Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to examine whether cognitive flexibility levels and decision making styles differ according to high school students' gender and parental attitudes perceived. The research sample consists of 1020 (557 female, 463 male) students who continue their education in secondary education institutions in the central districts of Mersin. In the research, "Parental Attitude Scale" (Eldeleklioğlu, 1996), "Cognitive Flexibility Scale" (Çelikkaleli, 2014) "Adolescent Decision Making Scale" (Çolakkadıoğlu, 2003) was used. In the analysis of the data, two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether the difference between the variables was significant. Tukey test was used to determine the source of the difference. While men's self-esteem is higher in decision making, it has been observed that women use panic decision style and men use complacency decision style more. It has been found that students who perceive the parents' attitude democratically have higher self-esteem in decision making and use the prudent selective decision style more. It has been observed that students with the perception of authoritarian parental attitude use the complacency and cop out decision style, and those with the perception of protective-willing attitude use the panic decision style more. While cognitive flexibility of students does not differ in terms of gender, cognitive flexibility of them differs in favor of democratic attitude in terms of perceived parental attitudes. The cognitive flexibility of the students, who perceive their parents' attitude as democratic, has been found to be higher.

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