The relationship between race and students' identified career role models and perceived role model influence.

The authors examined whether college students' race was related to the modal race of their identified career role models, the number of identified career role models, and their perceived influence from such models. Consistent with A. Bandura's (1977, 1986) social learning theory, students tended to have role models whose race was the same as their own, and this finding held among career role models who were not members of students' families. Caucasian and racial minority students did not differ respecting overall number of, and perceived influence from, career role models. Career intervention and research implications are discussed.

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Understanding more about the unique issues and concerns of racial/ethnic minorities is important (Bowman, 1993; Chung, Baskin, & Case, 1999). Because they may face stereotyping, discrimination, and environmental barriers, individuals who are racial/ethnic minorities may experience unique career development challenges (Herr & Cramer, 1997). For example, a scarcity of same-race role models may be a barrier to some racial minority individuals' career development (Bright, Duefield, & Stone, 1998; Chung et al., 1999; Haas & Sullivan, 1991; Hamann & Walker, 1993) because there are disproportionately fewer racial minority professionals in many career fields and academic settings (Fouad, 1995). The assumptions behind this theoretical postulate are that role models of one's own race serve functions that models of a different racial/ethnic background do not serve and that people consider race when selecting career role models. However, although they may be theoretically likely, these assumptions have not been tested empirically. The purpose of this study was to examine how frequently college students' career role models are of a similar race/ethnicity as that of the student and to determine whether there are differences in the extent of influence from career role models among college students from different racial/ethnic groups.

Role Model Influences on Academic and Career Decision Making

Social learning theory (e.g., Bandura, 1977, 1986) suggests that people learn from watching others. Individuals' career decisions may be facilitated by role models--persons who are deemed worthy of emulation (Pleiss & Feldhusen, 1995)--because these individuals provide information about the outcomes associated with pursuing a particular career field and illustrate how to cope with career decision-making tasks (e.g., Hackett & Betz, 1981; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Indeed, research has documented a relationship between role model influences and a variety of outcomes such as career salience, educational aspirations, and college major choices (Hackett, Esposito, & O'Halloran, 1989); perceived career information and career indecision (Nauta & Kokaly, 2001); and attitudes toward nontraditional careers (A. L. Greene, Sullivan, & Beyard-Tyler, 1982; Hackett et al., 1989; Savenye, 1992).

Role models may be especially important for minority individuals' career development because a history of discrimination and limited career options may have decreased their self-efficacy and outcome expectations, leading some minorities to have lower educational and career aspirations (B. A. Greene, 1990; Hackett & Byars, 1996). Social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994) suggests that role models who have been successful in their careers may serve as a contextual support that would increase such individuals' self-efficacy and outcome expectations, thereby increasing aspirations toward and persistence in various educational and career realms. Assibey-Mensah (1997) suggested that minorities may also internalize societal stereotypes that need to be dispelled by powerful role models. Finally, Hackett and Byars (1996) posited that minority individuals may especially benefit from role models who illustrate successful coping strategies for dealing with frustrations encountered as a result of bias and discrimination. In fact, there is empirical support for the positive effects of role model influences on racial minority students' academic performance and achievement-related goals (Zirkel, 2002).

The Similarity Hypothesis and Individuals' Selections of Role Models

Several theorists (e.g., Bandura, 1977, 1986; Gottfredson, 1981; Hackett & Byars, 1996) have argued that individuals seek career role models whom they perceive as similar to them regarding some easily identifiable characteristics because they assume that such role models' experiences would apply to their own lives as well. In other words, a role model will be inspirational only to the degree that a person is able to identify with that model, and "evidence that dissimilar persons succeed from time to time does not necessarily persuade observers that they, too, can attain such outcomes from their efforts" (Bandura, 1986, p. 302). This thought is known as the similarity hypothesis. With respect to gender, the similarity hypothesis has been well supported by empirical data (Basow & Howe, 1979; Erkut & Mokros, 1984; Gilbert, 1985).

There is also some evidence that individuals identify more with same-race role models and that same-race models are beneficial. For example, Killian (1988) found that when given a choice to emulate various adult models in singing, children tended to prefer same-race models. Other studies have shown that children identify most with same-race television characters (King & Multon, 1996) and sports heroes (Cooper, Livingood, & Kurz, 1981). Ethnically matched models have also been shown to be more effective than ethnically different models in increasing self-efficacy for breast self-examinations and in reducing gender-stereotyped attitudes about nontraditional careers (Haas & Sullivan, 1991). Finally, in a 2-year longitudinal study, Zirkel (2002) found that adolescents who had at least one race-and gender-matched role model demonstrated better academic performance and had more achievement-related goals than did students without a race- and gender-matched role model; these effects were not found for non-gender-matched role models.

Purpose of This Study

Although Haas and Sullivan (1991) and Zirkel (2002) examined the relative impact of racially matched and unmatched role models on education and career-related outcomes among adolescents, no studies have been done to determine whether the race-similarity hypothesis holds regarding the types of career role models that young adults generally select. Moreover, we were unable to find empirical efforts to determine whether Caucasian and racial minority individuals do, in fact, differ in the number of career role models they choose and in the extent of influence from these career role models. Because verifying unique aspects of the experiences of minority individuals would have implications for career interventions and programs, we sought to explore potential differences between the experiences of Caucasian and racial minority college students regarding the influences of role models.

Our first research question was whether the race-similarity hypothesis would be supported with respect to students' identified career role models. Our prediction was that there would be a relationship between students' race and the predominant (modal) race of their identified career role models. Our second research question was whether racial minority individuals have fewer career role models and perceive less role model influence when making career decisions. On the basis of the similarity hypothesis and findings that minority individuals are underrepresented in many career fields, we expected that minority students would report having fewer career role models and would report less influence from career role models than would their peers in the racial/ethnic majority.

Method

Participants

Participants were 220 students attending a large midwestern university (with a typical racial/ethnic minority enrollment of approximately 15%) who participated in exchange for extra course credit in one of several psychology classes. There were no restrictions for participation, but because we needed to ensure an adequate racial minority student representation for the study, we oversampled this population by allotting additional sign-up spaces for non-Caucasian students. Among the final sample were 152 (69%) women and 61 (28%) men; 7 (3%) students did not indicate their gender. One hundred twenty-four (56%) students self-identified as Caucasian/European American, 69 (31%) as Black/African American, 19 (9%) as Hispanic/Latino, 1 (1%) as Pacific Islander, 4 (2%) as "other," and 3 (1%) did not indicate their race. There were 15 (7%) freshmen, 54 (25%) sophomores, 77 (35%) juniors, 69 (31%) seniors, and 5 (2%) students who did not indicate their year in school.

Measures