Career Choice Issues in First-Year Students: Cognitive Profile

The article introduces an authentic approach to career choice studies. It relies on the following hypothesis: decision-making trends, psychological type, and cognitive profile correlate in university students. The methodology included seven techniques and questionnaires: Personal Factors in Decision-Making (T. V. Kornilova); Decision Making Tendency Inventory (A. Yu. Razvaliaeva); Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (adapted by T. V. Kornilova); Causal Orientation (O. E. Dergacheva et al.); Cognitive Closure Test (M. I. Yasin & O. E. Khuklaev); Career Preferences (J. Holland’s Self-Directed Search Career Assessment adapted by A. N. Vorobiov et al.); Professional and Psychological Personality Type (S. V. Dukhnovsky). The research involved 310 first-year students from the Siberian University of Consumer Cooperation, Novosibirsk. The factors of cognitive uncertainty and cognitive openness revealed some peculiarities in the relationship between decision-making, personal choice strategies, and professional and psychological personality types in first-year university students. Most of them exhibited strong open-ended cognitive traits, including constructive decision-making methods and strategies. Those with high cognitive ambiguity and poor cognitive openness demonstrated explicit cognitive closed-mindedness. These results may help to determine potential risks of cognitive deformations related to career choice in university students. Research prospects involve a deeper study into career counselling.

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