Content provided in partnership with

Factors related to indecisiveness and career indecision in undecided college students

Journal of College Student Development, May/Jun 2002 by Gaffner, David C, Hazler, Richard J

Undergraduates (56 F, 55 M), ages 18 to 21, from a small, private Mid-western university of 2, 700 completed the Career Factors Inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the Career Decisions Difficulties Questionnaire to explore the relationship between career indecisiveness and 4 personality types, lack of career readiness, inadequacy of information, and difficulty in decision making. Results identified lack of career readiness to be a better single predictor of indecisiveness than any combination of variables.

More Articles of Interest: Exploring the Relationship between Career Indecision and Career Exploration...; The relationship of attachment variables to career decision-making...; Career choice anxiety, coping, and perceived control - Articles; Cultural dimensions of career decision-making difficulties; Reducing adolescent career indecision: The ASVAB Career Exploration Program

Researchers have found that as little as 20% and as many as 60% of students entering college are undecided about an academic major or career choice (Gordon, 1995; Hayes, 1997). Even students with a declared major also admit to various levels of uncertainty or indecisiveness (Titley & Titley, 1980). These findings have particular significance for professionals working with college students where indecision is seen as one of the central issues of career counseling and psychology (Betz, 1992).

Career indecision has been a major concern of practitioners, researchers, and educators for many years and may now be even of greater concern because current societal trends push people to revise their career decisions over their life spans. Prior to the 1960s there was no standardized method to assess the uniqueness of career indecision with little effort being made to differentiate between indecision and indecisiveness (Osipow, 1999). This has changed in the past 2 decades because of concentrated efforts to better understand and clarify the construct of career indecision.

Research Variables

Self-efficacy, locus of control, and anxiety are factors that have come to be viewed as personality components of decision making. Research studies indicate that students with low self-efficacy will be delayed in their decision making (Betz & Voyten, 1997; Taylor & Betz, 1983) as will students with an external locus of control (Fuqua & Hartman, 1983; Lucas & Epperson, 1988, 1990). High anxiety has also been closely tied to a student' s inability to decide (Fuqua, Blum, & Hartman, 1988; Lucas & Epperson, 1988, 1990; Newman, Fuqua, & Minger, 1990). These internal factors may delay a student from making a decision, whereas other personality variables appear to be stable predispositions related to a student' s inability to make decisions (Newman et al.). Personality type dimensions such as those measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Briggs & Myers, 1977) have been suggested as potentially related to problem-solving or decision making (Huitt, 1992).

Some students that are undecided about their career have trouble with decision making (Hagstrom, Skovholt, & Rivers, 1997; Lucas & Epperson, 1988). The focus of these studies suggests significant differences among the students that are undecided, and particularly with the subgroup given the label of indecisive. Students that are indecisive are those that portray an on-going inability to form a career decision because of a psychological problem (Hartman & Fuqua, 1983) or a possible personality disorder (Greenhaus & Callahan, 1992). There is general consensus among researchers that being indecisive is something that must be addressed before resolving career decision problems (Van Matre & Cooper, 1984). These indecisive students and the personality qualities that make them unique are the focus of the current study. We explored whether a student's level of indecisiveness was related to career readiness, to career information received, to difficulty in decision making, and to the MBTI's four personality type dimensions of Extraversion-- Introversion (EI), Sensing-Intuition (SN), Thinking-Feeling (TF), and Judging-- Perceiving (JP).

El Personality Dimension

The extraversion and introversion preferences on the MBTI have to do with how people find their energy. Extraverts get energy from people, activities, and things. They find stimulation outside of themselves (Hirsh & Kummerow, 1989). Introversion shows a preference for getting energy from internal sources. Because introverts have an internal focus they tend to keep their thoughts and ideas to themselves.

One important study (DiRusso, Carney, & Bryan, 1995) concluded that the introverted preference types are less decisive in their thinking and prefer an introspective and cautious approach to decision making. Individuals preferring introversion will want to take time to think and clarify their ideas when solving problems (Huitt, 1992). These attitudes were found to be reflected in indecisiveness on measures of career decision (DiRusso et al.).

Extraverts are more likely to be decisive and confident than introverts and enjoy closure as well as making things happen (Provost & Anchors, 1987). The difficulty for extraverts is that they may decide prematurely. They may not take the time to gather information and consider possibilities and therefore become dissatisfied with their college major after a short time.

SN Personality Dimension

Factors related to indecisiveness and career indecision in undecided college students

Journal of College Student Development, May/Jun 2002 by Gaffner, David C, Hazler, Richard J

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Business

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference