How do we arrive at the decisions, big and small, that we make in our daily lives?
DECISION-MAKING is a daily activity. Whether we decide consciously or unconsciously about things, whether we have to make major or minor choices, each day demands that we make decisions.
But how do we decide? Do we do so instinctively and intuitively? Do we weigh up more variables than we realise when we decide, for example, to walk rather than take the bus, to drive rather than cycle, to have a bowl of soup rather than a sandwich? How do we decide which newspaper to buy?
What are the preference patterns we develop over time, and are they real choices freely made? What have we been conditioned to do and what have we decided, independently, is best for us?
Can we truly distinguish between what we have had imprinted upon us from an early age, what has been modelled for us by others and what good or bad choices we have already made? What do we do rationally and what do we do because the emotions of the moment have inspired us?
And how do minor decisions differ from major decisions? How do we decide who to marry, what school to send our children to, where to live and how to live our lives?
How we approach decision-making, the models we bring to it, the strategies we adopt when important decisions have to be made, and the ways in which we anticipate or measure the outcomes of our decisions are important.
Decision-making is a serious business. It involves making choices among alternatives. Within psychology a number of models of decision-making have been outlined. Some have been designed for personal decision-making, others for managerial and organisational assessment. Yet all models are intended to help people to make rational, innovative, purposeful, productive, informed judgments.
All models of decision-making have been designed from the perspective that decisions, regardless of their personal or impersonal nature, can be approached impartially, rationally yet creatively, and that we have the capacity to think in both objective and divergent ways.
Rational decision-making involves a number of steps. The first is to recognise that a decision needs to be made. This may seem obvious, but without some decision-making our lives can happen by default.
The absence of decision-making can prevent evaluation, calibration and direction in our lives. Things can “happen” to us rather than us deciding what we wish to happen and how to achieve it.
Decision-making literature reminds us that having identified that a decision has to be made, we need to define the problem clearly and to delineate the criteria by which the decision will be reached, taking into account our ideas, values, personal preferences, interests and other variables.
Options must be weighed up. Alternatives need to be developed. Potential outcomes should be anticipated and compared. Cost-benefit analyses must be determined. The ideal goal should be identified and the optimal “considered decision” should be computed in accordance with all these steps.
Group decisions have additional dimensions. There is clear accountability in individual decision-making, whereas group decision-making dilutes individual responsibility.
Individual decisions do not involve intra-group power struggles. Individual decisions are not subject to conflicting views or the greater danger of groupthink, where consensus rather than the best option may be favoured. But group decisions bring diversity and increased confidence in the solution, which may unite people in implementing the decision in their daily work.
One of the problems with formal decision-making models is that they assume the problem is clear, the options identifiable, preferences can be ranked, time and cost factors can be accommodated, and that the eventual decision will be the best that can be made.
Would that life could be so easy, so formulaic, so rational, so definable. But it is not.
That is why we often muddle on doing the best we can, making decisions based on the best information available to us at the time, not that provided by guilty hindsight.
That is why it is worth considering options, knowing what we are doing and why, but equally being open to alternatives, to what is not planned but may be rewarding, to what is not considered but may bring considerable benefit our way. The extent to which we engage in formal decision-making is a decision each of us must make.
- mmurray@irishtimes.com
- Clinical psychologist Marie Murray is director of the student counselling services in UCD. Her new weekly radio slot Mindtimeis broadcast every Wednesday on Drivetimeon RTÉ Radio 1.