The Effect of Decision Training on Career Decision-Making Competence

This research investigated the effectiveness of a multicomponent training program in career decision-making CDM on attitudes about, knowledge of and ability to perform a specified set of CDM behaviors. Experimental students participated in a career-decision skills training program, plus a variety of homework assignments. The control students did not receive any CDM training. Three criterion measures were used to assess the effectiveness of the CDM skills treatment. The Check List of Decision-Making ability, administered before and after training, measures self-rated efficacy estimates of ability to perform certain decision behaviors and provides data from the affective domain. The Career Decision-Making Skills Assessment Exercise measures knowledge of facts and procedures relevant to CDM and is a cognitive instrument. Performance domain data were generated by a Career Decision Simulation, an individually administered instrument that assesses how well a person performs a simulated decision task. Results provide evidence that a structured training program in career decision-making based on social learning principles is effective in producing superior scores on measures of career decision-making competence.