The effects of achievement and gender on decision-making skill

Abstract

This study used college students to examine the effects of achievement and gender upon decision-making skill during an ego-involved and a non-ego-involved task while controlling for intelligence, locus of control, and state-trait anxiety. A secondary goal was to determine the usefulness of an objective measure of decision-making, a balance sheet procedure adapted from Janis & Mann (1977), to assess two measures of decision-making ability as they relate to the counseling process. Since common concerns brought to counselors are frequently problems of emotionally-laden or ego-involved choice, decision-making skill was assessed on both a consequential ego-involving task and an inconsequential non-ego-involved task. It was hypothesized that different levels of academic achievement and gender would differentiate decision-making skill among college freshman when controlling for the covariates intelligence, locus of control, and state-trait anxiety. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of scores obtained from the balance sheet procedure yielded only a significant gender effect on the non-ego-involved task. The scores of the low-average group students (low class rank and average SAT scores), the high-low group students (high class rank and low SAT scores) and the high-high group students (high class rank and high SAT scores) did not differ significantly on either decision-making task. Males recorded a larger total number of considerations given for two alternatives on the non-ego-involved task than did females [F (1,45) = 4.87, p < .05]. A Chi-square analysis of decision-making-style categories indicate that females use the vigilant information-processing procedure recommended by Janis and Mann (1977) more frequently than males [x^2 (1) = 6.62, p < .01]. In comparing the responses to the two decision making tasks together, males responded differently to the ego-involved and non-ego-involved tasks while females responded similarly to both tasks [F (1,45) = 6.81, p < .01]. It was determined through supplementary analyses that males listed more gains for the two alternatives on the non-ego-involved task than did females. It was concluded that, among these college freshman, males typically produce more considerations than females for the non-ego-involved task, although females appear to respond in a more vigilant manner to that particular task...