Decision‐Making Strategies for College Students

College students' decision making is often less than optimal and sometimes leads to negative consequences. The effectiveness of two strategies for improving student decision making--node-link mapping and social perspective taking (SPT)--are examined. Participants using SPT were significantly better able to evaluate decision options and develop plans, suggesting that college counselors might increase the effectiveness of students' decision making by presenting a simple SPT strategy. When traditionally aged college students move away from home for the first time and experience young adult freedom from parental restrictions, they sometimes decide to explore high-risk behaviors. Among these behaviors, for example, researchers have suggested a high risk for excessive drug consumption exists for college students, including simultaneous drug use (multiple drugs). Clayton (1992) found that this consumption peaks between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Similarly, approximately 40% of college students engage in heavy alcohol use (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2006), and 44% report binge drinking (Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Moeykens, & Castillo, 1994). In a longitudinal study with college students on decision making and binge drinking, psychologists at the University of Missouri--Columbia found that decision-making ability was impaired among binge drinkers ("Decision-Making Ability Impaired," 2007). Additionally, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 20 years, and 23% of young drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2005 had blood alcohol concentration levels of .08 g/dL or higher (U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, n.d.). Regarding high-risk sexual behavior, Eaton et al. (2006) estimated that there are 9.1 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases among persons ages 15 to 24 years, with more than half of all new cases of HIV infection occurring in individuals younger than 25 years old. In fact, the seventh leading cause of death among 13 to 24 year olds is attributed to HIV (Grunbaum et al., 2004). Novelty-seeking behaviors are also characteristic of the young adult college developmental transition. On the one hand, college students often exhibit a heightened attraction for novel stimuli and adventures that can positively motivate them toward greater learning and independence; on the other hand, novelty seeking can also be problematic when accompanied by a sense of invincibility (Ernst & Paulus, 2005). Through neurodevelopmental studies, researchers have supported this two-sided novelty-seeking situation and have suggested that decision making in adolescence is more under emotional rather than cognitive control, which can lead to sensation seeking over harm reduction (Bjork et al., 2004; May et al., 2004). Behaviors that contribute to novelty seeking and decisions involving risk are closely linked to desirable goals; yet many of these immediate pleasures could carry adverse long-term outcomes (Herrnstein & Prelec, 1992). Risk perceptions also may play an important role in decision making. Many students view their own risks as being smaller than those of their peers (Halpern-Felsher, Biehl, Kropp, & Rubinstein, 2004), and students' risky decisions are, more often than not, made when young people are in a group. For example, Gardner and Steinberg (2005) found that in comparison with adults, the decisions individuals ages 18 to 22 years made were riskier in the presence of peers than when made alone. Reyna and Farley (2006) found that risky adolescent decisions were commonly made in the heat of passion, on the spur of the moment, in unfamiliar situations, or to avoid negative future consequences. Frequently, college students do not fully understand the consequences involved in their decisions until some point in the future (Reyna & Farley, 2006). …