Abstract
Scant research has addressed how maximizing, or the tendency to seek the ‘best’ alternative and not settle (Schwartz et al., 2002; Simon, 1955), relates to adolescents’ vocational behavior. In this exploratory study, high school seniors completed measures of maximizing, choice/commitment anxiety, career decidedness, and career exploration time. Seniors also expressed why they considered themselves maximizers or not and described reasons behind feelings of anxiety about career selection. Results showed that adolescents high in maximizing tendency also had heightened choice/commitment anxiety, higher decidedness, and had spent less time exploring careers. Adolescents explained reasons behind maximizing tendencies, such as finding stable careers and challenging themselves. They also provided reasons behind their career choice anxiety, including fear of failure or regret, inadequate work environments, and lack of opportunities. Overall, these findings clarify cognitive and emotional aspects influencing career decision-making in adolescents. Career counseling services can use this information to anticipate concerns and develop prevention programs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Data Availability
Please contact the corresponding author to discuss the data generated from the study.
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Cheek, N. N., & Schwartz, B. (2016). On the meaning and measurement of maximization. Judgment and Decision Making, 11(2), 126–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500007257.
Dar-Nimrod, I., Rawn, C. D., Lehman, D. R., & Schwartz, B. (2009). The maximization paradox: The costs of seeking alternatives. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(5), 631–635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.007.
Diab, D. L., Gillespie, M. A., & Highhouse, S. (2008). Are maximizers really unhappy? The measurement of maximizing tendency. Judgment and Decision Making, 3(5), 364–370. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500000383.
Giacopelli, N. M., Simpson, K. M., Dalal, R. S., Randolph, K. L., & Holland, S. J. (2013). Maximizing as a predictor of job satisfaction and performance: A tale of three scales. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(4), 448–469.
Hacker, J., Carr, A., Abrams, M., & Brown, S. D. (2013). Development of the career indecision profile: Factor structure, reliability, and validity. Journal of Career Assessment, 21(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072712453832.
Iyengar, S. S., Wells, R. E., & Schwartz, B. (2006). Doing better but feeling worse: Looking for the “best” job undermines satisfaction. Psychological Science, 17(2), 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01677.x
Leach, J. K., & Patall, E. A. (2013). Maximizing and counterfactual thinking in academic major decision making. Journal of Career Assessment, 21(3), 414–429. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072712475178.
Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2020). Career decision making, fast and slow: Toward an integrative model of intervention for sustainable career choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 120, 103448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103448.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551–558. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023281.
Nenkov, G. Y., Morrin, M., Ward, A., Schwartz, B., & Hulland, J. (2008). A short form of the maximization scale: Factor structure, reliability and validity studies. Judgment and Decision Making, 3(5), 371–388. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500000395.
Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1178–1197. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1178.
Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.2307/1884852.
Simon, H. A. (1956). Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychological Review, 63(2), 129–138. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042769.
Xu, H., & Tracey, T. J. G. (2017). Development of an abbreviated career indecision profile-65 using item response theory: The CIP-short. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 222–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000182.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the high school that permitted recruitment of their students.
Funding
No funding, grants, or other support was received.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The first author completed this work as a graduate student and led research efforts around conception and design, data collection, analysis, and drafting the manuscript. The second author served as a faculty mentor and contributed intellectually to all steps of the research process.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The second author is an editor for this journal. The authors have no other competing interests to declare.
Ethics approval
The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) at Fielding Graduate University. The study was performed in line with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Consent to publish
Participants also consented to this research study’s publication in a journal.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kenner, I., Sage, K. Maximizing tendency in adolescence relates to higher career choice anxiety, higher decidedness, and less career exploration time. Curr Psychol 43, 13757–13760 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05415-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05415-1