TY - GEN
T1 - Modeling the Individual Process of Career Choice
AU - van der Gaag, Mandy A. E.
AU - van den Berg, Pieter
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Making a suitable career choice is a difficult task. Every year, many adolescents prematurely end their studies, commonly citing “having made the wrong choice” as the main reason. This is a problem, both for the adolescents making these choices, and for society, which bears at least part of the cost of higher education. A thorough understanding of how adolescents make these career choices is essential to identifying the factors responsible for why the wrong choices are often made. Identity development theory emphasizes the role of exploration in career choice, but neglects many of the micro-level processes likely to play an important role. Similarly, traditional decision theory often focuses on optimization of choice, thereby neglecting the cognitive mechanisms that may explain deviations from optimal choice. Here, we present a novel computational approach to modeling long-term decision making. We combine elements of the macro-level theory on identity development with a firm rooting in micro-level cognitive processes. Specifically, we model decision making as an iterative process in which individuals can explore new options or more deeply investigate options that are already under consideration. The output of our model allows us to analyze how the quality of decisions depends on various factors, such as aspiration levels, the tendency to explore new options, and the ability to judge the fit of an option with one’s interests and capabilities. We present some preliminary results that already show our approach can lead to surprising conclusions, encouraging further development of this model in the future.
AB - Making a suitable career choice is a difficult task. Every year, many adolescents prematurely end their studies, commonly citing “having made the wrong choice” as the main reason. This is a problem, both for the adolescents making these choices, and for society, which bears at least part of the cost of higher education. A thorough understanding of how adolescents make these career choices is essential to identifying the factors responsible for why the wrong choices are often made. Identity development theory emphasizes the role of exploration in career choice, but neglects many of the micro-level processes likely to play an important role. Similarly, traditional decision theory often focuses on optimization of choice, thereby neglecting the cognitive mechanisms that may explain deviations from optimal choice. Here, we present a novel computational approach to modeling long-term decision making. We combine elements of the macro-level theory on identity development with a firm rooting in micro-level cognitive processes. Specifically, we model decision making as an iterative process in which individuals can explore new options or more deeply investigate options that are already under consideration. The output of our model allows us to analyze how the quality of decisions depends on various factors, such as aspiration levels, the tendency to explore new options, and the ability to judge the fit of an option with one’s interests and capabilities. We present some preliminary results that already show our approach can lead to surprising conclusions, encouraging further development of this model in the future.
KW - Career choice
KW - Decision making
KW - Identity development
KW - Information processing models
KW - Intra-individual computational modeling
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016105658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-47253-9_40
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-47253-9_40
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85016105658
SN - 978-3-319-47252-2
T3 - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
SP - 435
EP - 444
BT - Advances in Social Simulation 2015
A2 - de Roo, Gert
A2 - Hoogduin, Lex
A2 - Hemelrijk, Charlotte
A2 - Flache, Andreas
A2 - Verbrugge, Rineke
A2 - Jager, Wander
PB - Springer Verlag
T2 - 11th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association, ESSA 2015
Y2 - 14 September 2015 through 18 September 2015
ER -