| Two hundred thirty-three individuals from the general psychology pool participated in a cluster analysis study for the purpose of identifying subtypes of career indecision. An additional 118 participants from a career planning course, divided into two subgroups based on their reason for taking the course, served as a comparison group. Ward's method was used as a clustering technique utilizing squared Euclidian interobject distance as the algorithm criterion.; Participants completed the Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1989), the Assertive Job-Hunting Survey (Becker, 1980), the Problem Solving Inventory (Heppner & Petersen, 1982), and the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (Taylor & Betz, 1983). There was significant intercorrelation between these scales. All 17 of the subscales were used in the clustering analysis.; A four cluster solution was adopted. In interpreting these clusters, they were characterized as: Cluster 1- "Decided but Low Information Processing"; Cluster 2- "Decided but Struggling"; Cluster 3- "Firmly Decided and Confident"; and Cluster 4- "Indecisive and Skill Deficient". The two career planning groups were compared with the four clusters, the implications for career planning courses were noted, and the significance of the findings for understanding the career indecision construct was discussed. |
