Does young adults' preferred role in decision making about health, money, and career depend on their advisors' leadership skills?
Few empirical data exist on how decision making about health differs from that in other crucial life domains with less threatening consequences. To shed light on this issue we conducted a study with 175 young adults (average age 19 years). We presented the participants with scenarios involving advisors who provided assistance in making decisions about health, money, and career. For each scenario, participants were asked to what extent they wanted the advisor to exhibit several leadership styles and competencies and what role (active, collaborative, or passive) they preferred to play when making decisions. Results show that decision making about health is distinct from that in the other domains in three ways. First, most of the participants preferred to delegate decision making about their health to their physician, whereas they were willing to collaborate or play an active role in decision making about their career or money. Second, the competencies and leadership style preferred for the physician differed substantially from those desired for advisors in the other two domains: Participants expected physicians to show more transformational leadership--the style that is most effective in a wide range of environments--than those who provide advice about financial investments or career. Finally, participants' willingness to share medical decision making with their physician was tied to how strongly they preferred that the physician shows an effective leadership style. In contrast, motivation to participate in decision making in the other domains was not related to preferences regarding advisors' leadership style or competencies. Our results have implications for medical practice as they suggest that physicians are expected to have superior leadership skills compared to those who provide assistance in other important areas of life.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. rretamer@ugr.es
Rocio
R
Garcia-Retamero
Mirta
M
Galesic
D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D010819:Physician's Role; D055815:Young Adult