102: Decision Making

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Questions about the Video File:

1. How do our biases influence the process of decision making?

2. What is the main drawback of our self-serving bias?

3. “Do not judge a book by its cover.” To which type of our biases does this proverb refer to?

4. “Do not cry over the spilt milk.” To which type of our biases does this proverb refer to?

5. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” To which type of our biases does this proverb refer to?

6. Mention all the four types of our biases that overshadow our decision making.

7. From which type of biases are critical people more detached?

 

Please answer the following question:

How often do you ask for consultation and advice when you have to make an important decision?

 

General Questions:

1. How can making a list of pros and cons help you to make more judicious decisions?

2. What would you do when you realize that you have made wrong decisions?

3. Why is it better to be proactive rather than reactive in your decision making?

4. Do you employ any specific strategy in order to make reliable decisions?

 

Idioms, Proverbs and Expressions:

1. The die is cast: An unchangeable decision has been made:

  • It is too late to change your decision. The die is cast now.

2. Put our heads together: Have consultation to make better decisions:

  • Let’s practice democracy here. We should put our heads together.

3. Sleep on it: Postpone a decision so that you could think about it more:

  • Our meeting adjourned so that we could sleep on the major decision more profoundly.

4. Take the bull by the horns: Take a decisive action in a difficult situation:

  • When you take the bull by the horns, you act based on your fight/flight response.

5. Make up your mind: Make a decision:

  • I had to meet a student counselor to make up my mind about my university major.

Words and Phrases:

1. Dilemma: A challenging situation when decision making is hard

2. Settle on/upon sth: Decide on sth

3. Snap decision: Quick and hasty decision

4. Resolution: A formal decision

5. Hobson’s choice: A situation when you don’t have any choice to make

Level: 
B1 (Intermediate)
B2 (Upper-intermediate)

There are 12 Comments

Submitted by jafar.kianpour on Sat, 2016/06/04 - 12:28

Please answer the following question:

How often do you ask for consultation and advice when you have to make an important decision?

Submitted by Fateme on Mon, 2016/06/06 - 23:18

Taking advice or asking help from a counselor depends on the situation of my life and how much I face with the dilemma of making up my mind to choose a way. As fatemeh2 said we should be selective to choose right people to consult with them and build up our knowledge of issue from different angles. But unfortunately sometimes I’m kind of stubborn and hasty in doing something, so don’t obey the procedure of diction making, hence the consequence of this obstinacy is regret. 

Submitted by tcute1390 on Tue, 2016/06/07 - 18:02

Everybody faces situation in his life where he should make important decisions. In my opinion what can help to make a right decision is having complete information about the situation and consequences of any decision. In some cases we can find needed information by ourselves but sometimes we can't because of the most restricting factor in our lives,time. For example, when you should make a decision about a surgery, you must gain information from several specialist physician because they are trained for these issues and you can't waste your time,too.
Personally I find information I need for making decision by myself through surfing the net and reading book except in cases such as previous example which are urgently and I can't get to that important information by myself.

Submitted by fatemeh2 on Mon, 2016/06/06 - 10:37

Most often I consult with my family to decide on the important matters of life, but I think sometimes we need some experts to help us in decision making.  Sometimes we may be very fussy in such matters which may make us being confused with the large amounts of advices. I think we should first make decision about the right person or persons to consult with and then based on theirs consultations and guides we ourselves should make decision.  

Submitted by jafar.kianpour on Mon, 2016/06/06 - 18:26

Thank you.

Your mistakes:

  1. Consult people but consult with experts, such as counselors
  2. Help sb with sth
  3. Make us confused (not being confused)
  4. With so many pieces of advice (advice is not pluralized)
  5. We should first make decisionS
  6. It’s better to use ‘people’ instead of ‘persons’.
  7. On their consultations (not theirs)
  8. It’s better to use guidance instead of guide.

Submitted by fatemeh2 on Mon, 2016/06/06 - 10:47

2. When would it be better to decide by ourselves or how much emphasis should we put on the consultations and advice of others? Should we let the experts and knowledgeable people or friends to decide for us? If not, when is there a risk of being decided by others? 

Submitted by Fateme on Mon, 2016/06/06 - 23:29

by the way am I allowed to post my comments of the topic, even thogh I am not in the class?

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