Decisions: How do you make them?

Rev. Dr. Stan Jasiurkowski

Introduction

People make decisions every day that have big and small gravity. Decision making can be described as a process of identifying and selecting the best option from many alternatives that best fits a specific goal, objective, or purpose (Ahmed & Omotunde, 2012). The cognitive psychology attempts to understand how individuals arrive at their decision points and choices using mental or logical reasoning seems to be a fascinating and still progressing phenomenon. There are multiple theories that claim to explain the human decision-making process along with factors influencing these decisions. Additionally, people are interested in making effective decisions affecting their day-to-day life, business, finances, politics, scientific research, personal relationships, or social policies—naming a few. Predominantly, individuals make decisions by exploring and moving between the criteria or goals and feasible alternatives influencing each other. Therefore, the decision theory studies the principles and logic individuals use for making decisions. This article will discuss the human decision-making process exploring the selected theories of logical and risky decisions. Additionally, it will present some strategies that individuals can apply to decrease risky decisions and increase logical ones as well as present final thoughts and recommendations.

Explanation of the Decision-Making Process

Decision-making is a routine activity for all human beings who make logical and risky decisions. According to Humphreys et al. (2016), decision making seems to be a complex behavior, and it develops slowly exhibiting nonlinear paths throughout the life-spam development in which associative learning and sensitivity to feedback play an important role. Decision-making involves a process of deciding on selecting an alternative that leads to achieving desirable results and contains three important elements: (a) making a choice from a number of alternatives, (b) involves more than just a final choice from alternatives, and (c) a purpose resulting from mental activity to reach a final decision (Lunenburg, 2010).  Additionally, the human brain considers multiple sources of data before deciding on one course of action; however, that process might go astray and individuals make impulsive, indecisive, or risky decisions leading to negative consequences (Goldstein, 2011).

Logical Decision-Making Model

One of the theoretical models explaining rational decision making was influenced by expected utility theory claiming that humans are essentially rational and if they possess relevant information, they will make a decision resulting in the supreme expected utility (Goldstein, 2011). However, it does not explain how people make decisions. According to a logical model, the decision-making process can be dividend on six steps as follows: (a) identifying a problem, (b) generating alternative solutions, (c) careful evaluation of these alternatives, (d) choosing an alternative, (e) implementing the chosen decision, and (f) evaluating decision over time to ensure its effectiveness (Lunenburg, 2010). Implementing these steps can help individuals to make logical and proper decisions, but it does not work as a computer algorithm that always renders desirable results. Pillay (2014) stated that, despite of the appearance that the logical decision-making is rational and scientific, individuals make decisions that are essentially subjective and impacted by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, emotions, personal values, believes and morals. Therefore, individuals need to learn, rehearse and implement presented decision-making steps which are based on the understanding of human brain functioning that will lead them to making rational decisions.

The Nature of Risky Decisions

Literature presents several different models of risk-taking decisions, including the behavioral decision making perspective, the health-belief model, the prototype/willingness model, and the fuzzy-trace theory (Reyna & Farley, 2006). It seems that the fuzzy-trace theory, which is grounded on research in memory, judgment, and decision making and takes for consideration a broad spectrum of cognitive, emotional, social, and developmental aspects, can explain well making risky decisions.

In the context of risk taking, decision making is a dynamic and complex process that may change during the course of life-spam development. Humphreys et al. (2016) argued that making risky decisions involves numerous psychological processes that include associative learning, sensitivity to pressure, and negative feedback. According to the fuzzy-trace theory, individuals encode numerous mental imagery of daily encounters. These representations can be from exhaustive with surface details to fuzzy-idea representations incorporating only some meaning of an encounter that was additionally filtered through emotional, cultural, educational, developmental and multiple others factors (Reyna & Farley, 2006). These two types of representations are encoded, saved and retrieved individually. Individuals making decisions might identify “the gist of a risky situation” as it relates to previous experiences, and, at the same time, the verbatim representation is encoded; however, it rapidly fades away, and the decision is made based on a fuzzy processing increasing the tendency to take risks (Reyna & Farley, 2006). Interestingly, Reyna and Farley (2006) stated that the research confirms that adolescents and young adults are prone to the inordinate risk-taking decisions and this pattern changes with development as these individuals mature and increase their cognitive and social experiences as their forebrain along with other neurological structures contributing to judgment and behavioral choices mature and reduce risk taking.

Methods to Decrease Risky Decisions

Methods that are intended to reduce risky decisions and enhance logical ones are focused on improving the correctness of perceptions of risk, diminishing the individual’s belief of invulnerability, and transforming biased decision makers into rational and logical ones. It seems that some traditional models based on behavioral decision structure emphasizing conscious processes founded on conditioning and learning might be helpful in the process of decreasing risky decisions for some individuals (Reyna & Farley, 2006). Additionally, Humphreys et al. (2016) stressed the experiential learning, based on integration of knowledge by reflecting on doing, as very important to successful decision making which decreases risk and relies on logic. In this course, teaching individuals to detect errors from past experiences facilitates learning, and improves their decision making process. Individual’s past experiences develop brain patterns or cognitive maps which unconsciously may direct attention to things that change his or her expectations and result in risky decisions. Therefore, self-refection, and revision of a cause-and-effect thinking might help in developing a rational decision-making process (Pillay, 2014). Another aspect of this strategy is the development of emotional and social competence which encompass the following skills: “means-end thinking, resistance to peer pressure, seeking help, and generating alternative solutions to problems”, naming a few (Reyna & Farley, 2006, p. 14). Moreover, the concept of modeling for decision making seems to be a great method. It involves the individual who makes the decision and the model builder assisting in the decision making process. The model builder might be a someone that the person simply trusts as a parent, teacher, a significant other, or a specialist equipped with a set of analytical methods that progressively can build confidence and competence in making logical decisions (Ahmed & Omotunde, 2012).

Summary and Final Thoughts

           Rational and risk decision making seems to be one of the important topics of cognitive psychology. It seems that logical decision-making might involve a suitable sense of balance between the exploration and exploitation as well as understanding of benefits of emphasizing one or the other in the decision-making process and usually follows some common steps in this process (Blanco et al., 2016). Risky decisions are often associated with adolescents and young adults and encompass a broad spectrum of cognitive, emotional, social, and developmental aspects contributing to this process that might be better understood in the light of the fuzzy-trace theory. There are also multiple strategies intended to reduce risky decisions by improving the correctness of perceptions of risk, diminishing the individual’s belief of invulnerability, and transforming biased into rational and logical ones improving rational decision making. Presented a snap-shot of literature discussing the decision-making processes related to logical and risky decisions does not depict the full spectrum of decision making theories and signalizes how much it has to be learned about this process which is one of the most complex and essential human activities.  

References

Ahmed, M. T., & Omotunde, H. (2012). Theories and strategies of good decision making. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 1(10), 51-54. Retrieved from https://www.ijstr.org/final-print/nov2012/Theories-And-Strategies-of-Good-Decision-Making.pdf

Blanco, N. J., Love, B. C., Ramscar, M., Otto, A. R., Smayda, K., & Maddox, W. T. (2016). Exploratory decision-making as a function of lifelong experience, not cognitive decline. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 145, 284-297. Retrieved from https://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=34a4d55c-2845-4b95-8eb1-83ef5516c1f0%40sessionmgr105&hid=122

Goldstein, B. E. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Humphreys, K. L., Telzer, E. H., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Gabard-Durnam, L., Gee, D. G., & Lee, S. S. (2016). Risky decision making from childhood through adulthood:contributions of learning and sensitivity to negative feedback. American Psychological Association, 16, 101-109. Retrieved from???

Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). The decision making process. National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, 27(4), 1-12. Retrieved from https://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C.%20The%20Decision%20Making%20Process%20NFEASJ%20V27%20N4%202010.pdf

Pillay, S. (2014). How to improve your decision-making skills. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/03/how-to-improve-your-decision-making-skills

Reyna, V. F., & Farley, F. (2006). Risk and rationality in adolescent decision making. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7(1), 1-44. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2006.00026.x