The Effects Of Psychological Distances And Regulatory Focus On Higher Vocational College Students’ Career Decision-making Preference

Career decision-making is one of the most important decisions in everyone’s life,especially for students in higher vocational colleges.Selecting a job is the first step for them to formally integrate with the society,which will have a profound impact on their future career development,interpersonal communication and wealth accumulation.Psychological distance and regulatory focus,as important factors affecting individuals’ decision-making,will also have an impact on vocational college students’ career decision-making preferences.Based on the construal level theory and the regulatory focus theory,the current study explored the influence of psychological distance and regulatory focus on higher vocational college students’ career decision-making preference from the perspective of individuals’ cognitive representation and motivation.At present,the researchers has included four dimensions into the framework of psychological distance,which are spatial distance,temporal distance,social distance and probability.In this study,using a 2(psychological distance: near,far)*2(regulatory focus: promotion focus,prevention focus)mixed experimental design,the variable in the group are the four dimensions of psychological distances respectively,and the inter-group variable is regulatory focus.Selecting 124,126,136,132 higher vocational college students and grouping them into promotion focus or prevention focus group based on the scores of regulatory focus questionnaire,participants were asked to make career decision in the spatial distance,temporal distance,social distance and probability scenarios respectively under two different levels during experiments.The overall conclusions are as follows:(1)the participants preferred to choose occupations of high salaries and short working hours in the conditions of near spatial distance,temporal distance,social distance,and high probability;and preferred to choose occupations of broad individual prospect and according with vocational interest in the conditions of distant spatial distance,temporal distance,social distance,and low probability.(2)The main effect of regulatory focus on higher vocational college students’ career decision-making preference is significant in scenarios of spatial distance,temporal distance and social distance.Promotion-focused participants preferred to choose occupations of broad individual prospect and according with vocational interest,while prevention-focused participants preferred to choose occupations of high salaries and short working hours.(3)Compared to the distant spatial distance,temporal distance and social distance,prevention-focused participants were more likely to choose occupations of high salaries and short working hours under the near spatial distance,temporal distance and social distance.