Tues Nov 25th

I found today’s class to be very fun and appealing. Everyday we are faced with decisions that may impact the rest of our lives, our future, and our loved ones, but how often must we think about our ability to survive tomorrow. Our focus is usually on our ability to survive in the long run. Today’s activity helped me to realize how we all make crucial decisions everyday that impact our survival for tomorrow. The activity we did in class was done individually and then in a group. In most cases, decisions made as a group were much more effective than decisions made alone. This is because 2 heads are better than one; people who come from different backgrounds and who go through different experiences can help an individual who has not undergone certain experiences. For example, someone like me, does not understand the purpose of steel wool. I thought it was merely a tool to scrub dishes, whereas someone who has actually used it as a tool to help start a fire will tell you it can be a lifesaver. What does all this mean? It can be concluded that when making decisions, individuals should always consult with others as it can often be more valuable than damaging as seen in today’s class. This can be generalized to the business world when making decisions on what product to market, who to market to, how to package, how to price, etc. The bottom line is that it is always important to consult with others, and work with others when having to make significant decisions. This is what I took away from today’s lecture, and had we not completed this exercise today, I would still be making important life changing decisions on my own, but now that I know the difference a group effort can make, I will surely ask others for their input.

I cannot think of many strengths that I can bring to decision making, however, I can think of a few challenges. For starters, I believe that I am a very emotional person, and by doing the MBTI test, my suspicion has been confirmed, as I scored very high on the feelings portion. Being emotional is not always good as many of my decisions are impacted by how I am feeling, and what mood I am in, opposed to what is right for me, and what is right for others. Secondly, I tend to make decisions very quickly as I am a very rash and impatient person; I like to get things over with so I can move on to other issues, therefore I do not spend too much time on making decisions. Thirdly, I tend to experience a phenomenon referred to as mental set, in which once I have an opinion on something, it is very hard to change it; in other words, once I firmly believe something, it will take a lot for me to change my mind. Mental set occurs when a problem solver keeps using the same solution that he or she has used in previous problems. If I think I have a solution to a problem, I will stick to that solution. I think I act this way because I do not want to second guess myself and have doubts about my decisions, I don’t want to spend time obsessing over my decisions, in other words, I do not want to experience cognitive dissonance.

In order to become a better decision-maker, I need to try and be less emotional, and perhaps spend more time making decisions. This will help me in the business world, for example, as I will learn to make more effective organizational decisions, opposed to rushed ones. In addition, I should ask the opinions of my coworkers who come from diverse backgrounds, as they can offer some insight, this may help get rid of my cognitive mental set, and help me open up a bit more. Perhaps I should also engage in exercises in which I can reduce my way of thinking. For example, I took a cognitive psychology course in which people who experienced my mental set problem were instructed to perform an activity (refer to the 2 figures below). People have difficulty solving these problems as they experience functional fixedness, a subset of mental set, where they fixate on representing the object according to its conventional function and fail to represent its novel function, as people cannot think outside the box; this is something that also occurs during decision making, when you are convinced there is only one correct way to solve a problem, or one correct decision due to past experiences and biases. By engaging in the activities mentioned above, I will be able to open up my mind and engage in more effective decision making.

Figure 1:
Maier (1931) Two-string Problem:
Problem solver is asked to tie two strings together that are hanging from the ceiling. Because the strings are too far apart to be held at the same time, one of them needs to be reformulated as potential pendulum. The solution is to tie a heavy object (I.e. paint brush) to one of the strings, set it into motion, and then grasp the other string.

Figure 2:
Duncker (1945)-Candle Box

Candle box problem diagram
In a classic experiment demonstrating functional fixedness, Duncker (1945) gave participants a candle, a box of nails, and several other objects, and asked them to attach the candle to the wall so that it did not drip onto the table below. Duncker found that participants tried to nail the candle directly to the wall or to glue it to the wall by melting it. Very few of them thought of using the inside of the nail box as a candle-holder and nailing this to the wall. In Duncker’s terms the participants were “fixated” on the box’s normal function of holding nails and could not re-conceptualise it in a manner that allowed them to solve the problem.