Abstract
This study examined the relationship between assumed competence based on undervaluing others, and negative images of getting a full-time job, which influences the difficulty of career choice. University students (N=339) completed scales that measured self-esteem, assumed competence, images of getting a full-time job, and time perspective. Combining the tendency to undervalue others and level of self-esteem, we classified the participants into four competence types: omnipotence, assumption, self-esteem, and atrophy. The main results were as follows. Students who were classified as an assumption type were more likely than those classified in the self-esteem type to have a negative image of getting a full-time job, and to have a negative time perspective on experiences from the past to the future. The results imply that for the students classified as the assumption type, undervaluing of others is generalized to their negative image of getting a full-time job. In addition, their negative image of getting a full-time job plays a self-defensive role in maintaining their minimal self-evaluation.
