Associate Professor of Institute of Arts and Sciences (Career psychology)

YAMAMOTO Minako

What is important for college students’ careers

Career education, which I am in charge of, has two goals: for students to value their own identity and for them to be able to act confidently. If identity and confidence are lacking, students will not be motivated to make choose their future path despite having spent time in college. Therefore, we focus on their internal career.

Verifying the effectiveness of a psychological approach to career education

In career education classes, students better understand their identity and increase their self-confidence by working on communication skills and the three elements of an internal career: what they want to do, what they can do, and what is important to them. Changes in feelings are not visible during this work, statistical analysis reveals whether career education classes increase (1) self-esteem, which is valuing oneself, and (2) self-efficacy, which is the belief that one can do something if one puts one’s
mind to it.We are also following up with
students who have taken the classes to verify
whether their self-esteem andself-efficacy are
maintained.

Career education for students with developmental disabilities

Based on previous research, we are also planning to provide career education for students with developmental disabilities in the future. We hope to enhance the strengths of students with developmental disabilities and increase the potential of each individual.