Research on career indecision has ranged from studying its relation to anxiety and other emotional concerns, to career choice type and locus of control. Although studies have been conducted examining the relationship between career indecision and personality, all have focused on the Big Five personality traits without delving into the facets of personality. This study examined relationships between career indecision and the constructs of personality facets, trait anxiety and depression, and state anxiety and depression. Personality facets including trait anxiety and depression were studied using the Big Five facets measured by the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg, 1999). Career indecision was studied using the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976). Finally, state anxiety and depression were studied using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995a). The results reported herein indicate that personality facets, state anxiety, and state depression are all significantly related to career indecision, with state anxiety and depression contributing a significant amount of incremental variance in career indecision above and beyond trait anxiety and depression. Future research and clinical implications are also discussed.

Magister Commercii - MCom / One of the most important decisions adolescents are confronted with in the transitioning period from high school to tertiary institutions, is making career decisions. Young adults and adolescents may experience high levels of stress when they are expected to make decisions pertaining to a desired career. The stressful period may be too overwhelming for them.As a result it may have adverse implications on the quality of their career choice. The applicability of career indecision amongst undergraduate university students is considered an inability to choose a university major or occupation (Brogan & Hiebert, 2006).According to Creed, Patton and Prideaux (2006), career indecision is linked to issues related to career development and problems in making career related decisions, society’s expectations and perceptions, as well as the role of the family which may have an impact on the student’s ability to make career choices. In a study conducted by Creed and Patton (2003) it was revealed that age, gender and career indecision were predictors of career maturity knowledge. Joordan, Smithard and Burger (2009) postulate that career indecision influences career related thoughts and career decisions and plays an important role in the way individuals formulate career goals. Gordon and Meyer (2002) are of the view that it is not atypical for individuals to experience a certain level of developmental career indecision, this may be resultant to not having adequate experience and sufficient knowledge pertaining to the world of work. Developmental career indecision amongst students is viewed as a wholesome state which may ultimately prompt the student to explore careers and set goals (Feldt,2010).Brown, Brooks and Associates (1996), delineate that a career choice is an act which replicate an individual’s motivation. This action compels the individual to work toward their goals and to achieve it. As students venture on attaining their goal (career choice) they are confronted with many challenges, some of which include the transition from secondary school to tertiary level and the adaptation to an academic environment.This emphasizes the importance of career guidance, and that it should not be neglected. Stead and Watson (1999) conducted a study on first year university students in the Western Cape which revealed that students from disadvantaged schools were unable to choose study directions at tertiary level due to negligence of not providing career guidance at school level.Resultant to this, students were not afforded the opportunity to make informed decisions pertaining to career choices. Brown et al. (1996) presume the more informed an individual is about career choices and their abilities, the more likely they are to make career choices as they are more prepared to do so.The current study aimed to examine career indecision experienced by undergraduate university students at an academic institution in the Western Cape. The study examined the differences in career indecision based on gender and age, it also examined the relationship between a lack of information and career indecision and lastly access to a career counsellor and career indecision. A biographical questionnaire and the Career Decision Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) were administered to undergraduate university students. The sample (n = 224) consisted of first, second and third year male and female undergraduate commerce students. The results indicated that there are significant differences in career decision making based on gender and age. In addition, the results revealed that there is a moderate relationship between lack of information and career indecision and findings also indicated a significant relationship between access to a career counsellor and career indecision.The results of the current study should however, be interpreted with caution as a convenience sampling strategy was utilized thus limiting generalizabilty to the broader population of students. Furthermore limitations are put forth and the study concludes with recommendations for further research and for academic institutions for consideration.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference between Black and White 9th grade suburban students in regard to career indecision and certainty, and to determine what relationship exists between career indecision/certainty, motivational level, locus of control, and attributional style. The sample size of this study was 95 ninth grade students from a Seminole County high school in the state of Florida. Some of the demographic variables taken into account for this study were student socioeconomic status, involvement in special programming at school (i.e. Exceptional Education, or Advanced Placement), parental education level, and parental occupation. The data in this study was collected through the use of the Career Decision Scale (CDS), Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (CASQ-R), Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal External Locus of Control Scale (CNISE), and the Five Item Polarized Motivation Scale. The results of this study came as a result of the use of an ANOVA and Mann Whitney test, as well as a series of simple linear regression analyses. The ANOVA and Mann Whitney test determined if there was a difference in career indecision/ certainty level based on race. The linear regression analysis compared the variables of career indecision/certainty, motivation level, attributional style, and locus of control to uncover any predictive relationships. Post hoc analyses were also conducted to determine if the variables of motivational level, locus of control, attributional style, and career indecision/certainty are predictors for race. The results of the data indicate that there is no statistical significance between race and career indecision between Black and White students. Also the results uncovered the only predictive relationships among the variables existed between career certainty and motivation, career indecision and attributional style, and locus of control and attributional style. The post hoc analyses uncovered that race cannot be predicted by any of the variables in this study. This study is exploratory in nature and should be replicated with the use of a larger sample size to further explore this phenomenon.

abstract: ABSTRACT Perfectionism has been conceptualized as a relatively stable, independent, multidimensional personality construct in research during the last two decades. Despite general agreement that perfectionism is dimensional in nature, analyses using these instruments vacillate between a dimensional approach and a categorical approach (Broman-Fulks, Hill, & Green, 2008; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). The goal of the current study was two-fold. One aim was to examine the structural nature of two commonly used measures of perfectionism, the APS-R and the HFMPS. Latent class and factor analyses were conducted to determine the dimensions and categories that underlie the items of these two instruments. A second aim was to determine whether perfectionism classes or perfectionism factors better predicted 4 criterion variables of career indecision. Results lent evidence to the claim that both the APS-R and HFMPS are best used as dimensional, rather than categorical instruments. From a substantive perspective, results indicated that both positive and negative aspects of perfectionism successfully predicted career indecision factors. The study concludes with a discussion of limitations, and implications for future research and counseling individuals with career indecision concerns. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2013

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Career indecision is one of the key aspects that professionals in career guidance counselling are interested in assessing. Career indecision, in the context of university students has been defined as the "inability to select a university major or occupation" (Borgen & Hiebert,2006, p. 58). Thus, with the purpose of addressing career indecision, the proposed study would examine the nature thereof amongst prospective university students. The prevalence of specific aspects of career maturity (namely, self-information, decision-making, career information,integration of self-information and career information, and career planning) underlying career indecision will be investigated, as well as the correlations between these aspects. In addition, the correlations between the aspects of career maturity and certain biographical variables such as gender, home language, declared career choice, differentiation of interests, and self-reported level of career indecision will be examined. Thus, career indecision is encapsulated as either a trait or state an individual encompasses. The term career indecision has been widely used with reference to problems relating to career development, particularly problems in making career-related decisions. The construct of career indecision is strongly coupled with society's expectations of certain chosen career paths and a strong belief that many should pursue these careers. Therefore, current societal trends push people to revise their career decisions over their life spans. As a result the perceptions and expectations that society holds can gravely impact a student's level of career readiness and the lack thereof. Furthermore, the role of the family as a fundamental influence on the career development of adolescents and young adults has been stressed by some classic theories of career development and choice. However, the exact nature and degree of the family's influence on career decision making is not completely understood. Thus, cognizance should be taken of the fact that there are multiple facets impacting on the levels of career indecision experienced by some and not all, prospective university students. Furthermore, deciding on a career is an most important aspect of individual's development and satisfaction and establishing what they are suited to do, and securing an opportunity to do it, is imperative to an individual's life goals. A biographical and Career Decision Making Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to respondents. The sample group (N=200) consists of Grade 10, 11 and 12 male and female students from model c, private and lower income schools in the Somerset West District in the Western Cape. Future research on career decision making difficulties experienced by students could yield interesting insights into the causes of these factors. The results indicate that irrespective of the type of high school these students attended, indecision exists and is prevalent amongst many students. Notwithstanding the insights derived from the current research, results need to be interpreted with caution since a convenience sample was used, therefore restricting the generalizability to the wider population of students.

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abstract: The present study of two hundred and seven university students examined the structural relation of future-orientation (both valence and instrumentality), career decision-making self-efficacy and career indecision (choice/commitment anxiety and lack of readiness). Structural equation modeling results indicated that while the overall proposed model fit the data well, my hypotheses were partially supported. Valence was not significantly related to career decision-making self-efficacy, choice/commitment anxiety and lack of readiness. However, instrumentality completely mediated the relation between valence and career decision-making self-efficacy, choice/commitment anxiety and lack of readiness. Instrumentality was significantly related to career decision-making self-efficacy and lack of readiness. Career decision-making self-efficacy completely mediated the relation between instrumentality and choice/commitment anxiety; however, it only partially mediated the relation between instrumentality and lack of readiness. Although the proposed model was invariant across gender, the findings indicate that women reported higher instrumentality and lower lack of readiness than did men. No differences were found for career decision-making self-efficacy and choice/commitment anxiety across gender. The findings suggest that psychologists, counselors, teachers, and career interventionists should consider the role future time perspective in university students' career development. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2014

abstract: The current study investigated the dynamic interplay of career decision ambiguity tolerance and career indecision over three assessment times in a sample of college students (n=583). While the previous research has repeatedly shown an association of career decision ambiguity tolerance with career indecision, the direction of this association has not been adequately assessed with longitudinal investigation. It was hypothesized in this study that there is a reciprocal pattern of career decision ambiguity tolerance leading to subsequent career indecision and career indecision leading to subsequent career decision ambiguity tolerance. Using a cross-lagged panel design, this study found support for the reciprocal pattern that aversion with ambiguity led to increased negative experience, choice anxiety, and lack of readiness in career decision making, while negative experience, choice anxiety, and lack of readiness led to increased aversion with ambiguity as well. Additionally, this study revealed that choice anxiety and readiness for career decision making led to increased interests in new information. The key findings were discussed with respect to the theoretical and clinical implications for career counseling along with limitations and suggestions for future research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2017

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