Decision-Making in Young Adults: Towards a Better Understanding of Individual Differences in Decision-Making Anxiety

Abstract

The study of individual differences provides insights into how person-specific factors influence decision-making, either before, during or after a decision is made. This dissertation examined a specific individual difference in decision-making: decision-making anxiety. With the adoption of a situation-specific approach, a series of three studies allowed for the conceptual definition of this construct, the development of a measure, and the exploration of its role in the decisionmaking process. Study 1 focused on the development and validation of the Decision-Making Anxiety Inventory. The results demonstrated that the 8-item scale is a useful measure of decision-making anxiety, a superordinate construct, best understood by the interrelations of its three factors of anxiety, worry, and emotionality. Moreover, this study situated decision-making anxiety alongside existing decision-making and personality constructs. In Study 2, the relationships between decision-making anxiety and objective and perceived decision-making competence, and perceived decision quality were examined. This study also included crossvalidation from peers. Findings revealed that anxious decision-makers viewed themselves as poor decision-makers who do not make quality decisions. This perception was not supported by the results from objective measures, nor from peer ratings. In Study 3, the role of decisionmaking anxiety was explored in a specific decision-making context: job search. Data was gathered at two time points, two months apart. This study investigated whether decision-making anxiety led to poorer job choice outcomes, via its relationship with job search behaviours. Results demonstrated that decision-making anxiety was a significant negative predictor of job search effort and intensity, and the focused, exploratory, and haphazard job search strategies. However, decision-making anxiety did not predict the more distal outcomes. Overall, this dissertation highlights that decision-making anxiety is a relevant individual difference in decision-making, which appears to influence individuals’ perceptions about their decisionmaking skills, their experience of decision outcomes, and their decision-related behaviours