The relationships among neuroticism, negative career thoughts and feelings, and lack of information in African American college students.

摘要

Components of career indecision that have been found to have a significant impact on the career decision-making process are Neuroticism, Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings, and Lack of Information. Although these variables have been found to be related to career indecision, their relationship with each other has not been fully explored. There also appears to be a lack of research which has studied these relationships in African Americans. Through the use of the International Personality Item Pool Big-Five Factor Markers (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999), the Emotional and Personality Related Aspects of Career Decision-Making Difficulties Scale (EPCD; Saka et al., 2008), the Career Factors Inventory (CFI; Chartrand et al., 1993), and the Career Decision Difficulty Questionnaire (CDDQ; Gati et al., 1996) the variables Neuroticism, Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings, and Lack of Information are measured. An assessment packet comprised of the five subscales that measure the three variables ( Neuroticism, Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings, and Lack of Information ) were used to analyze the hypotheses. Participants were recruited from undergraduate college courses. The sample included 254 African American undergraduate college students. Statistically significant correlations were found between Lack of Information and Negative Career Thoughts (measured by Career Choice Anxiety; CFI, and Pessimistic Views of the Process and Pessimistic Views of the World of Work; EPCD), and Neuroticism (IPIP). Scores on Neuroticism were not found to differ between high/low scores on Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings. Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings were found to account for 42% of the variance on Lack of Information. Unlike previous research, this study found significant gender differences between variables. This finding suggests that there may be gender differences due to the specific sample population that was used. It is further recommended that the relationship among the three variables (Neuroticism, Negative Career Thoughts and Feelings, and Lack of Information) be further explored with this population (African American) and other minority groups.