Characteristics of Achieving Goals in the Professional Activity of Young People: the Relationship with the Level of Self-Efficacy and Locus of Control

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with the relationship of self-efficacy and internal locus of control with the characteristics of achieving goals in the professional activities of young people. The work is relevant because of the sufficient establishment of the specific factors that ensure a person's rapid and successful achievement of goals. The article expands the understanding of the factors of achievement of goals in professional activity, which can be useful for employees and managers to increase the effectiveness of professional personnel.Purpose: to study the relationship of self-efficacy and internal locus of control with the characteristics of young people's goals achievement in professional activity.Materials and methods. The study sample consisted of 57 people, among whom 84.2% were girls, 15.8% were boys, aged 18 to 31 years, with work experience from several months to 12 years. In the course of the study, we used the following methods: "The General Self-Efficacy Scale", "Rotter's Locus of Control Scale", and our questionnaire.Results. As a result of the use of correlation analysis, several significant relationships were found between the level of self-efficacy and subjective assessments of achieving one's goals. In particular, there are direct relationship between self-efficacy with the assessment of one's professional achievements in the past (0.411), with the strength of motivation from the words of approval of colleagues (0.443) and with a calm psychological state when performing professional tasks in the course of achieving goals (0.413).Discussion. One of the significant elements of self-efficacy is a positive self-attitude, which is formed, on the one hand, from a high assessment of one's successes in the past and, on the other hand, from words of support from colleagues and friends. The data obtained by us indicate the significant role of the presence of achievements in the experience and the perception of this experience as successful in the formation of self-efficacy, which in turn affects goal-setting. This is consistent with the data that purposefulness depends on a person's belief in their strength and luck.