Analysis of the relationship betwen the cognitive flexibility levels and decision strategies in adolescents based on sex and education level

This research aims to analyze whether there is a meaningful difference between decision strategies and cognitive flexibility of students in secondary and higher education levels based on their sex and academic levels. The sampling used in this study is a total of 1010 adolecent students (538 girls, 472 boys) from eleven secondary schools in Çukurova, Seyhan, Yüreğir and Sarıçam districts of the province of Adana and from departments of Çukurova University: and study uses stratified sampling and simple random sampling method according to their corresponding number in the universe. In order to determine the cognitive flexibility levels of the subject group "Cognitive Flexibility Scale", to determine their decision strategies "Decision Strategies Scale" were used. The data collected in the research were analyzed using SPSS 18 software. Variance anaylsis was conducted in order to figure out whether there is a meaningful difference in the cognitive flexibility levels and decision strategies based on sex and academic level. I terms of the sex variable of the participants, it is found out that there is a meaningful difference in rational and indecisiveness subdimensions according to the participants cognitive flexibility levels. While there isn't a mainingful difference in the means of intuitive and dependent decision making subdimensions. Furthermore; it is seen that as the cognitive flexibility in terms of the sex variable increases, rational decision making increases. It is clearly seen that there are meaningful differences in intuitive, rational and dependent subdimensions based on cognitive flexibility levels of the participants in terms of their academic level variable. While there isn't any difference in means of indecisiveness subdimensions scores. It's seen that adolescents with higher cognitive flexibility are more likely to use the rational decision making strategies. It isfound thatas the cognitive flexibilitiy relevent to academic level variable increases, rational decision making increases while dependent, intuitive and indecisiveness decision making decrease. Also, it is found out that there isn't any meaningful difference in the means of decision making strategy scores. According to interaction between gender and academic level varieties and cognitive flexibilitiy levels. Keywords: Cognitive flexibility, decision strategies, sex, academic level.