Tang, Stephen
Description
This thesis advances a psychological model of
indecision and indecisiveness by way of a functionalist approach
to decision-making. Understanding how and why people have
difficulty making decisions requires looking beyond the content
and outcomes of a decision problem. It requires identifying the
multiple motivations, expectations and experiences of the
decision-maker. The first part of the thesis is a
metatheoretical and theoretical exposition to make room...[Show more] for the
functionalist underpinnings of indecision and indecisiveness.
This begins with recognising that decision-making is a
psychological activity over time which involves the exercise of
the decision-maker’s agency. After reviewing the limited
literature on indecision and indecisiveness, a new model is
proposed based on three functional motivations of a
decision-maker: (i) attaining good decision outcomes, (ii)
managing the demands of a good decision-making process, (iii) and
being a good decision-maker. Successfully realising each of
these motivations can be difficult, resulting in indecision.
Indecision is compounded when multiple motivations collide within
a decision event. The present model posits that each decisional
motivation corresponds to a distinct indecision process, namely
outcome indecision, process indecision and self-presentation
indecision. These indecision processes are influenced by
aversive and avoidant forms of indecisiveness, which draw
attention to different aspects of a decision and the
decision-maker. Three studies tested and refined this model.
Study 1 provided factor-analytic evidence of aversive, avoidant
and ruminative dimensions of indecisiveness using a composite
trait measure. The characteristics and effects of each dimension
were evident when correlated against other personality constructs
and measures relating to a recalled recent experience of
indecision. Study 2 used two contrasting decision-making tasks
to elicit process indecision and account for some antecedents of
outcome indecision. Behavioural, process-tracing, self-report
and psychophysiological data indicated that such indecision could
be expressed in both approach and avoidant ways depending on the
interaction between indecisiveness, appraisals of the task and
self-regulatory capacity. Study 3 was a novel behavioural
decision-making task in which participants’ attention was drawn
to different aspects of being a decision-maker. In addition to
replicating key previous findings, the results showed evidence of
self-presentation indecision when participants’ identity as an
indecisive person was salient. Finally, the thesis considers the
implications of the model for the conceptualisation and treatment
of clinical indecision. A proposal for the transdiagnostic
psychological treatment of indecision is set out based on the
functionalist model.
Items in Open Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.