Navigating the Abyss: Depression’s Influence on Decision-Making Styles

Abstract

One common mental malady is depression, also known as depressive disorder characterized by a prolonged depressive episode, pleasure loss, or activity disinterest. There are two ways in which decisions are made: logically and intuitively, depending on feelings and emotions. National Cadet Corps (NCC) is an Armed Forces organization that seeks to change the opinions of younger men and women by educating, inspiring, and drawing them to a career in the armed forces while also teaching them how to be self-less providers and excellent citizens. With the help of the NCC, young people across the country can cultivate moral values, discipline, duty, commitment, and holistic growth that will enable them to become valuable citizens and capable leaders. The method used to conduct this study was a descriptive survey. The purpose of this study is to look into how depression affects NCC cadets' ability to make decisions. A sample of 100 final-year NCC cadets was chosen with purposive sampling method from 20 units under the Ambala and Rohtak NCC group headquarters in Haryana for this study. Data has been collected with Depression Scale developed by Dr. Kranti K Srivastava (2021) and General Decision-Making Scale Indian adapted version of Scott & Bruce (1995) Statistical analysis has been performed using Mean, Standard Deviation, MANOVA and ANOVA to test the different effects. Result of this study showed no evidences that depression affects NCC students' rational, intuitive, or spontaneous decision-making styles however, depression does have an effect on their other decision-making styles, such as dependent and avoidant.