Career Indecision Scales Do Not Measure Foreclosure

Abstract

Career indecision scales may obscure important differences between students who are committed to self-chosen vocational goals and students who are committed to goals chosen for them by significant others. To examine this possibility, 199 students responded to a measure of identity status along with the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976), My Vocational Situation (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980), and the Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1989). A MANOVA using identity status as the independent variable and the three decisional measures as dependent variables indicated that the decisional measures discriminated the diffused and moratorium groups from each other and from the identity achieved and foreclosed groups. However, the measures did not discriminate between the achieved and foreclosed groups.