What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? Cognitive Flexibility Influences Career Decision Making and Related Anxiety

Career indecision is a stage most individuals pass through during their lifetimes, but it is often accompanied by anxiety. Although anxiety can have a positive influence on decision-making by focusing attention and cognitive resources, excess anxiety can disrupt the career decision-making process. Existing literature links anxiety to cognitive flexibility, an individual’s ability to efficiently switch between thoughts and ideas and to adapt to evolving situations, with young adults higher in cognitive flexibility typically experiencing less anxiety than their less-flexible peers. No studies to date have examined cognitive flexibility as it relates to career indecision or to career-indecision-related anxiety, however. This study examines the relationships between cognitive flexibility, career indecision, and anxiety in undergraduate students; 156 undergraduate students (72% female, 91% Caucasian, 63% juniors and seniors) completed an online Qualtrics survey assessing career indecision, career anxiety, cognitive flexibility, and general demographic information including academic trajectory, career confidence, and personal characteristics. The data support previously documented relationships between career indecision and anxiety and demonstrated that cognitive flexibility significantly relates to both of these factors. Our results suggest a model in which cognitive flexibility directly influences career decision-making, which in turn dictates levels of career-indecision-related anxiety; thus, individuals who are low in cognitive flexibility and high in career indecision may be excellent candidates for interventions designed to increase cognitive flexibility to promote career decision-making and to reduce career-indecision-related anxiety. Career decisions are some of the most complex choices individuals must make, as the individual must consider a variety of factors—personal abilities, life and career goals, work preferences, and personal expectations—when selecting a BUTLER JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, VOLUME 6 2 career path (Di Fabio, Palazzeschi, Asulin-Peretz, & Gati, 2013). The sheer number of factors to consider is often overwhelming. Although career indecision appears to be a normal stage that most individuals pass through during their lifetimes, decision-making confidence, perceived breadth of career options, and anxiety levels surrounding the decision can all influence the length and severity of the period of career indecision (Campagna & Curtis, 2007; Creed, Patton, & Prideaux, 2006; Osipow, 1999). Even though career indecision is a common phenomenon, it is often accompanied by anxiety. Anxiety is a relatively frequent emotion that is influential in driving judgments and decisions, including those about careers (Campagna & Curtis, 2007; Fuqua, Newman, & Seaworth, 1988). Although anxiety can have a positive influence on judgment and decision-making by focusing attention and cognitive resources, excess anxiety can impede the career decision-making process (Campagna & Curtis, 2007; Fuqua et al., 1988). A variety of factors can drive the anxiety associated with career indecision, including a lack of information about self and careers, uncertainty about the appropriateness and degree of career fit, having multiple interests, and the existence of barriers associated with specific careers. Fuqua, Newman, and Seaworth (1988) investigated the relationships between these factors and anxiety in undergraduate students at a Midwestern university. They found that a lack of information about the self and about careers shared the strongest relationship with anxiety, but anxiety also significantly correlated with uncertainty of fit and the presence of barriers to intended career choice. Although these results suggest that anxiety is highly related to career indecision, they do not address the direct relationship between these two factors. In an effort to better understand the links between career indecision and anxiety, several studies have investigated the specific roles of state anxiety and trait anxiety in career indecision and career certainty (Campagna & Curtis, 2007; Fuqua et al., 1988; Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). State anxiety consists of anxious feelings surrounding specific events or situations, whereas trait anxiety represents an individual’s natural tendency to become anxious regardless of situational factors. To date, it is unclear whether state anxiety, trait anxiety, or a combination of the two best accounts for the anxiety associated with career indecision (Campagna & Curtis, 2007; Fuqua et al., 1988; Spielberger et al., 1983). Campagna and Curtis (2007) found that both state and trait anxiety positively correlated with career indecision, but state anxiety was the better predictor. In addition, only state anxiety was negatively correlated with career certainty, suggesting that increased career uncertainty may lead to higher levels of state BUTLER JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, VOLUME 6 3 anxiety, rather than trait anxiety leading to career uncertainty. While it is still unclear exactly which type of anxiety is responsible for the negative feelings associated with career indecision and whether anxiety precedes or results from difficulties in selecting a career path, these findings suggest that state anxiety resulting from the stressful nature of selecting a career may be more influential in the experience of career-indecision-related anxiety than an individual's natural tendency to become anxious. A variable that may affect the amount of anxiety an individual will experience is cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to efficiently switch between thoughts and ideas, to consider multiple perspectives or approaches simultaneously, or to easily adapt to specific or evolving situations (Kercood, Lineweaver, Frank, & Fromm, 2017; Scott, 1962). Though past research has not explicitly addressed the relationship between cognitive flexibility and the anxiety associated with career decision-making, studies outside the realm of career decision-making have documented links between cognitive flexibility and anxiety more generally. For example, higher anxiety levels are correlated with lower levels of cognitive flexibility in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (Arlt, Yiu, Eneva, Dryman, Heimberg, & Chen, 2016) and eating disorders (Simon & Verboon, 2016). Given this relationship with anxiety in non-career-related settings, it is possible that cognitive flexibility may also be related to career-indecisionrelated anxiety. If the pattern is similar to that with other types of anxiety, individuals who are higher in cognitive flexibility may experience lower levels of career-related anxiety. Cognitive flexibility may also relate to career indecision in undergraduate students, although this is a much less extensively studied area than is cognitive flexibility’s relationship with anxiety. In a study of professional identity in firstyear healthand social care students, students who were higher in cognitive flexibility reported a stronger professional identity (the extent to which they felt they belonged to a certain profession and identified with individuals in that line of work) than did students lower in cognitive flexibility (Adams, Hean, Sturgis, & Clark, 2006). Additionally, a different study asked undergraduate students with and without ADHD to rate their subjective cognitive flexibility, as part of a larger investigation of cognitive flexibility’s impact on academic achievement and career choice. Interestingly, the relationship between cognitive flexibility and career confidence differed in these two populations. Students with ADHD who were higher in subjective cognitive flexibility showed less career confidence than their less-cognitively flexible peers, whereas non-ADHD students with higher subjective BUTLER JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, VOLUME 6 4 cognitive flexibility showed increased confidence in their career choices than did those lower in cognitive flexibility (Kercood et al., 2017). Together, these two studies raise the possibility that in typical undergraduate populations, the ability to consider multiple options may influence decision-making about future career paths, although career indecision was not explicitly addressed in either investigation. The current descriptive study fills two gaps in the literature by exploring the relationships between cognitive flexibility and career-indecision-related anxiety as well as between cognitive flexibility and career indecision. Although trait anxiety may contribute to career indecision, given the prior literature’s indication that state anxiety relates more strongly to career certainty and indecision, the current study focuses only on career-indecision-related anxiety (a form of state anxiety). Given what is known about cognitive flexibility’s relationships with anxiety and with professional identity and career confidence, we expected students with greater cognitive flexibility to experience less anxiety (hypothesis 1) and less indecision (hypothesis 2) about their future careers. Although the previous literature does not specifically address the relationships between cognitive flexibility, anxiety, and career indecision, the relationships that exist between these variables independently (cognitive flexibility and anxiety; cognitive flexibility and professional identity/career confidence) suggest a promising area in which to expand the existing literature. Because of the strong relationships between cognitive flexibility and anxiety outside of the realm of career decision-making, our third hypothesis is that cognitive flexibility may influence anxiety differently in people who are undecided about their future careers than in those who are decided about their career paths. Cognitive flexibility may play little role in the anxiety experienced by individuals who are fairly decided in their careers, a