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Availableonline at www.sciencedirect.com

JournalofVocational Behavior 71 (20 07 )340 358

www.elsevi er.com/locate/jvb

Emotionaland pe rso na lity -re late daspectsofpersistentca ree rde cision -m ak ingdifficult ies

q

Noa Sakaa, ItamarGati

b,*

aDepar tmentofEducation,The H ebr ewUn ivers ity of Jerusalem,Jeru sa lem91 90 5,

Israelb

Depar tmentofPsychology, The H ebre wUn ivers ityof Jerusalem,Jerus alem91 90 5,

Israel

Rece ived2 2 May 2007

Available online22 August

2007

Abstract

This s tudy focused on examining the pers istentaspe cts of career decision-makingdifficult ies,usingthe Em otiona lan d Pers ona lity-relatedCareerdecis ion-makingDifficultiessca le(EPCD ;[Saka,N., Gati, I., & Kelly, K.R. (in press).Emotionaland personal i ty-re latedaspectsofcaree rdec ision-m akingdiffi culties. JournalofCareer Asse ssme nt]).The contributionoffourpe rson alitym ea su res ge ne ralindecisiveness, se l f -esteem,tra it anxiety,and ident i tystatusto the predictionofpe rsisten tcar ee rdecis ion-makingdifficult ieswastestedon 747students ,us inga longitudinaldesign. Re sultsindicate dtha t individ ualsw ith high EPCD scoresat thebeginningofth eaca de m icscho ol yea rha d less co nfid enc ein their cho iceand w erelesscloseto making a dec isionabo ut the m ajorinto wh ich they wa ntedto be admittedat the end ofth e yea r. The m ode ratecorrelat ionsbetw eenthe EPCD score and the four personalitym ea sur essu pp orte dthe va lidity ofth e EPCD.Implicationsfor cou nse lingan d future researchare disc us sed . 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Ke yw ords: Care erdec isionm ak ing;Ca ree rde cisio n-making diffi cu lties ;Careerindecision;Careerindecisiveness ;Em ot ional an d pe rsonality-re latedca ree rdiffi cu lties sca le ;EPCD

Career indecision is o ft en m a n ifeste d as diffi culties en coun te red wh i le mak ingcareer- re lateddecis ions (Chartrand, Rose, Elliot, Marmarosh, & Caldwell, 1 9 9 3 ;Gati,Krausz,

qThis rese arc hwa ssu pp ortedby the IsraelScien ceFoundation. We thank Ruth Butler, ChaniEtengoff,Reum a Gadassi , N aom i Goldblum, ValentinaIzrai levitch, Kevin R. Kelly, Tali Kleiman, Lilach Sagiv,ShiriTal, and MosheTatar for thei rcommentson anearlierversionofthis article.*Corresponding au thor.Fax: +9 722 5882045.

E-mai l address:ita m ar .gat [email protected]. il ( I.Gati).

0001-8791/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.08.003
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N. Saka,I. Gati /JournalofVocat ionalB ehavior7 1 (2 007)340 358 3 41

& Osipow , 199 6;Leon g & Chervinko, 199 6;Osipo w , Carney, & Barak, 1976). Itusually refersto prob lems tha t ne edto be addre ssedprior to or durin gthe dec ision-makingpro-ce ss .Th e sig nificance ofca reerind ecision in vocat ional p sych olog yhasbeen highlighted by theoreticians, researchers, and caree r cou nselors (e.g., Betz,1992;Campbell & Cellini,1 9 8 1 ;Gati et al . , 19 96 ;Jepse n& Di lley , 1974 ;Leong & Chervinko, 1996;Osipow,1999 ;Rounds & Tinsley , 1984; Sa n to s,200 1 ;S lan ey ,1988 ;Tinsley,1 9 92) .

In add ition , the dis tinction b etwee ntem porary , develo pmen ta l ind ecision an dmore ch ronic, pe rva sive indecis ive ne ssco ntin ue s to be a sign ific ant focus ofvocational and ed u- cat ional-decision rese arch (Cal lahan & Gre e nhaus, 1 99 2;G ermei js and De-Boeck, 2 0 0 2 ;Cohen,Chartrand, & Jowdy,1995;Kelly & Lee, 2002;Santos, 2 0 01) . The te rm develop -m ental indecis ion has generally beenusedto refertothenormative vocational deve lopmentphase that is resolve d fairly easilyfor mostyoung adult s(Betz & Ser ling, 199 3;Slaney,1 9 8 8 ;Meldahl & Muchinsky,1997). In contrast to developmental indecision,careerinde-cisiveness involves m ore pervasive , se ve re, and ch ronic d iffi cu ltie s in makingcaree r dec i- sions (Meldahl & Muchinsky, 1 99 7; O sip ow , 1 999). Careerindecis ivenessis appar ently p rese n tin a smallergroup of ind iv iduals , charac te rizedby high lev els ofan xie ty ,negat ive th inking about the se lfand th e choic e pro cess,and a diffused senseofpersonalidentity(Co he net al., 1995; Ch art ran det a l ., 19 93;Meldahl & Muchinsky, 1 9 97) .

Career decision-m aking diffi cultie s th at stem from em otional and personality -related sources are am on g the m ore signific antdiffi culties college students face(Amir & Gati,2 0 0 6 ;Amir, Gati, & Kleiman, in press ;Gati & Amir, su bmitte d for publication;Gati et al., 19 96 ;S ak a et al., in press ; Santos , 2001). These d iffi culties are consideredby careercounselors to be more s ev erethan info rm ation-relate d diffi culties (Gati,Amir, & Tal,2007), and are perc eived as hav ing im portan t c onseq uen ce sfor the clients ca ree rdeci-sion-m ak ing and the co unselin g proc ess. In addition, somedifficulties preventconclusive decis ions and req uire lon g-te rminterven tions that freque ntly excee dth escopeofcare erco unse lors a nd care er-co unseling cente rs s er vice s (Gatiet a l., 2007).The goal of the pre s-en t rese arc hw as to e nhan ce our un de rstan d ingofemotional

and personality -related dec i- s ion d iffi cultie s by invest igatin g th eir re latio nwith threepersonality m easures and focusing on the irpe rsisten t,chron ic asp ects .N um erou s stu dies have exa mine d the re latio nsb etwee n thes ev ario usp er so nalityand behaviora l character istic s, on the on e hand, an d ca reer indecision andindecisiv enes s ,on th e other (e .g.,Kelly & Lee, 2005;Leong & Chervinko, 1 9 9 6 ;Santos , 200 1;Slaney,1988). Th e variables studied inc lud eself-esteem and self-confidence (Kishor, 1 9 8 1 ;

Santos,2001), se lf-effi ca cy(Taylor & Be tz, 19 83), locus of control (Taylor, 1982), anxiety(Fuqua,Sea w orth , & N ew m an ,19 87), perso na l and vo ca tional ide ntity (Cohenet al . , 19 9 5 ;Santos,2001), and d iffi cultie s w ith psycholo gical se paration fro m onesfam ilya ndsignificant

oth-ers (B lustein , W alb ridg e , Fr iedlan de r, & Palladin o, 19 91 ;Gu erra & Braungart-Rieker,1 9 9 9 ;Tokar, Withrow,Hall, & Moradi, 2003). However, only a fe w s tu dies (e .g .,Santos,2001) have focusedupon the com ponents of ind ecisiven es sand pla ce d them in amultivar-iate conte xt.

Relyingon th e re se arc hre vie w edabove ,Saka et a l. (in p re ss )proposedanintegrative

theoretica l fra m ewor k fo r descr ib ingth e perso nality and em otiona l aspects ofcareerdeci-sion-m ak ingd iffi culties, w hich hav ebe enas sumed to underlie th e m orechron ic andper-vasive diffi culties, and the relations am ong them .This taxonom y served as afram eworkfor the construction of a reliable and va lid instrument for m eas uring suc hdiffi cultie s ina ca ree rcontex t theEm ot ional a nd Pe rso nality Care er D iffi cu lties (EPCD) Scale.

The

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342 N. Saka,I. Gati /JournalofVocat ionalBe hav ior71 (200 7)340 35 8

m ain goal of the presentstudy wa s to inv estiga te the va lidity of the pro po sedtheoretical mode l for emotion al and pe rson ality-re lated ca ree r decision -makingdiffi culties, and the EPCD scale developed to m easure them , focusing on thepro long edasp ects ofthe difficulties represented in it. In th e nextse ction, w e b rie flyreview th e ta xonom y propos ed by Saka et al. (in press).

1. Em ot ionaland personality factors associated w ith c ar ee r d e cis ion-making

difficultie s

The ta xonomy deve lopedbySaka et al. (in press)focuseson the em otion al an dperson- ality-related c are er decision-making difficulties. Relying on previousresearch, variables that werecons istently found to be correlatedwith indecisionand indecisiveness we re located and analyzed for their source , co m m onch aracter ist ics, andthe similarity in th e typeofin terve ntion needed. The ta xonom ywas de ve loped thro ughthe interpla y betw ee nth eo re tica lco nsid eratio ns an d em piricaltesting, and p roposed a distinction am ongthree m ajor clusters of d iffi culties:Pess imistic View s, Anx iety, and Se lf-Conc ept an d Iden tity. The Pessim istic V iewscluster consists of diffi culties related to dy sfu nctional pe rce ption s an d ne ga tivecognitive biasesabout the self and the world. Th e Anx ietyclusterincludesdifficultie sinvolv ingthe anxiety provoked by the decision -making process and its pot entia loutcomes, w hich m ay preve ntor inh ib it the decision-making pro cess. Finally, theSe lf- Co nc ep tan d Ide ntityc luster consists of decision -m aking diffi cu lties involvingdee peran d m orep erva siveperso nalityaspects ofth e in div idua l. Thus, the ta xonomyis hierarchical, with the thr ee m ajo rc lusters of diffi culties div ide dinto 11 ca teg orie sbase d on fin er distinc - tions. The taxonomy that em erged from th e th eoretica lana lysis w as empirically supported in both Israeli and American sam ples:specifically, cluster and co nfirm ato ry fac tor an aly -se ssupportedtheadequacyofthehypothesize dthe ore ticalm od elof elevendiffi cul tycat - egor iesgrouped in to th reem ajorclu sters (Saka et al .,in press) .

2 . The e le ve n difficultycategories

Pessimisticv ie ws.The first m ajo rclu ster ofthe m od el,Pess im istic Views,consistsof th re e ca tegories . The fir stpe ssim ist ic v iew sabo utth e pro cessrefers to a lowdegreeof careerdecis ion-making se lf-efficac y, w hich is th e ind ividu als pe rceptionthat he or sh e is incapable of carrying out a thorough and effect ive careerdecision-making process. Th e se cond ca te gory p essimist ic v ie w saboutth e worldofworkrefe rsto overlynegative pe rceptions re garding occupations (e .g .,fe w care ersa re re a lly interesting). Fina lly, the third ca teg ory pe ssimistic view s ab ou t thein div id uals control re fe rs to the individual s sense of an ex terna l locus ofcontrol over th e pr oc ess, the final choice, and/or th e outcomes.Anxiety. Th e se condm ajo rclu ster ofthe model ,labeledAnxiety, consists offourcat- egories. The firstanxietyaboutthe processrefers to fee lingso f stressandanxiety arising just prior to ac tua lly be g inning the de cision -m aking p ro cess, oranxiety evoked by exce s-s ive perfect ionism abou t the proce ss. This cate gory iss imilar in content but differentin na tu refro m pes sim ist icvie w sabou tth e p ro cess. Th elatteris more focusedon the cognitive perception ofones inability to engagein theprocess,while the former focuseson the feel- ings of helplessness and stressth ate m e rge dur ing the actual pro cess. The second cate- goryanxiety due to theunce rta in ty invo lve din ch oo sing includes three dimensions of uncertain ty : (a )uncertainty about th e future ,(b ) anx iety about being in an undecided

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state,and (c) a nxiety due to a low tolerance for ambiguity. The third cate goryanxiety aboutchoosingconsists of four chara cteristics, fo llo wing Betz and Serling(19 9 3): (a ) per - fect ionism about choos ing ( i.e ., ha vin g to find the perfectoccupation), (b) fea roflosing otherpotentia lly su itable op tions, (c) fe arofchoosingan unsuitable (wrong) oc cupa - tion, an d (d ) anxiety abo ut ones responsibil ityfor the ch o ice(e sp ecially a wrongone).Finally, the fourth ca teg ory an xiety aboutth e re su ltsre fe rs to a situation in w hich the ind ividual already has som ealternatives in mind, but is unable to actu alize th em due to a fe ar offailure or ofnot fulfillingones expectations and pre fe rences in the ch os enoccupation.

Self-concept and identity . The third m ajo r clu ster, lab eled Self -Concept andId entity, refersto deve lopmenta l pe rsonality aspects and consistsof fo ur ca te gories.The fi rs t c ate - g oryse lf-esteem re fe rs to low general and task-specificoccupational se lf-estee m , de fined as a senseof low self-worth in both generaland ca reer-relatedaspects oflife. The se condca tegory gen era lanxietyrefers to thegeneraltrait of anxie ty . Th e th ird ca t- eg oryun crystallized ide nt ity refers todiffi culties in forminga stablesenseofpe rso na lide ntity, w h ichm ay bem anifes tedindiffi culties in expressingconsolida ted belie fs,va lues ,p re feren ce s,an d life goals. It alsorefersto an uncrystallizedan d un sta ble vocationa l se lf- concept, w hich preven tstheindividua l from exp ressing cle ar vocationa l p refe rences, interests ,aspirations, andcareergoals. Final ly,the fourth category conflictual attach ment and separationrefers to difficultie s concerning significant others wh ich m ay stem from twointerrelated sou rces. The first source involves exc essive crit icism , lack ofsatisfaction,and lack ofsupport from significant others(typ ically on e sim m ediatefamily ) regarding th e ind ividuals p re fe re nces and decisions in general,and theca reer decision -m aking p ro - cessor choice in particular. The second sourceof thed iffi cultie s invo lves th e ex cessive need for others approval of any decision ,exces siveneed to pleasesignificant othersat th e expense o f ones own preferencesand goa ls, feelingsof gu ilt an d an xiety, an d ov er to r co v- er t co nfl ict with sign ifi cantoth ers, in w ay sthat aff ec tthe ca reerdecisio n-making proc es sor choice.Th e p ro pose d ta xonom y, w ith its th re em ajorclu ster s and elevensp ecific categories,is summarized in Fig. 1. On the basis ofthis the or etica lm o d e lSa ka et al. (in pr es s)devel-

Emotional andPersonality Related

Aspects ofCareerIndecision

Pessimistic

ViewsAnxiety Selfand

Identity

about

the

process

about

the

worldofwork

aboutthe

one's control

about

the

process

about

uncertainty

about

the

choice

aboutthe

outcomes

general

anxiety

self-

esteem

uncrystallized

identity

conflictual

attachment and

separation

Fig. 1. The taxon om yofem otio nal an d pe rsonality- re lat edasp ectsofcareerde cis ion -makin g difficulties .

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ope d the Em otiona land Person ality-related Career D iffi cultiesscale, and re portedsupport-ing ev iden cefor its reliability andvalidity.

3. The goa l of th e p resentresearch

The main goalof the prese ntstud yw as to exa m ine the validity of th e theoreticalmode lproposed by Sa ka et al. (in p ress )in two w ays.First, we exa m ined the m od elsvalidity by demonstrating the pers istentaspects ofth e d iffi cultie s as m easuredby th eEPCD.S econd, w e invest igated the correlations betweenthe EPCD (re prese nting theproposed m od el)an d m eas uresofgenera l ind ecisive ness, se lf-es teem ,anxiety,andidentity statu s.Th ese m ea - sure sw erech os enas theo retically re levan tco rre late sthatwereexpected to su pp or t the co ns truct valid ity of the propose dm od el.In additionto a genera lm easure ofindecisive-ness ,in th is stud yw e fo cused on th reem ea suresthatwere hypothesized to be associatedw ith th e cate gories inc lu dedin th e c luster ofSe lf-Conce pt an d Identity. F u tu re s tu d ies shou ld focus on investigat ing how thesem easures a re assoc ia te dwith th e other two m ajor cluste rs.It w as not feas ible tovalidate all threemajorclusterswith se ve ral m ea su resfor each ,in a sin gle study.Forth e m easures u se d , w e exp lica tebelow the theor ized re lations am ong the EPCDsc a le sand th e va lidity m easures used .Se lf-este em. A ca re erch oic eis ofte n vie wed as an expression ofan individualsse lf-co n- cept in vocational terms (Super, 1953). Se lf-es te empla ys a ce ntral role inactualizing ones self-concept (Chartrand,Robbins, Morrill, & Boggs, 1990), aspeop le tend to choosecareersthat will allo w th em to actu alize their pe rceivedpotentialan d enh anc etheir feel- ings ofself-w orth . Furth ermore, m an ys tudie shavefound a negativecorrelation be tw ee nself-es tee mand indecisio n : th e lower o nes se lf-este em, th ehigher on esindecisio n (Kishor,

1 98 1; S an tos , 2 00 1; Wulff & Steitz, 1999). We therefore expected negativecorrelationsbetw eenth e th re ec lusters and th e to ta l EPCD scores, on the on e han d ,and se lf-esteem, on the oth er. We also hy po thesized tha t the m ajor cluster ofSelf-Conceptand Id entity w ou lds ho w the highe stco rrelation w ith se lf-esteem . Trai t anx iety. G eneral tra it anxiety an d th e com m itment to a ca re erchoice haveconsis- tent lybeenfound to be negatively correlated, w here asan xiety an d ca ree rindecision have beenfound to be positively correlated (Hartman,Fuqua, & B l u m ,19 85 ;Leo ng &Cherv- inko, 1 9 9 6 ;Meyer & W iner, 19 93;W anberg & M uchinsky ,1992). Moreover,Santos(2001)found trait anxietya nd genera l inde cisiveness to behighly positively co rrelate d , and trait anxiety and vocational identity to benegatively correlated. We thereforeexpected positive correlations betw ee n thetotalEPCD sc ore sand th e th re eclu ster sco res, on the one hand, and trait anxiety,on the other. Again, w e hypothesizedthat the m ajo rclu ster ofSelf-Conc ep tandIde ntity w ou ld sho w thehighestcorrelation with traitanxiety.

Identity stat us. General s elf an d ide nt ity-relate d variab les ,such as pe rsona landvoca - tional identity variables (Blustein, Devenis, & Kidney,1989), werefoundto becorrelated w ith ca reer indecis ion . O ne app roach to stu dying the relationsbetweenidentitystatus and ca ree rcho ice diffi culties is the paradigm suggested by Marcia(19 80), who classified indi- vidualsinto one of f ou r id e n tity sta tus eson th e b as isofhow they m adem ajordecis ionsin their lives and the ir degreeof comm itment tothose decisions:(a) achieved identity, (b) identityforeclosure, (c) m orator ium, and(d) diffuse d identity.Both m orator ium and diffused identity were found to beco rrelated w ith ca ree rindecisio n (e .g., Blusteinet al. 19 91 ;B risb in & Savickas, 1994).W e therefore exp ected positive correlation s betwee nthe total

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EPCD total and three cluster scores, on th e one hand, and th e m easures ofm oratorium and diffused identity status,on the oth er . We also hy po the sized thatthe m ajor cluster of Self-Conceptand Identity would show the highest correlationwith the identity status m easure s .G enera l ind ecis iven ess. General indecisiven essis mani feste d a s a difficulty inmakingdecis ion s in a variety of situations (Frost & S h o w s , 1 9 9 3 ;Gati e t al.,1 9 9 6 ; Crite s (19 69)). de scr ibes ind ecisiv e pers ons asindividuals who seemto havedifficulty in making all sorts of life decisions,wh etherthey are of great or littlesignificance (pp. 305 306). Furthermore, prior re se arch has established an

association be tw ee n ind ecisive ness an d pe rso nality characte ristics. Salomone(1982) found that indec isiv e ind ividuals ty pically ha ve perso nality chara cter isticssuchas low se lf-con fid ence an d low se lf-esteem, an uncle a rse n seofse pa rate iden tity ,he lp lessness, hig h leve ls of ambivalen ce an d fru st ration , and an externa l locu s ofcontrol. Recent stud ies h avesupporte dthe associat ion between indeci- s ive ness andtasks involved in careerdecis ion-making (e.g.,Gati et a l ., 199 6;Ge rm eijs and De-Boeck, 20 02). We hypothesized that moderate p ositive correlatio ns w o uld b efound betwe enthe total EPCD sc ore sand its th re em ajo rc luster sc ores, on the onehand,and a m easure ofgeneralin decisiveness , on th e other. The p ro long aspects of ca re erin d ecision .To test our hypothesis that the EPCDm e a - sures m ore stable and pers istent d ifficul ties , w e carried ou t a follow-uplongitudinal analysis .In Israel,individualsapply to universities for specific m ajors,thu s ha ving to choosea major before submit ting their appl icat ion form. In mostIsraeli universities there are pre-academic programs w hich offer a secondchancefor individuals w howish to apply to the un ive rsity but have not taken their high-school matriculation exams, or want to increase the ir ch an ceofbeing admitted(in particular for highly com petit ive m ajors like computersc ience or psy chology)by taking courseswhose gradescan substi tute for the ir high -schoo l exa m gra de sthat did not qualify for th e program of their choice . Pa rticip ating in this pro gra minvolves inv esting tim e (a yea r) an d m on ey ,as w ell as signific an ta cadem ic effort.By th e end of the progra m , the students are expecte d to reach a well-defineddecision about w hat m ajor(s)to apply fo r. Th erefo re , stu de nts w ho do no t ha ve apreferred m ajo rtha t they are w illing to committo by the end ofth is ye ar ,desp ite thegreateffortand inve stm en t required during this year,m ay be in a m ore persistentstate ofindecis iveness. Thus, w e ask edstudents to fill out the EPCD at th e begin ning of their pre-

fre shman-ye ar preparatory prog ram an d at 24 weeksafterthe first administration,along with a follow-up report. We expected that ind ividuals with ahighdegree ofdiffi culty, as m ea -sur ed by th e EPCD at th e begin ning of th e school year, w ouldshow less progre ss in th e career decision-making process,and would be l e ssc loseto making a decis ion an d les s co nfide nt about th eir choice towardsthe end ofthepre paratory program. In addition,we expectedto find m oderate to high co rrelatio nsbetween th e EPCD scoresof ind ivid - uals at the beginn ing and towards theend ofthe ye ar ,thu ssu pporting the EPCDs testreteststability.

4 . Hypoth e s e s

(i) Th e co rrelatio n be tw eenth e to ta l sc ore so f th e EPCD and a m ea sure o f gen era linde-cis ivenesswill be re la tively h igh,and corre la tions betw eenthe EPCD andm easure sofse lf -esteem, anxiety, and ego-iden titystatu swill be m oderate .

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(ii) Individuals with high EPCD scoresat the beginning of th e ye a r:(a) will showless progress in the decisio n-making proce ss , (b ) will be further away frommaking a choice , an d (c) if they m ad ea c hoice, will be less confi de nt ab ou t itthan individualswith low EPCD scores.

5 . Methods

5.1 .Participants

Seven hundred and fo rty -seven s tudents in th e pre -academic pre parato ryprograms ofthe two large stuniv ersities in Israe lp articipated in th is stu dy .Threehundred and forty- thre estud ents (47.2%)were m alesand 384 (52.8% )w ere females ;2 0 did not report their sex; the irmeanagewas22.4 (SD = 1 .7 0). Five hundred andfifty-nine (76%) of the students w ere born in Is rael; 659 (90%) had gra duatedfrom high school and received a m atric ulat ion certifica te ,w hile 72 (1 0% )ha d notfinishhigh school, or had finishedbut did not do w ell enough to re ceive a diploma .Longitudinal analysissample. Ofthe 747 participan ts w ho fille d out the EPCD atthe beginning ofth e sc ho ol ye ar,w e w ere ab le to m atch th e re sponse s of3 9 5 (5 3%)stu dents w ho filled ou t the EPCD fo r a se condtime and th ena nsw ere dth e follow-upques tion naire .Th e at trition wa s attr ibutab le to technical problem s (e .g., missinginformation to m atch the first and the se cond-t im e questionna ire ), missing data,and non-attendancein class in the se con droun d ofdata collection,due to variousfactors (e .g., reserve arm y se rvice , illness ,or pers on a lreas ons).To ve rify that theattrition w as ran dom, we com par ed the EPCD scoreson the first round of datacollection for th e 395 partic ip ants who filled out the questionnaireat both roundsofdata collectionand the pa rticipa nts w ho w ereabsentdur ing the se cond rou nd ofdata collection. No differen ces w ere found betw ee n the sco res of these twogrou ps ,ne ither in th e total EPCD score nor in any of its thr eem ajo rclu ster s (t(74 5)

= 0.0 9,t(7 45 )= 0 .12 ,t( 745 )= 0.46 ,an d t(74 5)= 0.60,respec-t ively).Furthermore ,there wereno differences in the dem ograph ic variables be tw eenth e groups ( ag e :t (733)= 1 . 16 ; years of educa t ion: t(711)= 0 .7 2 ; s ex : v2

(1 ,N = 7 2 7 )= 0 .6 6).

5.2 .In struments

The em otional a nd personality careerdifficult ies sc a le(EPCD).The development ofthe EPCD is described in details in Saka et a l. (in p re ss). The EPCD consists of53i tems.The fi rs t p a ge of the qu estionn aireinclud esgene ralba ckg round informa tion :se x, age, an d yearsofeducat ion. T he follow ing pa ges inclu de 53 sta tem ents, eachrep resent ing on e ofth e 11 d iffi culty cate gorie s. For each sta te m ent, th e part ic ip antswere asked to ra te the degreeto w hich the statem entdesc ribed them on a 9-pointscale (1does not describem e to 9 de scribe sm e w ell; a hig her ra ting ind icates ahig he rleve lof diffi culty) . Tw o validity i temswereincludedin th e sc a leto ensurethatindividu als rep lied on ly after properly reading th e ite m s and cons idering the irre sp on se s(I am sa tisfie d w hen so mething go od h a p - p e n s to me, and I don t m indwhethermy expectations are re a lize do r no t).The practical util- ity of thesevalidityitem swere rep orte din Sa ka et al. (in pre ss); th e rationaleand testsof this kind ofva lidity items is describ edin Amir et al. (in press).

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Psyc hom etric prope rtiesw ere foun d to be adequate:Cronbach-alpha internal-consis-tencyreliabilitiesin th e p re se n tsa m ple w ere .85 ,.95 ,.88 ,an d .95 for th ethreem ajor clu s- ters and th e to ta l scale, resp ective ly. Th e re liab ilities of th e 1 1 sca lesra ngedfrom .61 (fo r Pe ss imistic View s abou tthe W orld of W ork) to .92 (for An xie tyaboutth e Process an d A nx - iet y about th e Cho ice). A previous stud y (Saka et al. , inpress) supported the construct validity of the EPCD an d the prop osed internalstructureof th e clu sters and sc a les . Spe- cifi cally, co nfirm ato ry fac tor an a lysissupported the adequacy of th e hypo th esize d th eore t- ical model of e levendifficulty ca te gorie s grouped into three major clusters(RMSEA = .057,NFI =.98 ,CFI = .98,andGFI = . 9 7 ;Saka et al., in pres s;the interc or-relatio nsam on gthe11 sca lesco resin th epresen tsam ple are p resented in AppendixA) .Frost indecis ivenessscale. (FIS; Frost & Sh ow s,1993). The FIS is a 15- itemself-report scalein w hich in d iv iduals ra te th e exte ntto w hich the y ag reewith state m entsre garding their tendencyto be indecisiv e . Each item is rated on a fiv e-p oint sc alerangingfrom1strongly d isagre e to 5 strong ly agree. The sc orin gis basedon two subscales

labeledFears about Decision-Making and Positive Decision-Making. The internalconsistency(Cronbach-alpha) ofth e FIS total scorewas .90 in a stu de ntsa m ple (Frost &Shows,1 9 93); it was.89 for th e Fears subsc aleand .8 3 for th e Posi tiv esu bsc ale in acom m unity

sam ple (Ste ketee, Fr os t, W inc ze ,G ree n ,& Douglass, 2000). Furthe r in form ationaboutthe va lidity ofthe FIS w as re ported by Frost and Gross (19 93 )an d Frost andShows(1993). Th e sca lew astranslated into H eb rew(andthenba ck-tra nslated to ensu retransla-tion equivalence ), and sa tis facto ry re liab ilities were found in an Internetversion basedona sam ple o f 1 96participants (.8 1 ,.7 5 ,and .82,fo r th e Fear sand Positiv e su bscales , andthetotalFIS,re spective ly ).In th e pre sentsam ple (N = 747)theCronbach alpha in te rna l-con-siste nc yreliab ility estim ates w ere .80 ,.68 ,and .8 5 for th e Fears, Positive , and to ta lFIS,respectively.

Rosenb ergse lf-esteemsca le(RSES;Rose nberg, 1965). The RS ES, one ofth em ost-used

scales in th e assessm entofse lf-este em(S anto s ,2001), co ns istsof10 items exp re ssingfive

positive and fiv e ne ga tive viewsofth e se lf. Ind ividu a ls are ask edto rat e th e deg reetow hich the y ag reew ith each item on a 4-pointLikert scale(1stronglyd isagre e to 4st ro ngly agree). The negative lyorie nteditems are th enre ve rsed, so thata hig he rsc or eindi-ca tesa high erleve lofself-esteem. The to ta lsc oreis co m pu tedas the m ea nofall tenitems .Sa tisfactory psyc hom etric propertiesoftheRSES ha vebeenreported :its Cronbach-alpha

internal-consistencyreliabilityw asabo ve.80 ,an d its te st retes t re liab il i ty was.82(Flem-ing & Cou rtney, 19 84). Many stud iesha ve sup ported the co ns truct validity ofth eRSES(e.g.,D e iner and Deiner, 1995; Fle m ing & Courtney,1984; McCurdy & Kelly,1 9 97) .We use dth e H eb rewve rsion ofth e RSES,w ho sereliability an d construc tvalidity

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w eresu pported in previousstudies; specifically, the reliability estim ates rangedbetween.73an d .79 ,and a positive co rre lation w as foun d be tween the ab ilitiesfor m ental andemo-t ionalcoping(Z iv, 19 96). In th e prese ntre se ar ch ,theCronbach-alpha internal-

consistencyre liability w as .8 1 .Trait anxiety sc a le(TAS,from the State trait anxiety inve ntory(STAI)Spie lb erger ,

Gorsuch, & Lush ene, 1970).We use dthe H eb rewv ersionoftheTAS, which is partofthe STAI.This scalea ssesse sre lative ly stableindividual differences in anxiety-proneness. The sc a leconsis tsof20 statem ents, and th e individual is ask edto rateth e deg re etowhich

he or she g ene rally experie nce stheseemotions,on a 4-pointLikert scale(1almostneverto 4almost all the time). Nine anxiety-absent ite m sare re versed , and th e to ta l sc oreiscom puted a s th e m ea no f a ll ite m s, so th a ta h igh erscore rep resen tsa h ig herdeg re eo ftrait

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anxie ty .Cronbach -a lpha interna l-consis tencyre liab ility wasfoundto be .90,and testret- es t re liab ilities ran gedfro m .73 to .86 for co llegestudents; ev idencesu pporting th esca les val id ity wa s also reportedby Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, andJacobs (1 9 8 3). The reliability and validity of the Heb rew ve rsion w ere fou ndsa tisfa ctory ;specifically , sig - nific an t positive co rrela tion s w ere found with o the ranxiety m easures , its Cronbach-alpha reliability was .90, and its testretestreliability rang ed from .72 to .8 4 (Te ichman& Melink, 19 84). In th e p rese ntstu dy ,the Cronbach-alpha in terna l-cons iste ncyre liability es tim atew as .89 .Extended ob jective m ea su reofeg o id entity st atus (EOMEIS-2, Bennion &

Adams ,1986).This sca leeva lua tesind ividuals identitystatus basedon the model proposedbyMarcia (1980). Its goa l is to es tim ate the d eg re eof identity consolidation for fourstatuses(ac hie ve dide ntity ,ide ntity fore closur e,m oratorium , and diff us ediden tity).We use dtheHeb rew version of the moratorium an d diff used ide ntity par ts, so that the scaleconsisted

of32 items (16 fo r ea ch ide n tity status ). Ind ividu als w ereask edto rate the de gre etowhichtheyagreedwi th each statementon a 6-point Likert scale(1strong ly dis agree to6stron glyag ree). Th e total sco re for eac h statusis de fin edas the m ea no f al l itemspertainingto tha t status The in te rn alcons istencyre liab ility w as.7 3fo r th e m oratoriu ma n d .68 forthediff us ionsc ales, and th e te strete stre liab ilit ies acro ssa two we ekinterv alran ge dfrom.82

to .90 (B luste in et al., 1989. Co nstruct validity wa s found sa tis factory in var iousagegroups and cultures (Adams, Bennion, & Huh, 19 89). In the presen tstudy, theCron-bach-alpha interna l-consis tency re liabilitie s w ere .77 and .7 2 for the m ora torium anddif-fused identity sca les ,respectively.

Decis ion sta tus (DS). Th is m easure, w h ichis a variationofthe Occu pation alAlterna-

t ivesQuestion(OAQ,Slane y,19 80 ;Zener & Schnu elle ,19 72), asks individuals abouttheircare erplans directly, to de termine the ir cu rren tstag eof th e ca re erde cis ion-m akin gpro-ce ss ,and c an be use d to assess the ir pro gress (Amir & Gati, 2 0 06; Gati, Saka, &Krausz,2 0 0 1 ;Gati, Kleiman, Saka, & Zaka i , 2003). Levelsrangefrom I do no t hav eevenageneraldirection to I am sureabout what I w ou ldlike to m ajo rin. Fo llow ingMonahan(19 8 7),we

regarded individuals self-reported s ta g e a s a m easure of decidedn essthedegreetowhich they have na rrowed dow n the ir occup at ional choices. Th erefor e, w e us edthism e a -sure as an additional cr iter ion forvalidation.

Participants w ereaskedto ind icate the ir sta gein the ca ree rdecision-making

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processu s in g t he DS; in the pre se ntsa m ple the res ponses w ere as follows: 1 6 2 (2 2 .4 % )re portedthat I am sure abo utw hat I w ould lik e to m ajorin , 163 (22.5% ) re ported th at I knoww hatI am interes te din , bu tw ou ld liketo con fir mm y choice ,199 (27 .5% ) re po rte dth at I am

con -sideringa specific occupation, but w ould like to exp lore otheroptio nsbeforem akinga deci -s io n , 1 2 5 (1 7 .3 % )re p o rte d that I am deliberat ing among a sm all num ber ofspecificoccupat ions, 59 (8.2 % )re ported that I only hav e a gen erald i rect ion , and 15 (2 .1% )reportedthat I d o no t ha ve e ve n a genera ldirection.

5.3 .Procedure

About 4 we ek safter th e beg inn ing ofthe sc hoo lyea r,stu de nts w ere informed bythe programs counse lors about a study on care er dec ision -m aking , and thequestionnairesw er ed istr ibuted b y th e re se archer sand th re eg ra duate students to th estu dents ( in groups of a b o u t 2 0 3 5 )d u rin g o n e of the cla ss es .Partic ipation wasoptional;16 students re fusedto pa rticipate an d either le ft the rese arch bo ok let bla nkor left the cla ssroo m (abo ut2% ).

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The participants were given a booklet with the questionnaires,which consisted ofthe EPCD and th e FIS, an d eith erthe RS ES, theTAS or the EO M EIS-2 .Fina lly, theyfilled out a demographic questionnaire that included the DS. All participantsfilled out the EPCD first, an d the orde r of the other scales w as counter balancedamong participants. Ofth e 747 partic ipants, 246 fi lled ou t th e RSES, 262 th eTAS,and 236 th eEOMEIS-2 . Identification by nam e(on the last pa ge)wa s optional;7 0 0(94%)particip ants rep ortedthe irna m es,w hich allow edus to m atchthe booklets withthequ estionna iresin th e firs t and se co ndrounds ofdatacollection. The se cond adm inistrat ionof the questionnaire took place24 weeks later .The

follow - up boo klet, w hich included the EPCD and the DS, w as d is tributed to th estudents (in g ro ups ofab out 20 3 5)du ring on e ofth e classes,as in th e first roun d ofdata collection. We were ab le to m atch the first an d sec ond bo oklets for 3 9 5stu dents .

5.4. P re liminaryanalyses

For eachpart ic ipantw e com pu tedthe total sco resofth e EPCD and th e FIS, andthe scores ofRSES,TAS and th e tw o sc a lesofthe EOMEIS-2 (whicheverthey fille dout).We als o co m putedthe sc oresfor the EPCDs th re em ajo rclu sters an d 11 sc a les .Nex twe com- pu ted the correlations a m on gthe EPCD (its total score, thre e m ajo rclu sters , and th e scales), FIS, RSES, TAS and two EOMEIS-2 scales . No ordereffect w as foun d forth eFIS, TAS, or th e tw o EO M EIS-2scales(all Fs < 1) . Therefore ,th e results arereportedacrossthe variousadministration orders. The decision sta tus m eas ure origina lly inclu de d six lev els (Gati et al., 2 0 03) .However,we co m binedth e six leve lsin to four to re flectthe ind iv iduals stagein theca ree rdecision- m ak ing pr oc essacc ording to the PIC model (Gati & Asher, 2 0 01) :Pre sc reening, In -depth exploration, and Choice. Specifically, the first leve l,whichco rre spon de d to be ingb eforethe Presc reeningofalterna tive ssta ge, was represen tedby the sta tem ents (1) I do no te ven havea ge neral d irection an d (2 ) I on lyhavea

genera ldirection. Th e se cond leve l, co r- re sp onding to the t ransition betw eenthePre screening sta ge an d the In-D epth E xplora tion sta ge, w as represented by thestatements (3) I am del iberatin g a m o n ga sma l l n u mb erof specific occu pationsand (4 ) I am considering a sp ecific occu pation , but w ould like to ex plore o th eroptions before I m a k e m y decis ion. The third leve l, co rrespond ing to the C ho icestage, w asr epre se nte dby th es ta tementI knowwhat I am in te re stedin, bu tw ouldliketo co nfirm m y choice. Finally ,th e fourth lev el ind icated that the individu a l h ad fin-ishedth e proc es s,represented by th e st atem entI am su reabou t w hat I w ouldlike tomajor in. The rationalefor u s in g th e PIC s tagesto transfo rm th e six o rigina lre sp onseoptions into th e four c ategories is outlined in Gati andTal (in press); thisca teg orization w as fou nd use ful in empirically diff erentiating am ong individua ls ind iffer en tstages ofthe ir careerdecision-makingprocess (Amir & Gati, 2 0 0 6 ;Gati etal. , 2 0 03) .

6 . Results

6 .1 . C on struc t an d d ivergentvalidity

Tab le 1 p re sents the m eans,sta nd ard deviations, and the co rrela tion s o f th e to ta lEPCD and its th re em ajorc luster s w ith the FIS, RSES, TAS and th e D iffused Id entityand Mor- atoriumscales of the EO MEIS-2 . Th e tw o leftmost co lum nsofTable 1presen tthe m ea ns

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Table 1

Me ans,standa rddeviat ions, an d th e co rrela tio nsbe tw een EPCD an d thevalidity questionnairesa

Scales M SD N EPCD

Pessimisti Anxiety Selfand Total

views identity

Frost Indecis iveness Scale 2 .6 5 0 .6 3 73 9 .3 6 .4 7 .6 0 .5 6Rosenberg se lf-e ste emsc ale

b3 .4 0 0 .4 9 24 6 .2 0 .3 0 .6 1 .4 4

Tra it- anxie ty sca le 1 .9 4 0 .5 2 26 2 .2 6 .3 6 .7 0 .5 1Ego identityscaleDiffused 2 .6 4 0 .6 9 23 6 .1 9 .2 3 .2 8 .2 8Ego identity scaleMoratorium 2 .4 8 0 .7 2 23 6 .3 6 .4 2 .4 8 .5 0

M 4 .78 4 .7 3 3 .5 6 4 .32

SD 1 .38 2 .0 2 1 .4 4 1 .34

aAll correlat ionsare sta tistica llys ignificant (p < .01 ).

bThe corre lations with EPCD are ne ga tiveas ex pe cte d.

and standard d eviations ofthesemeasures. As ca n be se en ,all correlations a repositive,exceptfor se lf-este em, w hich, as hypoth esize d , is negative ly correlate d withtheEPCD.The correlations ofthe totalEPCD sc ore w ithth e valid ity m ea sures ra nge fro m.28for th e D iffuse d Id entity sc a le to .56 fo r th e F ro st In decisiv eness Sca le. Fairly highcorrelationsw er e found betw ee nthe Self-Co nce pt and Identity c lus te rand th e FIS,RSES, andTAS ( .60, . 61 ,and .70, respectively). As hypothesizedthes ecorr elation swerehigher than the res pe ctiv eco rre lations found with th e A n xie ty clu ster (t(73 6)= 4.86 , t(243)= 6 .34 ,t(259)= 8 .18 , for the FIS, RSE, and TAS, respect ively).Furthe rmore, the correlations of theseva riab lesw ith the Se lf-Concep tand Ide ntityclu ster were, as hypo thesized,h igherthan tho se with the Pessim istic Vie w s cluster(t(736)= 7.9 5,t(24 3)= 7.89,t(259)= 9 .68 ,for the FIS, RSE, andTAS, respectively).We ca rriedo ut m ultiple(step w ise)regress ion analyses to exa m inethe contributionofeachofthe va riab lesin predicting the initia l and final EPCD sc o re s(i.e .,th e EPCDscoreat th e beg inning an d at the end ofthe school year). Due to th e stu dys design ,in which each participant wa s given only one of th e m easures of se lf-es tee m ,traitanx iety, and identity sta tus, a direct, simultaneous comparison am on g the sevariables w as not possible . Th ere fore, th e re gressio ns w ere carried out w ith th eFISsc or esand ea chofthethreeper-sonalityvariablesseparatelyaspredictors.Whe n se lf-estee m and genera l ind ecisiveness w er e use d as pre d icto rs ,th e FISemerg edas the m ain predicto r of th e initial EPCD score (R = .52 , R

2= .27 , F(1 ,2 4 3 )= 87 .36 ,p < .00 1),and th e RSE sco re contributed significa ntly to th e variance

explaine d by them odelover and above th eFIS (t(241)= 4 .17 ,p < .001,R2

= .32) .W ere peated th is anal-ysis with the se condEPCD sc ore,ob tained after 24 wee ks .In thisre gression analysis FIS e me rge d again as the be s t predictor of the EPCDscore (R = .45 , R

2= .20 ,F(1 , 1 3 2 )= 33.05,p < .001),and the RSE scorecontribute d sig nific antly to the varian ceexplained ove ra nd ab ovethe FIS (t(131)=

3 .4 6 ,p < .0 5 ,R2

= .2 7).When trait anx ietyand gen era lindec isive ness were used as predictors, the FISemerg edagain as the main predictor of th e initial EPCD score (R = .56 ,

R2

= .31 ,F(1 ,2 6 1 )= 117.45, p < .0 01), and th eTAS score contributed significantlyto thevariance ex pla ine dby the m od elov er and abovethe FIS (t(259)= 3 .3 0 ,p < .0 0 1 ,R

2= .34 ).W e re pe atedth is analy sis w ith the sc oreofthe se co ndEPCD, obta inedafter 24w eeks. In this

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Ch

oic

econ

fid

ence


re g ressio n analysis , th eTAS e m e rged as th e b es tpred icto rofthe EPCD score(R = .4 6 ,R

2= .21 ,F(1 ,1 3 1 )= 34 .7 8 ,p < .0 01), and th e FIS sco recontribu tedsign ificantly

to theva riance exp lain edov erand ab ovetheTAS (t(130)= 2 .2 7 ,p < .0 5 ,R2

= .2 4).Finally, whenthe two iden tity statuses and ge ner a lindecisiveness w ere use d a spredic- tors, th e FIS e m e rged as the main predictor of EPCD score (R = .62 ,

R2

= .31 ,F(1 ,2 3 2 )= 1 4 6 .30, p < .0 01 ),an d the m oratorium sc ales co recontributedsignificantly to th e variance expla ined by the m odel over and above the FIS(t( 230 )=5.9 6,p < .00 1,R

2= .47). However ,the iden tity-d iffusion scaledid not have astatistically significant co n- tribution to the exp lain edva riance of EPCD (t(230)=

0 .34) .Again, w e re peate d th is anal- ys is w ith th e second EPCD score. In thisreg ression analysis FIS em erged as th e on ly p re d ictor ofthe EPCD score(R = .39 ,R2

= .15 ,F(1 ,1 2 1 )= 21 .48 ,p < .00 1).

6 .2 . A s s es sing w hethe r the difficulties m ea su redby the EPCD arepersistent

W e ca rried ou t lon g itudina l an alyses to investigate wh ether the difficultie srepresented by theEPCD sc oresare ind eedpers iste nt,an d to te stth e hypothesis thatthese diffi culties m ay pre dict individuals de cision s ta tus an d prog ress se ve ralmonths later.To stud yth e long -term effe ctsofdifficulties m easured by th e EPCD,w e divided th e partic ipants in to th re egroups according to th e irin itia l EPCD score.H ig h a nd low groups consistedof individuals w ho seto tal EPCD scorewash igherthan the 75 thor lower tha n the 25 th p erc en -tile, res pe ctive ly; the rem ain ing 50% ofthe participantswere regarded as th e m ed ium- d iffi culty group. The Pe arso n correlation be tween the initial EPCD score and the studentsconfidence in theirchoiceat the end ofthe preparatoryprogramw as .3 0 (p < .00 1 ).F ig. 2 p re se nts th e stu dents co nfiden ce in th eir choice as a function of the ir initial

degreeofdiffi culties. Fig. 2 show sthat thosewith high initial EPCD scores w er eles sconfident in their choice than those w ith low initial EPCD scores. Two planne dcontrastswerecarried out to d ire ct lytest the hy pothes isth at ind ividu alswith hig he rinitial EPCD diffi culties w ou ld sh ow lessconfidence in their cho icetow ards the en dofthe prep aratory pro gramthan thos ewith lower

5

4.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

low medium

Initial degree ofEPCD

high

Fig. 2. Cho ice co nfi de nceat t im e2 as a functionofin itial deg reeof EPCD (T ime1, N = 395) .

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Progress

in

th

e

process


initial diffi culties. Th e firs t co ntrast, w hich compared the choice co nfidence of thegroups of high and mediumin itia l d iffi cultie s w ith th at of the low initial-difficultiesgroup,yieldedstatistically significant re sults (t(3 9 2 )= 4 .23 ,p < .01, C oh ens d =0 .43) ,indicating that ind ivid ua lswith h igh an d m ed iuminitial diffi culties sh ow lessconfidence in their choice eve n after a significant period of time. The secondp lan ned co ntrast re vealed , as hypoth- es ized ,that the h igh init ial-d ifficu lty g roupre ported less confi denceth an th emediumini- tial-difficulty group (t(3 9 2 )= 2.34,p< .0 1 ,d = 0.27) .To specifically examine th e pro gress o f in d iv idua ls w ho w ere un decided a t the

b eginning of th e ye ar , w e focused on ly on th os e individuals wh ose init ial decisionstatus w aslow (i.e.,the yreported tha t the yh ad eithe rno directionor only a generaldirection),and as such they weree xpe cted to movetowardsbeing moredecidedatth e end ofthepre -academ ic pro gram. We hypothesized that, ofthe individuals (n =2 1 4 ) whose career plans w ere clearlyuncrystallized at th e beg in ning of th e year,tho sew ith a higher degree of EPCD diffic ultie swo uld pro gress less in the ca ree rdec ision-m ak ingprocess th an thos ewith a low init ialdegreeof difficulty.To test this hypothesis, we computed a m easure of progress for eachparticipant, defin edas the d ifferenc ebet w ee nth e decis ion sta tus at th e beg in ning andend ofthe program.The Pearson correlation betw een theinitial EPCD scoreandthe advance in the de cis ions tat usw as .29 (p < .00 1). F ig . 3 p re sen tsth e stu dents p rog ress in the ca ree rdeci-s ion-makingpro cess(a s re flected in the change in theirdecisionstatus)as a function oftheir initial degree ofd iffi culties. It can b e se en inFig. 3 that thosewith initially high EPCD sco re sw erele ss likely to ad vance in thedecision -making process than thosewith initially low EPCD scores. Tw o pla nnedcontrastswerecarr iedout to test the hyp othesis that the EPCD score is relatedtoones p ro gress in the de cis ion-m ak ing proce ss. The firs t contrast reve aled that, ashypothesized,individuals w ith highor m ed iuminitial EPCD d ifficu ltie spro g ressedless in theirdecis ionstatusover this 24 -wee k tim epe riod tha n tho se w ith low initiald ifficultie s (t(212)= 2.18,p

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co va riance , in which the dec ision status to w ards th e end of th e y ea r w a s th edependentvariab le , the initial EPCD diffi culty g rou p w as the ind ep en dent va riable ,and the initial decision statu s w as the co va riate.This an alys isrev ealed tha t thedifferencein the final decision statu s am on g the thre e groups w as statisticallysignificant (F(2 ,2 3 8 )= 8.3 4,p < .0 0 1 ),be yond the initia ldiff ere nces am on gthe m (F(1 ,2 3 8 )= 9 .4 3 ,p < .00 1).In su mmary , the sefin d ings provid e fu rth e rsu pport fo r o u r cla imt hatt heEPCD

indeedtap sin to the m ores tab le,en du ringco m po nents of careerdecision-making d ifficul ties.Spe -cifi cally , the findings ind icate tha t a hig h EPCD scorepredicts lessprogress in th edecision-m aking proce ssand lower choice confiden ce,a fter a significant period of time inwhichnatural crystallization of c are e r p la ns sh ou ld ta keplace.

7 . Discuss ion

The goalsofthe pre se ntstu dy w ereto investiga te th e ch ara cter ist icsofemotionaland pe rso nality-relate d ca reerdecision-making difficulties and to fu rther examinethevalidity of the tax onom y pr op os edby Saka et al. (in press)for emotional andpersonality-relate d ca ree rdecision -making diffi cu lties, and the EPCD sc a led ev elopedto m easure them .U sing m easures for ge ne ralind ecisiven ess,se lf-esteem , ge neralanxiety , identitydiffusion and moratorium, and conducting a longitudinal analysis,w e obta ined resultssupport ing the validity of th e ta xonom y and th e EPCD.Moderate to high correlations w ere found be tween the total EPCD sco rean d thethreecluster scores, on th e one hand, an d th e m ea-suresofgenera lindecisiv eness ,ego-identity, genera lanxiety, and se lf-esteem, on th e o th er. Furthermore , stu de ntswith a high EPCD sco readv an cedless towards m akin ga careerdecision than thosewith a low EPCD score.G enera l indecisiv eness. The correlation betweenthe Frost Indecis iveness Scale(FIS) , which is a gen era lm ea sure of ind ecisivene ss,and the total EPCD, whichfocuseson care er-re la te dd iffi culties in dec is ionm aking , w as .56 (.62after correctionfor attenuation ); thisco rrelatio n shows that the emotional and personality-relateddifficulties are correlated, ashypo th esize d, w ith th e genera l tra it of ind ecisiven es s.The lowest co rrelatio n be twee n th e FIS and th e EPCD w as fou nd for the Pe ssim isticView s c luster (r = .36) . One possible explanation for this finding is th a t th ecate gorie s in this cluster an d the sta tem ents repre- senting them in the EPCD wereh ig hly s pe cifi c a nd em b edded with in the career context, whereas all the FISs ta tements w ere g eneral. The findingthatthe hig hes tco rrelation ofth e FIS w as w ith

th e Se lf-Concept an d Id entityclu ster ofth e EPCD (r = .60 )m ay sh ow tha t this clusterrep resents the m or e genera l as pects of em otional and persona lity- re lated careerdifficulties , w herea s the Pess im istic Views clu ster re presen ts more career-specificaspects ofth e diffi cultie s, and henc e its correlation with the FIS wasthe lowest .Self-esteem.As hypothesized, all correlation s b etw ee nth is m eas ure and th e thr eemajorclusters, as w ell as all correlations b etw ee nth is m easure and th e to ta l EPCDscore,werenegative . Th is shows tha tth e em otiona l an d pe rso nality -re la tedaspects ofcareerdecision- making diffi cult ies are higher when se lf- este em is lower.Furtherm ore, as could be expected, the highest correlation ofth e RSE Sca lewasw ith the clu sterofSelf-Conceptand Id ent itysc a leofth eEPCD.

Trait anxie ty. Ashypothesized, all correlations betweenthis m easure and the

totalEPCD scoreand the thre ec luste rscore swere positiveand statistically significant.

Thehighestcorrelation w as ag ain foun d with the cluster ofSelf-Con cept an d Identity,and

m ay be explained b y the fact th at th is clu ster inclu de sa sub-sc aleofge nera lan xiety.Still,

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a correlation of.51 betw eenthis m ea sure and th e to ta lEPCD scoremayindicatethatanx- iety is one of th e com ponen ts of persisten t ca ree rdecis ion-m ak ing diffi culties(Germeijs,Verschueren,& Soenen s,2 0 06) .Ego identity sca le. The co rrelatio ns betw ee nth e d iffused id en titysubsca le oftheEgo Ide ntitySca lean d the thr eeclu ste rsof the EPCD werepos itive and statisticallysignificant. How ever,they we reconsistently lower than those of th e m oratoriu msubscale of th e Ego Ide n titys ta tus .The hig he stco rrelation of th e d iff used id entitysubscale of theEgo Ide ntity Sc ale w as w ith th e clu ste rofSe lf-Co nc ep tan d Ide n tity;this m ay be attributed to the fact that this cluster includes a su b-scale of

unc rysta llized id entity.The m ultip le re gressio n an a lyses revealed that genera l indecisiv eness ,as m easuredby th e FIS, was the bestpredictor of em otiona l an d pe rsonality-re lated asp ects ofcareer diffic ulties,as m ea sur edby the EPCD. In addition, all three personalityvariablesself e ste em , tra it a n xiety a n d id entity s ta tu s (moratorium)contributed sig nifican tly, beyondgeneralindecisiveness, to the prediction of th eEPCD score ( 5 % , 3 % , and 16% in crease in accounted-for va rianc e , for the thr eevariables,respective ly) .The find ing that thesevari - ables also pre d icted th e re sultsof th e second administration of the EPCD (alm ost 6 m onth slater) support thech ronic, pe rsistent chara cter of em otional and pe rsonality- rela tedd iffi culties andthe validity of th e EPCD a s a m easure of such diffi cultie s in career decision-making. Th e thre em ajo rdifficulty clustersof the EPCD. The cluster of Se lf-Concep tan dId entity of th e EPCD emergedas a fair ly context-free personality chara cteris ticscluster th at m ay pre d ispose ind iv iduals to persis tent career decision-makingdiffi culties, as its co rrelatio ns w ith th e externa l m easu re sw ere the hig hest. Therefo re ,it m a y b ehypothe size dthat the re m ay be a tem poral ord er w ithin the clusters, an dthatdifficult iesinvolving a no n-cohe sive se lfand an uncrys ta llize d identity status m ayexistin parallel (o r ev en lea d to ) diffi cu lties involvinglack ofre ad iness for decision-making (Gatie t al., 1996). Th ese diffi culties m ay be indicative of a predispositionnot only to prolongcareerdecisions but also to be gen-erally indecisive.General dysfunction a l personality ch ara cteri stic sm ay lea d to pessim ist icvie w san ddys- func tiona l thou gh tsan d beliefs.Th ese pessim istic view s m ay invo lve the self(e .g., low careerdecision-making se lf-effica cy ,e xterna l lo cu sofcontrol)or the world.Finally, anx -ie ty m ay ar ise as th e ind iv idual gets clo se rto actualinvolvementin thecareerde cis ion- m ak ingp roce ss. Thus, anxie ty m ay arise w hen ind ividu als fe el they

have to engage in the d ecision-m aking proc essw hile still unprepare d (perhapsbecausetheyarebeing pre s-su redb y significa nt oth ers, or forc edby circu m stancesor social norm s). Ind ee d,the sc ales inc lud ed in the Anx iety clu ste rre pre sent bo thasp ects o f p re parin g for the decision-making p ro c es s( i .e.,anxiety about get tinginvolve d in th e pro ce ssan d th e uncertainty involved in it) an d as pe ctsof actu allybeingengagedin it ( i .e.,choice an xiety an d an xiety ab out the po tent ialou tcom esofthe choice). Th e pers istent as pe cts of ca ree r de cisio n-m ak ing diffi culties . In ad dit ion , th elongitudinal analysissupported th e hypothe sistha t individuals w ho sco redhighe ronthe EPCD at th e beg in ning of the schoo l year wo uld progress less in their careerdecis ion-making p roces s tha n tho se with low er EPCD scores. This finding isespecially im portant considering the studyssam ple individuals w ho spen t time ,money,and em otiona land m en tal effo rt to gra duate successfu lly from th e p re -academicpreparatoryprogramin orderto m aketheirca reerde cision a nd be acc ep tedto university . W e bel ievetha tthe slo w ra te ofca reer-de cision progress fou nd am on gthoseindividualswith ahighEPCD score a re ind icative of a

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more profound and persistentdifficultyin m ak ing the ir ca ree rde cision, and thu sm ayrefl ec tindecisive ne ssand the nee dfor m oreinte ns iveca ree rcounseling.Limitations. Before discussing the s tudys im plic ations, its limitations shouldb e ack nowled ge d. First, be cause eac h pa rticipa nt rec eived eithe r the R SES, theTAS, or th eEOMEIS-2,w e could no t co m pa reeac h va riable s un ique contr ibu tiontothe prediction of th e EPCD scoreover and ab ov e the others. In addition, theparticipants w ere a special group of Israeli young adults participating in th eunique pre -academic program, and hence fu rther long itudinal va lidatio n of th eEPCD needs to be ca rrie dou t w ith othe rgroups .

7.1 .Im plications

Asse ssing em ot ional an d pe rsonality-re lated aspects of careerdec is ion -makingdifficul-ties has bo th theoretica l and pract ica limplication s. Bette run derstanding ofthere lat ion sbetween em otion al and pe rsonality -re lated factors and persistentcareerdiffi culties m ay bethe basis for a comprehensive theory of careerindecisivenes s ,del ineating relations am ong various com ponents and explicating their effect onvarious sta ges ofthe ca ree rdecision- m ak ingproc ess. The pro pose d ta xonomy m ayserveas thefirs ts tep for constructingsuch a theory .Specifica lly,a m ore thoroug hunderstanding of ind ecisive ness co uld be ac hie ved th roug h longitudinal studiescomparing un decid ed and inde cisive individu als, w ho diffe r in be haviora lch aracteris tics su ch as postponing their choice for long perio ds, chan gin g m ajorsm anytim es,an d re turning to personal counse ling se veral tim es.Co unseling im plications. Th e as sessm en tof clients career-decision diffi cu lties isamong the first steps in assisting them.There fore, locating the so urc es of th edifficultiesassociated w ith ca reerind ecisio nand indecisiv eness is one of the centralissuesofcareercounselin g.Accurate and comprehensiv e ass essm ents of decision-making difficulties has a m ajor im portance in careercounselin g , a s it permits th edevelo pment ofd iff ere ntialinterventions for c lients w ith d iff erentty pesofdiffi culties(Gatiet a l . ,1 99 6;Santos, 2 0 01) .The propo sed taxonomy and the EPCD co uld as sist coun se lors in the process of

locating the emot iona l or pe rsonality -re lated sourcesof clients diffi culties byas sessing pe ss i-m istic vie w s,anxiety, an d pe rso na lide ntity diff usion . We believethatit is unlikely that em otional diffi culties could be reso lved witho ut cou nselinginterve ntions focusing on th e m ore chron ic and dys functiona l personalityantecedents of th e dec ision pro blems (G e r- m e ijs and De-Boeck, 20 02). Locatingthe sources of the clients emotional diffi culties can help tailor the counselorsefforts to add re s s th e m . T h es e s ho u ld b e distinc t from the typical approa ch toca ree rinfo rm ation-relate d diffi culties, w hich is ce ntered on retrie - val and p ro ce ssingof ca reer inform ation. Counselors ca n he lp clients w ith low self-este emde ve lopaspirations appropriate for their skills and interests . For exa m ple,counse lors m ayhaveto arrangea seriesof experiencesto encourageclients id entity developmentan d co n- fi dence bu ilding before en gag ingin the ca ree rdecisio n-making proc es s.Dea lin gw ith th e anxiety a rouse d by th e p ro cessand th e ne edtom ak ea choice sh ou ldals o be a m ajorfocu softh e counse lin gp ro cess. Specifically, co unselo rsm ay focu sonassisting su ch clien ts w ith m anaging th e ir anxie ty as th eycarry out se eming ly ro utinetaskssuchas c ondu ctinginter-view saim edat collecting information and review ingpers onality and in terest invento ry re sults . As the results sh owed, active lymonitoring clients self -esteemand anx iety th roughout th e ca reerdecisio n-makin gprocess shou ldbe an integralcomponentofth e career-counseling proc e ss .

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AppendixA. In terco rre la tion s am ongth e 11 EPCD scales (N= 74 7,PVPesimisticView s ,Ax Anxiety , S I Self-concept and Iden tity)

EPCD Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1

1. PV aboutth e p ro ces s 2. PV aboutthe w or ld of work .2 9 3. PV aboutthe individuals .3 6 .47

control4. Ax abou t the process .5 0 .28 .3 8 5. Axabout uncertainty .5 2 .35 .4 6 .7 0 6. Ax abou t the choice .5 4 .33 .4 0 .6 9 .75 7. Ax abou t the outcomes .4 2 .35 .3 7 .4 8 .55 .6 8 8. S I gen era l anxiety .2 1 .17 .2 2 .3 9 .42 .3 5 .2 4 9 . SIself-e steem .2 3 .19 .2 9 .3 2 .41 .3 6 .3 0 .53

10. S I identity status .4 2 .22 .3 8 .4 3 .55 .5 2 .4 7 .36 .5 1 11 . S I signifi ca ntothers .1 8 .13 .2 1 .2 7 .30 .2 6 .2 4 .33 .4 0 .4 3

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