Avaliação dos estilos cognitivos quanto às fases do processo decisório: pesquisa com acadêmicos de graduação

Abstract

Cognitive Psychology has been studied by several authors with elaboration of theories in order to explain the development of the human intellect. Likewise, the study of the Decisional Process has gradually been highlighted in research involving individuals, groups and organizations, resulting from the requirement of greater effectiveness on the part of decision makers. The present research aims to identify the perception of the students of different Cognitive Styles in the phases of the Decisional Process. The data were collected through a questionnaire, which first sought to identify the degree of importance and the time spent in the decision-making process, in addition to identifying the Cognitive Style of each individual, using the Cognitive Style Index ) by Allinson and Hayes (1996). The sample was composed of 100 academics from the course of Accounting Sciences and 86 academics from the course of Letters. From the analysis of the results, one can identify that 40.32% of the students have the Analytical Style and only 2.69% have the Intuitive Style. It has also been found that Accounting academics attach greater importance in the phases of the Decisional Process, while the scholars of Letters judge to spend more time in the phases of the Decisional Process. In addition, non-parametric tests were performed on the questions of the Decision Process, in which, from the six possible correlations, statistical significance was obtained in five of them, being: gender, age, year of the course, other graduation and course. Already in relation to the Cognitive Style, statistical significance was only obtained in relation to the course. The results indicate that individuals of different styles attribute importance differently to the decision-making process.