THE MELBOURNE DECISION-MAKING QUESTIONNAIRE - AN INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING PATTERNS FOR COPING WITH DECISIONAL CONFLICT

A study was conducted to examine the factorial validity of the Flinder s Decision Making Questionnaire (Mann, 1982), a 31-item self-report in ventory designed to measure tendencies to use three major coping patte rns identified in the conflict theory of decision making (Janis and Ma nn, 1977): vigilance, hypervigilance, and defensive avoidance (procras tination, buck-passing, and rationalization). A sample of 2051 univers ity students, comprising samples from Australia (n = 262), New Zealand (n = 260), the USA (n = 475), Japan (n = 359), Hong Kong (n = 281) an d Taiwan (n = 414) was administered the DMQ. Factorial validity of the instrument was tested by confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL. Fi ve different substantive models, representing different structural rel ationships between the decision-coping patterns had unsatisfactory fit to the data and could not be validated. A shortened instrument, conta ining 22 items, yielded a revised model comprising four identifiable f actors - vigilance, hypervigilance, buck-passing, and procrastination. The revised model had adequate fit with data for each country sample and for the total sample, and was confirmed. It is recommended that th e 22-item instrument, named the Melbourne DMQ, replace the Flinders DM Q for measurement of decision-coping patterns. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.