We continually face new situations or problems. Some of them are trivial while others are crucial. People differ greatly in their ability to cope with such problems. Problem solving is a useful way to deal with multiple situational challenges.
The problem-solving process is made up of two parts: the development of solutions and the decision-making, the second one being the one that we are going to focus the most on in Psychology-Online. However, we cannot avoid making a small point to the first one. Next, we will explain 19 types of decisions, their characteristics and examples.
D’Zurilla and Goldfried define the troubleshooting technique as a behavioral, manifest or cognitive process, which in the face of the problematic situation:
- Makes a variety of potentially effective response alternatives available.
- The probability of finding the most effective answer among the various possible alternatives increases.
Both psychologists develop the troubleshooting technique, 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 assess the problem and identify a realistic goal.
- Generation of alternatives. Generate the largest number of alternatives so that effective solutions are more likely to be found.
- Decision making. It will be explained later in depth.
- 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 or, in some cases, more suitable alternatives for the situation presented to us. For this, the person involved has to:
- Assess the consequences positive and negative of each alternative chosen in the short, medium and long term.
- Estimate the degree of probability of occurrence of the consequences of each alternative.
- Discard less suitable alternatives or unviable, we remain the most viable to achieve the objectives and are valued 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 the choice of him:
- Resolution of the conflict.
- Emotional well-being.
- Time / effort relationship.
- General personal and social well-being.
The person has to choose the 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 that, in a mandatory way, when making a decision of one type, it will have characteristics of another type of decisions.
In a global way we will classify the decisions in
1. Scheduled decisions: it is said of 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 effective immediately. As an example of these in daily life would be drinking coffee in the morning or brushing your teeth after breakfast.
2. Unscheduled decisions: these are spontaneous decisions which appear as a result of daily interaction with the environment. We do not know that we have to take them until they arise. For example, with the case of the Coronavirus, countries have to make completely new decisions because 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 kinds of decisions and see if the merger will be beneficial to them 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 procedures and daily methods of 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 can be.
7. Risk decisions- There is a high probability that the result will be very serious or catastrophic if chosen wrongly. For example, if we make the decision to change lanes even when a car is approaching at high speed.
8. Uncertainty decisions: there is no probability of predicting the results, for which they are totally unknown. These are the ones that most impose on the person who has to take them, since he acts with 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 life. They involve little risk, as they are usually very routine, for example, taking the car or walking in the morning to work. 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 should be borne in mind 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 thought used
11. Rational decisions: to make this type of decision we make use of our analytical intelligence, since what we do is draw up 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 we had to choose whether to do it in a town or in a city.
12. Emotional decisions: it goes very hand in hand with rational decisions, because in almost all of them we cannot prevent our intuition and predilection from affecting us, even unconsciously. This is due to 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 as For example, being close to the family, which lives in the village, influences us when deciding.
Types of decisions according to the area of life
13. Labor decisions: are those related to a job. They can range from the decision to stay with a company or not, to the decision to accept a raise.
14. Financial decisions: these are decisions of a more specific area where the person has to decide on investment, equipment, financing issues. For example, a team seeks financing and proposes to a company to finance them in exchange for advertising, the person The person in charge of it has to choose if financing them will have a positive impact on them or on the contrary they will lose economically.
15. Love decisions: these are considered the most difficult to take, since they have to do many times to decide if we want to share our whole life with another person.
16. Difficult decisions: With this type of decision we are not referring to the difficulty of the decision as such, but to the possible consequences that said decision can bring us. They are usually those decisions in which the subject to choose has great value and importance for us, since it usually affects us very directly. 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 a certain difficulty when it comes to drinking. In these decisions, the opinions of other people must be taken into account, which increases the difficulty. Again we could give the example of moving to another country for work, but it should be added that the person who has to move has a partner and children.
18. Student decisions: it is about all those decisions which we have to make throughout our academic life, whether from which branch of studies we want to continue, to the fact of wanting to continue studying.
19. Personal decisions: they are those that are closely linked to the person who takes them, as they are of great importance in the person's 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 as an example, taking the career we want to choose as a decision. It is a:
- Student decision
- Both rational and emotional decision
- Long-term decision
- Uncertainty decision
