FROM RATIONAL CHOICE TO MANAGING UNCERTAINTY: THE EVOLUTION OF CAREER DECISIONMAKING THEORIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/cusu-psy-2026-2-11Keywords:
career decision-making, career adaptability, uncertainty, ambiguity, intolerance of uncertainty, youthAbstract
The article presents a systematic theoretical review of the evolution of career decision-making theories – from the origins of the rationalist approach in the first half of the twentieth century to contemporary constructivist, social-cognitive and process-oriented frameworks. Six major theoretical waves are identified: trait-and-factor theory (F. Parsons), differential-descriptive theories (J. Holland, D. Super, E. Schein), process-oriented theories of decision-making (V. Harren, I. Gati, G. Peterson), social-cognitive theories (J. Krumboltz, R. Lent), constructivist and postmodern approaches (M. Savickas, R. Pryor and J. Bright), and theories of managing uncertainty (H. Gelatt, H. Xu). It is shown that each successive wave did not supersede the previous one but rather expanded the conceptual field by introducing new dimensions of analysis – procedural, contextual, narrative and resource-based. The article analyses the conceptual distinction between two types of uncertainty – confusion, understood as situational uncertainty arising from a lack of information and therefore resolvable, and ambiguity, understood as ontological uncertainty inherent in the very nature of career choice – as proposed within the dual-process theory of career decision-making (H. Xu, 2021). It is substantiated that this distinction is particularly relevant for studying career decision-making among young people in conditions of war and socioeconomic instability, since war simultaneously generates both types of uncertainty and therefore requires differentiated strategies of psychological support. The role of intolerance of uncertainty is defined as the psychological mechanism through which ambiguity is transformed into a barrier to career decision-making by activating anxiety and rumination. A comparative analysis of theoretical approaches is carried out according to the criteria of the key construct, the logic of decision-making, the role of uncertainty and the limitations of each framework. The heuristic potential of contemporary theoretical models – specifically M. Savickas’s career construction theory and H. Xu’s dual-process theory – is substantiated with respect to the study of psychological factors underlying career decision-making among young people in conditions of uncertainty.
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