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Decision-Making Style

How do I tend to make important choices — and what happens inside me when I face one?

Twenty-four statements about what happens inside you when you face an important life choice.

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24 statements · About 4 minutesOur estimate

Infeee Exploratory Assessment

What it looks at

Six patterns, each measured on its own. You’ll see which came through most in your answers — never a type, a total or a verdict:

  • The OverthinkerBefore an important choice you may research, compare and talk it through in your head many times. Choosing too soon can feel more dangerous than waiting.
  • The Approval SeekerYou may check a choice with several people and feel steadier once someone you respect agrees. Other people’s doubts can quickly become yours.
  • The Intuitive DeciderAn option may feel light or heavy, open or tight, before you can say why. When something feels right, you may move quickly.
  • The Strategic PlannerYou may list pros and cons, think in scenarios and choose what makes sense on paper. Feelings can seem like noise to set aside.
  • The AvoiderA heavy choice may get pushed to later, buried under other tasks, or left until circumstances decide. Even thinking about it can feel draining.
  • The Freedom ChaserYou may prefer options you can undo, feel boxed in by commitment, or push back when someone tells you what to choose.

What it does not measure

  • It doesn’t measure how good your decisions are, or your intelligence or judgment.
  • It doesn’t measure people-pleasing in general or saying no — People-Pleasing & Speaking Up looks at that separately.
  • It is not a diagnosis, and it doesn’t measure anxiety or any mental-health condition.
  • It isn’t a type. Most people use several of these patterns, depending on the choice and the season of life.
  • No pattern is better than another. Each has real strengths and a real cost.
  • It doesn’t compare you with other people: there are no percentiles or norms.

What you’ll see

You’ll see the pattern that came through most in your answers — and any pattern close behind — with its strengths, what to watch for, what it may be protecting and what it may cost, a coaching question and one gentle experiment. All six patterns are shown on their own lines, without numbers. Close or tied patterns are shown together, never forced into one.

Evidence and research basis

Infeee Exploratory Assessment

An original Infeee questionnaire grounded in published research, but not yet tested for reliability or validity. There are no norms or comparison groups.

How Infeee labels evidence

Infeee Exploratory Assessment: research-informed, not yet validated.

The statements, patterns and descriptions were written by Infeee for coaching reflection. They draw on decision-making research — the styles below come from that research and from coaching practice — but no published questionnaire is used or adapted, and this test has not been validated.

These are new, Infeee-written statements. They have not yet been tested for reliability or validity, so treat the result as a reflection prompt, not a measurement.

With four statements per pattern, small differences between patterns don’t mean much. That’s why close patterns are shown together.

How you answer can depend on the decisions on your mind right now.

Sources (6)
  1. Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1995). Decision-making style: The development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 818–831.Describes rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant and spontaneous decision-making styles.
  2. Mann, L., Burnett, P., Radford, M., & Ford, S. (1997). The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire: An instrument for measuring patterns for coping with decisional conflict. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10(1), 1–19.Builds on Janis and Mann’s conflict theory: vigilance, buck-passing, procrastination and hypervigilance under decisional conflict.
  3. Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1178–1197.Searching for the best option (maximizing) versus a good-enough one (satisficing).
  4. O’Connor, A. M. (1995). Validation of a decisional conflict scale. Medical Decision Making, 15(1), 25–30.Decisional conflict: uncertainty about which course to take, and what feeds it — unclear values, too little support, too little information.
  5. Gilbert, D. T., & Ebert, J. E. J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 503–514.People prefer choices they can reverse, yet in these studies were less satisfied with them than with final ones.
  6. Hong, S.-M., & Faedda, S. (1996). Refinement of the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56(1), 173–182.Psychological reactance: pushing back when a choice feels pressed on you.

About this topic

Researchers describe several recurring decision-making styles, including rational, intuitive, dependent (relying on others’ advice) and avoidant styles. The Strategic Planner, Intuitive Decider, Approval Seeker and Avoider patterns draw on these descriptions.

Conflict theory describes how people cope when a choice feels high-stakes: careful weighing, but also procrastinating, passing the decision to others, or anxious, rushed searching.

Some people search for the best possible option rather than a good-enough one. In these studies, this “maximizing” went together with more regret and less satisfaction — part of the background for the Overthinker pattern.

In one set of studies, people preferred choices they could undo, yet were less satisfied with reversible choices than with final ones — part of the background for the Freedom Chaser pattern.

Sources (4)
  1. Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1995). Decision-making style: The development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 818–831.
  2. Mann, L., Burnett, P., Radford, M., & Ford, S. (1997). The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire: An instrument for measuring patterns for coping with decisional conflict. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10(1), 1–19.
  3. Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1178–1197.
  4. Gilbert, D. T., & Ebert, J. E. J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 503–514.

Your privacy

Your answers are processed in your browser and aren’t saved — not on this device and not on our servers.

When you finish, you can choose to add the result to your Pattern Map. It’s saved only in this browser on this device, and you can remove it at any time.

Before you start

24 statements · about 4 minutes. This is a self-reflection tool, not a diagnosis. Your answers stay on this device.

Instructions

Think about important choices from the last year or so — work, relationships, where to live, what to say yes to. For each statement, choose how much it sounds like you. There are no right answers.

Answers

Not like me · A little like me · Somewhat like me · Quite like me · Very much like me.

Every statement needs an answer before your result can be shown. You can go back to change an answer, or stop at any time — nothing is saved along the way.

This is a reflection tool, not a diagnosis. If you feel unsafe or need urgent help, contact your local emergency or crisis support service.

Ready when you are.

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