Career Decision Scale (CDS)

Use the Career Decision Scale (CDS) handy assessment to evaluate career, educational and occupational indecision in high school and college students.

The Career Decision Scale (CDS) provides an estimate of career indecision and its antecedents, as well as an outcome measure to determine the effects of relevant interventions.

What It’s Best Used For

This inventory serves as an objective tracking tool for academic advisors, guidance counselors, and continuing education administrators to evaluate student needs and direct them toward clear professional goals.

• Certainty Scale: Measures how confident a student feels regarding their active choice of a college major or career path.
  Indecision Scale: Evaluates specific underlying causes of career hesitation across 16 distinct rating statements.
• Open-Ended Clarification: Allows students to write in personalized information or additional context regarding their unique decision-making barriers.
• By-Hand Scoring: Enables immediate manual grading and profile plotting directly on the booklet without the need for computer software.

(Note: Purchasing this assessment requires a B-Level Qualification, meaning the buyer must hold a relevant degree in psychology/counseling or a professional license requiring psychometric training. The test is fully legal for use in Canada).

Description

The 4-page Test Booklet contains all items and ratings, as well as space for scoring and recording. Students indicate on a scale of 1 to 4 how closely each statement describes their own thinking process regarding their educational and occupational plans. The CDS is composed of 19 items. The Certainty scale (items 1 and 2) measures the degree of a certainty a student feels about his/her decision about a college major and/or a career. The Indecision scale (items 3-18) provides a measure of career indecision. Item 19 is open-ended, allowing the student to clarify or provide additional information about his/her career decision making.

The Career Decision Scale (CDS) Manual provides normative data for high school and college students, as well as limited norms for adult college women and continuing education students.

B-Level Qualification Required To Purchase

A degree from an accredited 4-year college or university in psychology, counseling, or a closely related field PLUS satisfactory completion of coursework in test interpretation, psychometrics and measurement theory, educational statistics, or a closely related area; OR license or certification from an agency that requires appropriate training and experience in the ethical and competent use of psychological tests.