Becoming a better decision maker

Abstract

Four views of human decision making are described, following Abelson & Levi (1985): the decision maker as corrigible rationalist (Edwards, 1954), as bounded rationalist (Simon, 1955), as error-prone intuitive scientist (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) and as slave to motivational forces (Janis & Mann, 1977). It is argued that both cognitive and motivational perspectives are important for an understanding of how people make major life choices. Cognitive and motivational factors are analysed in tracing age-related changes during adolescence on nine indicators of competent decision making, namely choice, comprehension, creativity, compromise, consequentiality, correctness, credibility, consistency, and commitment. Cognitive and motivational factors are identified also in describing and evaluating the effectiveness of courses of instruction in decision making, such as the Gofer course for high school students.