the American group.*p < .05. **p < .01.

.19* / .32** Intrinsic Motivation

Family Relations

Optimism Vocational Identity

.23* / –.03

.18* / .17*

.12* / .18**

.10 / –.15*



in two cultural contexts, following the perspectives of Flum and Blustein (2000) and Fouad and Kantamneni (2008). We discuss the core findings and their implications under the major themes of the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation and moderation effect of family relations on the path from optimism to vocational identity for American and Korean college students.

Mediation Effect of Intrinsic MotivationThe significant mediation of intrinsic motivation on the optimism–voca-tional identity link was similar for the American and Korean samples; this finding is not surprising in light of empirical findings (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Sheldon et al., 2004). The weight of research indicates that developing intrinsic motivation is a universal human phenomenon (Deci & Ryan, 1991). For example, Sheldon et al. (2004) reported no differences in in-trinsic motivation across American, Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwanese cultures. It seems that students in every culture benefit more when they strive because they enjoy and identify with the process of learning rather than because they feel compelled to learn. The results also provide evidence of the relation between type of motivation and vocational identity. Flum and Blustein (2000) suggested that intrinsically motivated individuals seek self-interest and interest-relevant information that stimulates vocational identity development. The current results can be interpreted as indicating that optimism orients students to engage in career planning and exploration activities because they are personally enjoyable and meaningful rather than a response to external incentives (Scheier & Carver, 1992). In addition, intrinsic motivation leads to a positive subjective experience during task engagement (Brophy, 1999). Therefore, experiencing positive emotions from career exploration activity seems to have an important influence on the process of clarifying one’s attributes and vocational goals. In sum, the results can be considered as support for the proposition that intrinsic mo-tivation has a vital role in vocational identity development across cultures.

Moderation Effect of Family RelationsHighly functioning family systems are conceptualized as a primary sup-port for developing vocational identity (Flum, 2001). In this study, family relations emerged as a significant moderator strengthening the optimism–vocational identity link across cultures. This result is consis-tent with previous findings that a family focus and the value of inter-relatedness are not unique characteristics distinguishing individualism and collectivism (Kagitçibasi, 1997; Matsumoto, Weissman, Preston, Brown, & Kupperbusch, 1997). Thus, exploring a client’s perceived family support for vocational development is an important and necessary aspect of career counseling.

However, there were cultural differences in the associations that family relations moderated among optimism, intrinsic motivation, and vocational identity. With American college students, the significant interaction ef-fect between optimism and family relations on intrinsic motivation was evident only for students at the most positive level of family relations. Thus, American students who had an optimistic tendency had even higher levels of intrinsic motivation and vocational identity when they engaged in a family environment in which members were highly cohe-sive and expressive and low in conflict, anger, and discord. These results



suggested that in American culture, parents and family assist autonomy development by encouraging students to find their own interests and values to direct their activities and also to assume responsibility for those decisions as part of their socialization into adult work roles (Grinder, 1975). Thus, the main role of American family support seems to be to encourage students to become self-sufficient and independent.

By contrast, family relations did not moderate the link from optimism to intrinsic motivation with Korean students. Instead, family relations moderated the direct link from optimism to vocational identity. As opti-mism increased, vocational identity increased only with Korean students with the poorest quality of family relations.

The results for Korean college students are consistent with previous findings from collectivist cultures showing that family support plays an important role in career development but a less distinctive role in increasing autonomy processes leading to vocational identity formation (Kagitçibasi, 2005; Supple et al., 2009). In collectivistic cultures such as in South Korea, family support may help students to integrate their collectivistic values (i.e., filial piety, group harmony, and saving face; Supple et al., 2009) with career decision making. Perceived lack of both good family relations and an optimistic tendency may make it difficult to integrate personal and cultural values into a stable and cohesive vo-cational identity. However, the results also indicate that students with other resources in the face of poorer family relations, such as optimism, are still able to build adequate vocational identity. With the current find-ings, the extent or direction of influence between optimism and family relations is not clear. Thus, it will be beneficial for future researchers to clarify the nature of the interaction between optimism and family rela-tions within collectivistic cultures.

Practical ImplicationsThe empirical support for our hypothesized model of vocational identity suggests the importance of incorporating a systemic approach in career counseling, such as the systemic theory framework of individual and con-textual systems in careers (Zimmerman & Kontosh, 2007). Specifically, counselors can consider the following questions in assessing clients with career decision difficulties: What is the client’s outlook on life? What is the client’s dominant motivation in career decision making? How are family support and interaction patterns affecting the client? What is the client’s cultural background? As a pragmatic tool, the semistructured Career-in-Culture Interview (Ponterotto, Riversa, & Sueyoshi, 2000) can be used to elicit this information. For example, the counselor can ask clients questions such as “Do you believe/feel that you can accomplish whatever goals you set for yourself? Why or why not?” “How has your family, both immediate and extended, influenced your career goals?” or “How do your career goals match or conflict with your family’s expecta-tion?” These prompts help clients to clarify the personal and contextual forces contributing to their career concerns.

Furthermore, the current results indicate the need to consider both etic and emic phenomena in planning and implementing interventions for diverse clients (Leong & Brown, 1995). As a culturally universal phenomenon, counselors can work with clients to develop optimistic



expectations for careers (Kelly & Shin, 2009). Seligman (2006) proposed an approach to developing optimism that focuses on reconstructing three pessimistic cognitions. First, counselors must counter permanence, which is the belief that negative conditions will persist (e.g., “I will never figure out what I want to do with my life”). The second negative cognition is pervasiveness, the belief that negative conditions are universal (e.g., “I’m not surprised that I do not know what I really want to do as my career; I never do anything right”). The third cognition supporting pes-simism is personalization, the attribution of negative events to internal causes (e.g., “I chose a wrong major because I am lazy and stupid”). For example, counselors can help clients to reconstruct and reframe the negative self-talk from “I’ll never figure out what to do with my life” to “This will be temporary. I won’t always feel this way.”

In addition, the results suggest that counselors need to target intrin-sic motivation for clients with lower vocational identity (Blustein & Flum, 1999; Guay, 2005). For instance, if the client has low intrinsic motivation, the counselor needs to focus on fostering self-determined motivation. Counselors can help clients by acknowledging negative feelings, providing feedback, exploring client choices, and encouraging exploration (Guay, 2005).

Targeting family structures and relationships is also essential in in-terventions that consider both culture-universal and culture-specific phenomena. In this study, the moderation effect of family relations on vocational identity was common for both American and Korean college students but affected vocational identity development differently in the two cultures. With the American students, family relations moderated the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation leading to higher vocational identity for students with the most positive family relations. The results highlighted the importance of both independence and interdependence in developing vocational identity in American culture. Thus, family relations can be considered as a useful focus in counseling to increase intrinsic motivation for American college clients.

There were distinct findings for the Korean students. Regardless of their level of optimism, Korean students with cohesive, expressive, and low-conflict families tended to demonstrate positive vocational identity development. However, the combination of relationship difficulties and lack of optimism seemed to hinder vocational identity development because these students had (a) negative and pessimistic views about the future and (b) a limited support system. K. H. Lee (2001) suggested that career exploration and vocational identity formation prepare ado-lescents and young adults for becoming members of the working world with a sense of belongingness in collectivistic cultures. The combina-tion of pessimism and low family support seems to be associated with uncertainty about one’s ability to connect with others and be a good group member, which is essential for developing vocational identity within Korean culture. Therefore, culturally competent career counsel-ors can use a collectivistic approach of exploring (a) family involvement in career planning; (b) family expectations, obligations, and sacrifices; and (c) group decision-making processes and dynamics (Lowe, 2005). This approach can help Korean clients feel acknowledged and validated, particularly for their concerns related to their vocational identity.



In sum, addressing family issues is a mixture of etic and emic phenomena within career counseling. An understanding of family systems theory can help counselors decide whether (a) a poorly formed vocational identity can be ad-dressed by considering family influence as an additional resource or (b) family issues should be addressed as a main target of intervention as part of career counseling (Alderfer, 2004). In addition, the effect sizes of this study with both populations for mediation and moderated mediation effects ranged from .31 to .38. Given Kenny’s (2011) suggestion that .25 is a large enough effect size to interpret indirect effects, such as mediation and moderated mediation effects, we believe that our results are clinically significant.

limitations and Future DirectionsThere were three major limitations to this study. The first concerns the representativeness of the sample. We based our study on two assump-tions. The first is that American culture is typically individualistic and Korean culture is typically collectivistic, which has been a common as-sumption in cross-cultural, social, and psychological research (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The second assumption was that people in the same culture are largely homogeneous, also a common assumption in cross-cultural research (Triandis, 1995). The cultural differences in this study are generally consistent with the majority of findings demonstrating cultural variations in interpersonal relations and career decision-making processes (Kagitçibasi, 1997). However, we cannot ignore the possibil-ity that individual differences within the American and Korean samples may have influenced the data. For example, the American sample was not homogeneous in terms of racial and ethnic differences, even though 80% of the sample was Caucasian. The Korean sample also may not be considered as a homogeneous group given the influence of Western culture and rapid socioeconomic changes in South Korea. Thus, future research needs to consider both between- and within-group differences when investigating the cross-cultural differences.

The second limitation was that our instruments were developed in the West and translated into Korean. Even though many studies have provided evidence about the validity and reliability of the instruments we used in this study, there is no guarantee that the questionnaires captured the exact same construct for both groups. There are no easy or right answers in attempting to understand cultural similarity and dif-ferences by using scientific methodology. However, the use of different research methods (e.g., conducting qualitative research, using culture-specific measurements) in future research will provide a complementary understanding of the cultural differences in psychological constructs and processes and challenge assumptions about universality.

Third, our study used a correlational design, inferring causality within the moderated mediation model. However, the actual causal mediation and moderation effects cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional design. Thus, longitudinal or experimental studies are needed to confirm the chronological mediating and moderating factors to facilitate a better understanding of the processes involved in the development of vocational identity.

Despite these limitations, the present study was fruitful in exploring the influence of different layers of individual and contextual factors on vocational identity development across cultures. We believe our approach



is among the first to examine how individual and environmental factors systemically interact and influence vocational identity development, sug-gesting the importance of using both cultural-universal and cultural-specific intervention with diverse clients. The results of our study demonstrated that a moderated mediation model is useful when conceptualizing the potential etiological relationships among optimism, intrinsic motivation, family relations, and vocational identity development. Further research is needed for continued testing of the hypothesized impact of both individual and contextual factors on career decision-making processes.

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APPENDIx

Procedure Used to Create the Korean Version of the Survey and the Pilot Study Results

For measures published only in English, we created a Korean version by following the steps suggested by Ægisdóttir, Gerstein, and Çinarbas (2008). First, the English version of each measurement was translated to Korean by two doctoral-level bilingual students who were fluent in Korean and English. Second, the Korean version of the measurement was back-translated to English by two different doctoral-level bilingual students fluent in Korean and English.

Third, the original and back-translated English versions were compared by two doctoral-level students who are native English speakers. Back-translation procedures may lead to literal translation at the expense of readability and naturalness of the translated version. Knowledge of the theoretical constructs and of assessment is essential to minimize item biases that may result from literal translations. Thus, back-translators were doctoral students who had studied in psychology-based areas (e.g., clinical, counseling, family therapy) for at least 2 years. When the two English versions of the scale (e.g., original and back-translated versions) did not seem comparable, the translators worked on the translation until an equivalent transition was achieved.

Fourth, a pilot study was conducted by using the original and back-translated versions with college students at Purdue University to check for consistency of responses. This pretest procedure was used as evidence of the equivalence of the original and translated versions. The item response was compared using statistical methods (e.g., t test). When item differences were discovered between versions of the instrument, the translations were reviewed and changed accordingly.

Specifically, the pilot study participants were 45 college students at a large U.S. midwestern university. Among the participants, there were 87% European American, 7% African American, 3% Latino American, and 3% Asian American students. The mean age of students was 20.90 years (SD = 3.31).To confirm that the Korean and English versions of the questionnaires measured the same content, we used paired-samples t tests to compare the original English and back-translated English questionnaire scores. There were no significant differences between the overall scale scores of the original and back-translated versions of four different instruments. Thus, we believe that the transla-tion procedure was quite clear and accurate by following the recommended translation procedure (Ægisdóttir et al., 2008).


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