Dimensionality of the Career Decision Scale: Methodological,Cross-Cultural,and Clinical Issues

In two related papers, Shimizu, Vondracek, Schulenberg, and Hostetler (1988) and Schulenberg, Shimizu, Vondracek, and Hostetler (1988) proposed a four-factor model of the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976). In Martin, Sabourin, Laplante, and Coallier (1991), we tested the relevance of this model using more robust estimation techniques. Our conclusions contradicted those of Shimizu et al. (1988) and Schulenberg et al. (1988): We concluded that the CDS has no clear dimensional structure and recommended the use of the total score and not that of its subscales. Shimizu, Vondracek, and Schulenberg (1994) is a reply to our paper in which these authors raise doubts about our methodological choices and present results of the reanalysis of their original data using our methodology. Here we explain why most of the critics of our methodology and interpretations are mislead, and why the results they got with the use of our methodology proves exactly the opposite of what they claim. We also review other matters discussed by Shimizu et al. (1988): cross-cultural comparison and clinical issues. We conclude by reasserting that the CDS is a reliable instrument for the measurement of career indecision level, but not of anything else because it has no clear dimensional structure.