Self-control in career decision-making: The roles of the hot and cool systems of gratification delay

Abstract

While extant research has focused on the joint roles of distal background factors and decisional self-efficacy when investigating facilitative factors in career decision-making, knowledge regarding the role of gratification delay and its contributing systems is limited. Using a sample of U.S. individuals (n = 281), the current study longitudinally examined the structural predictions of the emotional (i.e., distress tolerance) and cognitive (i.e., time discounting) foundations of gratification delay for decisional anxiety. The results supported a mediation model in which gratification delay mediates the negative prediction of distress tolerance (Time 1) for decisional anxiety (Time 2 = Time 1 + 3 months) and the positive prediction of time discounting (Time 1) for decisional anxiety (Time 2). Additionally, gratification delay joined decisional self-efficacy in sequentially mediating these predictions. Therefore, the present study supports the utility of the gratification delay perspective in conceptualizing and facilitating the career decision-making process and provides implications for research and practice related to self-control in career decision-making.