Career Decision-Making and Mortality Salience

Abstract

Although career indecision has been a topic of considerable interest among vocational psychologists, researchers have yet to reach a general consensus on any single framework that best explains the nature of this elusive construct (Gati et al., 2011). Given that college students face an exceedingly unstable labor market, there is a growing need for innovative methods that can facilitate the career decision-making process for this population (Savickas, 2012). The current study utilized a between-group posttest only true experimental design to explore how an existential framework could explain the interaction effects of mortality salience and one’s personal need for structure within the career decision-making process. Participants were 214 undergraduate students who were at least 18 years of age and enrolled full-time at a college in the United States. A two-way analysis of multi-covariance indicated that this interaction effect did not distinguish changes in career indecision levels for college students. Implications for vocational psychologists, strengths and limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided.