A measurement scale for indecisiveness and its relationship to career indecision and other types of indecision

A scale for indecisiveness was constructed and then used to investigate distinctive features of indecisiveness. In the literature on decision making, the distinction between indecision and indeciveness is an important issue, but evidence showing that these two constructs are different is lacking. We found clear evidence for such a distinction, from a joint exploratory factor analysis of the indecisiveness scale and a career indecision scale, and from the differential relation of both with self-esteem as a third variable. Furthermore, with confirmatory factor analysis, we found that the correlations between items on career indecision cannot be explained only by indecisiveness, and that also a factor specific to the situation of career decision is needed. These results corroborate the distinction between career indecision and indecisiveness. Although it must be differentiated from specific types of indecision, such as career indecision, indecisiveness turned out to be a correlate of the specific indecisions - one that can explain the intercorrelations between different kinds of more specific indecision.