D’Zurilla and Goldfried define the problem solving technique as a behavioral, manifest or cognitive process, that in the face of the problematic situation:
- It makes available a variety of potentially effective response alternatives.
- It increases the probability of finding the most effective response among the various possible alternatives.
Both psychologists develop the , in which they distinguish five different phases.
- Problem orientation. It refers to the attitude that the subject presents when facing a situation.
- Formulation or definition of the problem. The goal is to evaluate the problem and identify a realistic goal.
- Generation of alternatives. Generate the greatest number of alternatives so that it is more likely to find effective solutions.
- decision making. It will be explained in depth later.
- Implementation and verification of results. Putting the chosen decision into practice, as well as assessing whether the result obtained was the desired one.
The objective of this phase is choose that alternative orin some cases, more suitable alternatives for the situation that has been presented to us. To do this, the person involved must:
- Assess the consequences positives and negatives of each alternative chosen in the short, medium and long term.
- Estimate the degree of probability occurrence of the consequences of each alternative.
- Discard less suitable alternatives or unviable, we keep the most viable ones to achieve the objectives and they are evaluated more carefully. Finally, those that are most appropriate are chosen.
To make this decision, the subject must take into account a series of useful criteria which will facilitate their choice:
- Resolution of the conflict.
- Emotional well-being.
- Time/effort relationship.
- General personal and social well-being.
The person must choose that alternative that maximizes the positive consequences and minimizes the negative ones.
Within the decisions we are going to find different classifications, however from my point of view, many of them are interconnected, so, necessarily, when making a decision of one type, it will have characteristics of another type. of decisions.
Globally we will classify the decisions into
1. Programmed decisions: It is said about those routine decisions which are established in our schedule, so we already know in advance that we have to make them. They are considered automatic and have immediate effect. An example of these in daily life would be drinking coffee in the morning or brushing your teeth after breakfast.
2. Non-programmed decisions: These are spontaneous decisions which appear as a result of daily interaction with the environment. We do not know what to take until they are presented to us. For example, with the case of the Coronavirus, countries have to make completely new decisions since there was no history of similar situations.
Classification according to the level of decisions
3. Strategic decisions: They usually have to be taken in very specific business areas, since their objectives are usually to improve the level of the organization. For example, if a company wants to merge with another, they will have to make these types of decisions and see if the merger will be beneficial or not.
4. Tactical decisions: They are routine decisions which are repeated frequently. We find them in business areas, such as writing an email to another company, or transferring employees from one section to another.
5. Operational decisions: they are intended for the improvement, changes or readjustments of daily procedures and methods in the different areas of our life. For example, if we see that when we get up at eight we are late, then we readjust our decision and we will get up a quarter of an hour earlier.
Classification of decisions according to their probability
6. Certainty decisions: These are decisions which we make with a good dose of confidence because we know in advance what the foreseeable results may be.
7. Risk decisions: There is a high probability that the result will be very serious or catastrophic if chosen incorrectly. For example, if we make the decision to change lanes even when we see a car approaching at high speed.
8. Uncertainty decisions: there is no probability of predicting the results, which are completely unknown. These are the ones that impose the most on the person who has to take them, because he acts out of fear. Many of the people who invest in the stock market are in this group, because they do not know for sure what is going to happen.
Types of decisions according to time
9. Short-term decisions: These types of decisions are linked to many areas of our daily lives. They involve little risk, as they are usually very routine, for example, taking the car or walking to work in the morning. The resolution will be immediate and we are practically aware of the result.
10. Long-term decisions: They require some planning because it has to do with the future. It must be taken into account that these types of decisions do not refer to possible future decisions, but to the future results of the current decision. It would be, for example, choosing which career we want to enter.
Classification according to the type of thinking used
11. Rational decisions: To make these types of decisions we use our analytical intelligence, since what we do is make a mental list of pros and cons about the decision that we must weigh. We would use this type of decision if we wanted to buy a house and had to choose whether to do so in a town or a city.
12. Emotional decisions: It goes hand in hand with rational decisions, since in almost all of them we cannot prevent our intuition and predilection from affecting us, even unconsciously. This is as a result of the fact that human beings make decisions influenced by our own motivations and desires. Continuing with the example of buying a home, we cannot prevent our predilection, such as being close to the family, who lives in the town, from influencing us when deciding.
Types of decisions according to the area of life
13. Work decisions: are those related to a job. They can range from the decision of whether or not to stay within a company, to the decision to accept a raise.
14. Financial decisions: These are decisions in a more specific area where the person has to decide on issues of investments, equipment, financing. For example, a team seeks financing and proposes that a company finance them in exchange for advertising. The person in charge of this must choose whether financing them will have a positive impact or, on the contrary, they will lose financially.
15. Loving decisions: These are considered one of the most difficult to take, since they often have to do with deciding if we want to share our entire life with another person.
16. Difficult decisions: With this type of decisions we are not referring to the difficulty of the decision as such, but to the possible consequences that said decision can bring us. These are usually those decisions in which the topic to be chosen has great value and importance for us, since it usually affects us in a very direct way. For example, it would be the case of accepting or not a transfer to another country as a result of our work.
17. Family decisions: All members of our family are involved in them, so they will have some difficulty when taking them. In these decisions you have to take into account the opinions of other people, which increases the difficulty. Again we could give the example of moving country for work, but we should add that the person who has to move has a partner and children.
18. Student decisions: These are all those decisions that we have to make throughout our academic life, whether from what branch of study we want to follow, to the fact of wanting to continue studying.
19. Personal decisions: They are those that are closely linked to the person who takes them, since they have great importance in his or her life. We could give as an example having to accept medical treatment or undergo an operation.
As you can see, although there are 19 types of decisions, many of them are interconnected because if we take the example of making a decision about the career we want to pursue. It is a:
- Student decision
- Both rational and emotional decision
- Long term decision
- Uncertainty decision