Personal Decision Making

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Personal Decision Making
Career Preparedness
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Objectives

• Demonstrate knowledge of opportunity costs.
• Demonstrate knowledge of tradeoffs.
• Demonstrate knowledge of systematic approach to
  decision making.

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Key Terms

• Impulse- decision-making strategy in which you go
  with your first reaction.
• Escape- decision-making strategy in which you
  avoid a decision or make up and answer to deflect
  injury.
• Procrastination- decision-making strategy in
  which you delay making the decision until someone
  else makes the decision or until options
  disappear deciding by default.

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Key Terms

• Compliance- decision-making strategy in which you
  hand over control or let someone else decide.
• Agony- decision-making strategy in which you
  consider every detail of every option over and
  over again.
• Play It Safe- decision-making strategy in which
  you choose the alternative with the lowest level
  of risk.

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Key Terms

• Opportunity Cost- by choosing one option you are
  giving up another.
• Trade-offs- what you give up when you choose one
  alternative over another.
• Instant Gratification- an unwillingness to give
  up something now in return for something later.
• Delayed Gratification- a willingness to give up
  something now in return for something later.

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Dont Eat the Marshmallow!

• Lets watch this six minute video showing how
  decisions can be difficult even when you are
  young! Look for opportunity cost, tradeoffs,
  instant gratification, and delayed
  gratification.
• http//www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_do
  n_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html

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Dont Eat the Marshmallow!

• What was the opportunity cost?
• What was the trade-off?
• Who had instant gratification?
• Who had delayed gratification?

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Discussion

• Who can tell me what are some obstacles that
  people face when making decisions? Have you ever
  had to make a hard decision?

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Opportunity Cost

• When your alarm went off this morning or your
  parent came in to wake you up, what choice did
  you face this morning?

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Brainstorm Activity

• Lets make a list of things you could do on a
  Friday night. Write them on your paper and I will
  write some on the board. Now choose only one
  activity to do. What is your tradeoff and what is
  your opportunity cost?
• Tradeoff-
• Opportunity Cost-

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Decision Making Process

• 1. Define the problem.
• 2. Brainstorm possible alternatives
• a. Develop alternatives.
• b. Evaluate alternatives.
• 3. Propose and defend a solution.

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Scenario 1

• You are a freshman and an only child whose
  parents have demanding careers and little time to
  spend at home. You are left home alone a lot and
  have friends over for parties all the time. The
  parties can sometimes get out of hand, but so far
  you have not been caught. Recently, your friends
  have challenged you to take them for a ride in
  your parents car but you dont have your license
  yet. However, youd like to do it.

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Scenario 2

• Your friends are bullying someone at school. You
  used to be friends with the person that is being
  bullied. You want to stand up to your friends
  because you feel bad, but you realized that they
  will probably not take it very well.

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Scenario 3

• You have a job that you have been working very
  hard at because you are saving up to buy a car.
  Your best friend approaches you and asks if you
  would like to go away with his/her family over
  summer vacation. You want to go, however your
  parents tell you that you would have to pay for
  our own airfare and spending money. This would
  put a significant debt in your car savings.

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Scenario 4

• You have a very important Science project that is
  due tomorrow and you havent even started yet.
  You plan on spending several hours doing it
  tonight when you get home after practice when
  your friend suddenly ask you to go to a concert
  tonight. They won tickets to your favorite band
  and you want to go with them. You need to get the
  project done because you have a D average in
  Science right now but you really want to go to
  the concert with your friend.

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Scenario 5

• Danielle is having trouble deciding where to go
  to college. She cant make up her mind between a
  large state University, a small local private
  school, and an elite college out of state.