Date of Award

9-1-1992

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Abstract

Researchers have suggested that the structure of career indecision is complex, and that it exists in different forms. However, the dimensions underlying that structure and the different patterns of career indecision which have been hypothesized to exist have not yet been satisfactorily identified. Several researchers have suggested that personality dimensions might play an important role in defining the different forms. The purpose of this study was two-fold: to identify different patterns of career indecision among a sample of college students; and second, to examine the relationship between career indecision and personality dimensions.The items of three career indecision instruments (My Vocational Situation, The Career Decision Scale, and The Vocational Decision Scale) were combined, and a principal component analysis was performed to identify dimensions underlying those measures. The seven varimax-rotated components of the selected solution were labeled Discomfort with Decision; Need to Narrow; Lack of Self-assurance; Need for Information; Conflict with Significant Others; Difficulty with Decisions; and Problems Implementing a Choice.Scores on the components were then utilized in Ward's (1963) minimum variance clustering technique and an eight cluster solution was selected. The career indecision groups were titled: Indecisive Information Seekers; Decided with No Problems; Information Seeking Narrowers; In Conflict; Immobilized by Barriers; Information Seekers; Confident Narrowers; and Self-doubters.Finally, the relationship between career indecision and personality variables was examined. Correlations between participant scores on the fifteen scales of the Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI) and the seven components were modest. Canonical analysis of the set of career indecision components and the JPI scales resulted in two significant canonical variates being identified, but the two JPI canonical variates account for less than ten percent of the variance of the set of career indecision components. Multivariate analysis of variance and follow-up univariate ANOVAs of JPI scores by career indecision groups suggested that the relationship between career indecision pattern and personality is statistically significant, but of little practical value.

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