Abstract:

The aim of this study is to study whether high school students differentiate by their levels of cognitive flexibility and decision-making styles according to gender and parents’ attitudes they perceive. The research sample is made up of 1020 students (557 women, 463 men) who continue their education in the Mersin or Middle Education Institutions. The study used the "Made of Mother-Father Attitudes" (Eldeleklioğlu, 1996), the "Made of Cognitive Flexibility" (Steelikkaleli, 2014) and the "Made of Decisioning in Adults" (Çolakkadıoğlu, 2003). In the analysis of data, the bilateral variance analysis (ANOVA) has been used to determine the source of the difference. The research has found that men have higher self-esteem in making decisions from gender to gender, while women use more panic decision style and men use more negligence decision style. Students who perceive a democratic attitude of parents in terms of their perceived parental attitudes have found that their self-respect in decision making is higher and they use more prudent selective decision-making style. It has been seen that students with authorized parent-parent attitude perception use the decision style to escape concern and responsibility; those with protective-willful attitude perception use the panic decision style more. While the student’s cognitive flexibility in terms of gender is not different, the student’s cognitive flexibility in terms of democratic perception of the parent’s attitude is higher.

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