ABSTRACT
The process of career decision-making is an important experience in the period of adolescence, often manifested by decision-making difficulties. This chapter analyzes the influence of trait emotional intelligence (EI) in the process of career decision-making, especially on career decision-making difficulties, general self-efficacy, and career decision self-efficacy, assessed in a sample of 322 Slovak high-school students before their second career choice. The measures used were The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form, The Emotional and Personality Difficulties Scale, The General Self-Efficacy Scale, and The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form. The correlation analysis showed negative relations between global career decision-making difficulties and both self-efficacy measures (general and career decision), positive relations between the two self-efficacy measures and trait EI, and negative relations between trait EI and global career decision-making difficulties, and its factors. The findings support the role of trait EI as a predictor of the pervasive stable emotional, and personality-related aspects of career decision-making difficulties (as defined in the model by Saka, Gati, and Kelly) over and above the personality-related and career-related constructs of self-efficacy. The results empirically support the relevance of both trait EI and self-efficacy (general and career decision) in the career decision-making process, with practical implications for diagnostics and intervention within career counseling, as a means to strengthen the effectiveness of the process of career decision-making in career choice and in career development.
