Decision Making

It’s something that most people never think about - how they make decisions. But experts in the field of psychology have taken the time to setup principles and steps that outline the typical decision making steps that we all make.

The decision making process starts with the problem identification. A person has to notice the disparity between an action and another action or a belief she holds and another belief that she might have. This can be a subjective aspect, as she might see a problem between two actions and another person might not. Problem identification, then, relies on one’s own beliefs, experiences, and understandings about a situation.

The person can then decide what to do – either to think on the problem or to simply ignore it. We might find the idea of ignoring a problem counterintuitive; however, we all do it. Think about your beliefs for a minute. Are there any that contradict the other? Take, for example, the war in Iraq. Many of us are of two minds about it: we don’t want more people to die and we do not like war, but how can we leave now, and let the situation get worse? And so, we don’t focus on it in our own minds and conversations because we really don’t know how to resolve the issue. ‘Being of two minds’ is the decision to ignore the problem.

Problem representation is the third step. The individual thinks through the possible scenarios that can improve or alter the situation to a more favorable one. This involves the person’s imagination and could possibly involve her past experiences as well. Hansson said that “the choice of a value-standard for decision-making is the subject of moral philosophy.” (p 13)

The next and last steps are relatively straightforward. She makes a choice, and she implements it. All of this can happen quite quickly, or it could take awhile. What’s the longest time you’ve taken to decide to do or not to do something? Have you ever made a split-second decision? We commonly refer to these as impulses, such as the impulse buying we normally regret later. It wasn’t a reflex, but an impulse, or, decision. How long we take to get to the action is irrelevant.

An adult will use scientific reasoning that children do not understand. She will observe the problem, look for possibilities immediately, analyze the possible solutions and make her choice. With the greater informational processing capacity, she will have greater speed and accuracy in her reasoning that a child will not express. This aids the adult with novel decision making. With the improved memory that she has comparable to a child’s she is able to solve similar but new problems more quickly as well. (Thies and Travers 2001)

Normative and Descriptive Decision Theory

Decision theorists also make distinctions between what their theories actually entail. There is normative decision theory, which focuses on how decisions should be made in order to be considered rational. And there is also descriptive decision theory, which is how decisions are actually made.

Decisions don’t have to take a complete cognitive process, sometimes they are just changes of our behavior. “Changes in behavior tend to be incremental modifications of past behavior, and a decision maker learns from the apparent consequences of each small step before undertaking the next” (Ungson 1982). Behavior, then, is a reflection of past experiences cumulated by decisions to act a certain way in the present and future; it is a reflection of past experience. The consequences of past behavior are commonly referred to as reinforcers. Psychology researcher BF Skinner was summed up by Ties and Travers (2001) with “control the reinforcers, control the behavior.” (p. 15)