Thinking Styles and Career Decision-making Self-efficacy among Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and Hearing Students

Abstract

This study explores how students’ thinking styles are related to their career decision-making self-efficacy, by administering the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II and the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale–Short Form to 484 deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) and 449 hearing university students in mainland China. Results show that, among all participants, those with Type I styles (i.e., more creativity-generating, less structured, and cognitively more complex) had higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy, while those with Type II styles (i.e., more norm-favoring, more structured, and cognitively more simplistic) had lower levels. The contributions, limitations, and implications of the present research are discussed.