If we stop to think, we can see how a good part of the risk behaviors for one’s own and the community’s health and well-being are the result of unconscious decisions in which external pressures outweigh one’s own determination. For example, alcohol consumption may be the result of advertising, peer pressure, or the tradition that alcohol is “for men.” All of this leads us to develop this Psychology-Online article where we will address the topic of Decision making: a method to solve problems autonomously and responsibly.
Autonomy and decision making
In all these situations it is consumed due to an unconscious decision, without reflection, caused by external pressure. That is why it is so important to encourage autonomous decision-making. But what does that mean exactly? Let’s clarify some terms:
- Autonomous decision making: The person learns to think for himself, to be critical and to analyze reality rationally.
- Responsible decision making: The person is aware of the decision made and accepts its consequences.
For a specific situation, make decisions autonomously and responsibly It is weighing the pros and cons of the different possible alternatives in a situation and accepting the consequences of the choice. Therefore, when a decision has to be made, the possible consequences that may arise from it must be assessed and, if these consequences may be important, it is advisable not to do the first thing that comes to mind or to get carried away by what “everyone else” does. ”. When we face a problem or a decision that may have important consequences, it is necessary to think carefully about what can be done and evaluate each alternative.
You learn to make decisions. Autonomy develops from childhood, and each age corresponds to a level of autonomy. During childhood, many important decisions are made by parents and other adults, but from adolescence onwards, decisions become increasingly the responsibility of the young person. In this learning process it is also important to distinguish when it is not important to give in to the wishes of others or other pressures and when it is important to follow one’s own criteria.
The method for making decisions and solving problems
If decision-making skills are learned, they can also be practiced and improved. It seems that people skilled in decision-making have the ability to classify the different options according to their advantages and disadvantages and, once this is done, choose the one that seems the best option. The basic method would be:
The five step process
1. Define the problem. With this step you must try to answer the question: What do you want to achieve in that situation?
2. Look for alternatives. In this step it is important to think about as many alternatives as possible, since the more we can think of, the more possibilities we will have of choosing the best one.
It is important to avoid getting carried away by what we usually do or by what others do.
If we can’t think of many alternatives, asking other people’s opinions can help us see new possibilities.
3. Assess the consequences of each alternative. Here we must consider the positive and negative aspects that each alternative may have, in the short and long term, both for us and for other people.
To carry out this step correctly, many times the information available is not enough. In this case, it is necessary to collect new data that helps evaluate the different alternatives available. For example, a person who wants to start practicing a sport, when evaluating the different alternatives, if they do not have sufficient data, they must gather information about: where they can practice the different suggested sports; what material is needed; need for prior learning, what costs do they have, etc.
For each of the alternatives separately, we will make a list of all the advantages and disadvantages it entails. Next, we will give a score from 0 to 10 to each advantage and each drawback depending on their importance, taking into account that: 0 is “not at all important” and 10 means that it is “essential or very important.” Finally, once each advantage and each disadvantage has been rated on that scale, the numbers given to all the advantages on the one hand and all the disadvantages on the other are added. If the result is positive, it means that it has more advantages or these are more important than the disadvantages.
4. Choose the best possible alternative. Once you have thought about the available alternatives and the consequences of each of them, you will have to choose the most positive or appropriate one.
Once the different alternatives have been evaluated, we must compare them with each other, choosing the one that satisfies us the most. As a general rule, the one that has more advantages than disadvantages, or if we use the mathematical procedure, the alternative that has the highest positive number.
Sometimes the best alternative is not any of the proposals but rather arises as a combination of several of the proposals. In the example, we can decide on a specific sport (football, basketball, tennis, etc.) or we can choose to choose several that are complementary (for example, swimming to stay in shape and football as a way to interact with friends). /ace).
5. Apply the chosen alternative and check if the results are satisfactory. Once chosen, we must take responsibility for the decision made and put it into practice. We must also worry about evaluating the results, with which we can change those aspects of the situation that are still not satisfactory and we can also learn from our experience.
Example
Next, we will practice each of the steps of the decision-making process with an example.
SITUATION: A person wants to do some activity on Saturday afternoon, but has no preference for any of them.
1. Define the problem. In this specific case, before starting to think about what type of activity we are going to carry out, we would have to ask ourselves the following question: What do we want to achieve?
The answer to this question will help us to correctly state the problem at hand. For example, in this case, some answers could be:
- Interact with other people.
- Help to be healthy.
- Have fun.
- Let it be cheap.
2. Generate alternatives. Once we are clear about what the problem is, the task is to think of alternatives to solve it. Some alternative solutions could be these:
- Take an excursion
- Go to the movies
- Go to the disco
- Play football
To avoid complicating the process we have thought of four alternatives, but we can propose as many as we want.
3. Assess the consequences of each alternative. For each alternative separately, we will consider the advantages and disadvantages it may have. Now we will give a score from 0 to 10 to each advantage and each disadvantage depending on their importance. Then, we will add the total advantages scores and subtract the total disadvantages scores.
4. Choose the best possible alternative. All that remains is to choose the alternative with a higher overall positive score. This alternative is the ideal one, and it is not worth continuing to dwell on the matter.
5. Apply the chosen alternative and check if the results are satisfactory. We only have the weekend to arrive to carry out the activity we have chosen. Once we have done it, we will assess whether it has been effective in resolving the situation for which we had no answer.
We can practice the process of making decisions with specific problems that arise in our daily lives. Here are some examples:
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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