Are findings on uncertainty transferable to indecisiveness? – Conceptual relationships, critical boundary conditions, and implications for application

优柔寡断是由于害怕做出错误的决定而无法做出选择的长期表现。优柔寡断通常被认为是功能失调。它可以在各种心理障碍中观察到，是抑郁症的诊断标准之一。然而，人们对其潜在的心理机制和潜在的治疗方法知之甚少。尽管优柔寡断的人具有强烈的不确定感，但很少有研究借鉴现有的不确定性研究结果来更好地理解优柔寡断，尽管不确定性已经得到了很好的研究，并在心理学研究中提供了既定的结果。鉴于优柔寡断与不确定性之间的密切关系，利用关于不确定性的知识作为调查优柔寡断的基本过程和可能的干预措施的基础似乎是有希望的。因此，拟议的研究旨在利用不确定性研究的见解，最终确定减少犹豫不决的起点。这一目标分三步走：(1)对犹豫不决和不确定性的概念进行了比较，概述了相似和不同之处。(2)对关于不确定性的调查结果向不确定性的可转移性进行了测试，并确定了这种可转移性的局限性。(3)收集了在计划针对优柔寡断的干预措施时使用这些结果的初步证据。预期是(1)。犹豫不决和不确定性是相似但不同的概念。不确定性的后果和前因可以合理地转变为优柔寡断，但在某些情况下适用限制，以及(3)结果与优柔寡断的潜在治疗相关，并可应用于病理性优柔寡断的临床样本。提出了10个实验来验证这些假设，包括创新的经验方法(例如生态瞬时干预)和一个临床样本。

Indecisiveness is the chronicle inability to choose due to a fear of making a wrong decision. Indecisiveness is typically considered to be dysfunctional. It can be observed across various psychological disorders and is one of the diagnosis criteria for depression. However, little is known about its underlying psychological mechanisms and potential ways of treatment. Although indecisive individuals are characterized by strong feelings of uncertainty, only few studies have drawn upon existing findings on uncertainty to gain a better understanding of indecisiveness, despite uncertainty being well-studied and providing established findings in psychological research. In the light of the close relationship between indecisiveness and uncertainty, it appears promising to benefit from knowledge on uncertainty as a basis to investigate underlying processes and possible interventions of indecisiveness. The proposed studies therefore aim to use insights from uncertainty research in order to, ultimately, identify starting points for the reduction of indecisiveness. This aim is pursued in three steps: (1.) The concepts of indecisiveness and uncertainty are compared, outlining similarities and differences. (2.) The transferability of findings concerning uncertainty to indecisiveness is tested and limitations of this transferability are determined. (3.) Initial evidence for the utility of these results when planning interventions against indecisiveness is gathered. The expectations are that (1.) indecisiveness and uncertainty are found to be similar but differentiable concepts, (2.) consequences and antecedents of uncertainty can reasonably be transferred to indecisiveness, but limitations apply in certain cases, and (3.) results are relevant for potential treatment of indecisiveness and can be applied to clinical samples with pathological indecisiveness. Ten experiments are presented to test these assumptions, including innovative empirical methods (e.g. Ecological Momentary Intervention) and a clinical sample.