Differences in Career Decision-Making Profiles Between American and Chinese University Students

Abstract

The current research examined differences in career decision-making profiles (CDMP) between American and Chinese university students, as well as the meditational mechanisms possibly underlying these cultural differences. The results of a survey among American (N = 929) and Chinese (N = 945) undergraduates showed that Chinese participants scored significantly higher on consulting with others, desire to please others, willingness to compromise, dependence on others, procrastination, but lower on aspiration for an ideal occupation, internal locus of control, and effort invested in career decision-making than did the American participants. Using a model based on self-construals and subjective cultural norms, we established that interdependent self-construal, independent self-construal and the The dimensions of CDMP include information gathering (IG, the degree to which individuals are thorough in collecting information), information processing (IP, the degree to which individuals analyze and process information into its components), locus of control (LC, the degree to which individuals believe their career future is controlled by external forces rather than by themselves), effort invested in the process (EI, the amount of time and effort invested in the decision-making process), procrastination (PR, the degree to which individuals delay beginning or advancing through the career decision-making process), speed of making the final decision (SP, whether individuals quickly make final decisions once the information has been collected), consulting with others (CO, the extent to which individuals consult with others during the various stages of decision process), dependence on others (DO, the degree to which individuals expect others to make the decision for them), desire to please

Career decision-making profiles and career decision-making difficulties: A cross-cultural comparison among US, Israeli, and Chinese samples

“…The participants in the third and fourth samples were undergraduate students at universities in the US and China, who filled out the CDDQ and the CDMP as part of a study in which they were asked to fill out a series of questionnaires in exchange for personal feedback (Guan et al, 2015).…”

“…Additionally, studies have translated, adapted, and tested the validity of the current assessment tools in additional cultures (CDMP; Tian et al, 2014;CDDQ;Creed & Yin, 2006;Mau, 2001) and compared the different patterns of responses among various cultures (CDMP; Guan et al, 2015;CDDQ;Mau, 2004 found that Asian-Americans had greater difficulties then Caucasian-Americans, in both highschool and college samples. Another study by Mau (2001) found that Taiwanese undergraduate students experienced more career decision-making difficulties than American students.…”

“…From this group, 50 individuals were excluded from the analysis due to missing data in the questionnaires used in Guan et al's (2015) study or questionable answers to the validity items. Of the remaining 929 individuals, 520 (56%) were female and 409 were male (43%), and their mean age was 21.78 (SD=1.44), similar to the US-Students sample.…”

“…Of the 601 remaining individuals in this group, 427 were female (71%) and 174 were male (29%), and their mean age The data of the third and fourth groups was collected between March 2013 and October 2013 as part of the study by Guan and his colleagues (2015). The data were collected from 12 universities in the United State and 12 universities in China (for further details see Guan et al, 2015). The students filled out a series of online questionnaires; in the current study we analyzed…”

Millennials’ Career Decision-Making Difficulties (Cdmd) in Indonesian University Students

“…It was reported that Asian Americans outperformed career decision-making difficulties, and White American perceived the fewest obstacles. Compared to Americans, Guan et al (2015) emphasized that Chinese undergraduates had a better ability in consulting, desire to please others, willingness to compromising, dependence, procrastination, and have lower aspiration for occupation, internal locus of control, and decision making. In light of the Chinese consulting with others, Willner et al (2015) reported that it is used to reduce the CDMD.…”