Die Psychologie der Karriereentwicklung: Wie beeinflussen psychologische Konstrukte beruflichen Erfolg und Misserfolg? Eine empirische Untersuchung zu Selbstzweifeln, Perfektionismus, Zielorientierung und Selbstwirksamkeit bei Berufstätigen

In a changing world of work, career success is no longer determined solely by objective criteria such as salary or promotion, but increasingly by subjective evaluations such as job satisfaction, personal goal attainment, and self-fulfillment. Against this background, the concept of subjective career success and failure has gained growing attention. The present study examined the influence of selected psychological constructs - self-efficacy, learning goal orientation, self-doubt and maladaptive perfectionism - on the subjective experience of career success or failure among employed individuals. It was hypothesized that self-efficacy and learning goal orientation are positively related to subjective professional success, while self-doubt and maladaptive perfectionism are positively associated with subjective career failure. The results largely confirm these assumptions: Self-efficacy showed a significant positive correlation with subjective career success, while both self-doubt and maladaptive perfectionism were significant predictors of subjective career failure. No significant correlation was found between learning goal orientation and subjective career success. The findings underline the relevance of psychological constructs for the subjective experience of career success and failure and provide initial indications of potential starting points for promoting occupational self-efficacy as well as for preventive approaches to dealing with self-doubt and maladaptive perfectionism.