The Role of Quality of Friendship and Loneliness in Shaping Decision Making Styles among Young Adults

Description

Page: 402-407

Nazia Gulzar and Vishal Sharma (Department of Psychology, Jagannath University, Bahadurgarh, Haryana)

Friendships can significantly shape our ability to make decisions by shaping perception, providing support and influencing perception and attitudes. The study’s objective was to explore the connection between friendship quality, loneliness and decision making styles among young adults and to check whether friendship quality and loneliness contribute in decision making styles among young adults. The sample size included 186 participants (Males-41.9% & Females-58.1%) young adults within the age range of 20 to 35 years who were evaluated using the McGill Friendship Questionnaire (Mendelson & Aboud, 1999), UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996), and General Decision Making Scale (Scott & Bruce, 1995). Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression were used for the examination of the collected data. Consistent with the body of current research, findings indicated that friendship quality and loneliness both were significantly correlated and predicted decision making styles. The results show that the dimensions of friendship quality has a positive correlation with rational (r=0.42, p<0.01), intuitive (r=0.37, p<0.01), dependent (r=0.29, p<0.01) and spontaneous (r=0.17, p<0.01) style of decision making and a negative correlation between loneliness and rational (r=-0.22, p<0.01), intuitive (r=-0.24, p<0.01), spontaneous (r=-0.25, p<0.01), dependent (r=-0.18, p<0.05) and avoidant (r=-0.16, p<0.05) decision making styles. Results of stepwise regression showed that respondent’s affection (satisfaction) and friend’s function (emotional security, self-validation, stimulating companionship & intimacy) emerges as the predictors of rational, intuitive and dependent decision-making styles. Whereas loneliness is a negative predictor of spontaneous and avoidant decision making style. The findings of the study highlight the importance of fostering social relationships like friendships and addressing loneliness, to engage in better style of decision making. This suggests development of psychoeducational workshops to foster social support building as a means to enhance decision making confidence and reduce indecisiveness.