The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among Neuroticism, dysfunctional career thoughts, and coping in the context of career decision making and problem solving. While research had shown connections between Neuroticism and coping, as well as between Neuroticism and dysfunctional career thoughts, no research had yet examined Neuroticism, dysfunctional thinking and coping in the context of career decision making. Thus, the research question was, "In the context of career problem solving and decision making, what are the relationships among Neuroticism, dysfunctional career thoughts, and coping strategies?" Two hundred and thirty-two undergraduate students registered for introductory career development classes at a large research university participated in a one-time survey procedure. The NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO: FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1992) was used to measure Neuroticism. Dysfunctional career thoughts (decision making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict) were measured with the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, & Saunders, 1996). Task-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance-oriented coping strategies were measured with the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations: Situation Specific Coping (CISS: SSC; Endler & Parker, 1999). Canonical correlation, hierarchical multiple regression, multiple regression, MANOVA, and ANOVA were used to explore the relationships among the variables. Canonical correlation results supported a multivariate relationship between Neuroticism and dysfunctional career thoughts as a set and coping strategies as a set. Hierarchical multiple regression results showed statistically significant R2 relationships between Neuroticism and all types of coping, and between Neuroticism and dysfunctional career thoughts as a set of independent variables and all types of coping. There was little unique variance contribution of dysfunctional career thoughts in the hierarchical multiple regression analysis. However, when coping styles were considered as a set in other statistical analyses, dysfunctional career thoughts contributed to the relationships among Neuroticism, dysfunctional career thoughts, and coping. Multiple regression analyses showed two slight mediating effects of dysfunctional career thoughts on the relationship between Neuroticism and coping. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are presented. The results suggest that the relationships among the variables appear to be complex and could benefit from further investigation. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2005. / June 10, 2005. / Coping, Career Thoughts, Thinking, Negative Thinking, Career Decision Making, Personality, Stress, Career Counseling / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert C. Reardon, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela L. Perrewé, Outside Committee Member; James P. Sampson, Jr., Committee Member; Gary W. Peterson, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_176383 |
| Contributors | Reed, Corey A. (authoraut), Reardon, Robert C. (professor directing dissertation), Perrewé, Pamela L. (outside committee member), Sampson, James P. (committee member), Peterson, Gary W. (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds