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Decision-Making Facts & Worksheets

Decision-making is a cognitive process involving thought, logic, planning, and problem-solving. It is a skill that can be trained.

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Decisions are something we make every day. It may seem automatic, but it’s an important cognitive process that can be trained. Decision-making varies from minor to major and spans the personal, family, relationships, and life in general. Decision-making is a process that requires thought, planning, and logic to anticipate the outcomes.

See the fact file below for more information on Decision-Making, or you can download our 28-page Decision-Making worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Understanding Decision-Making

  • Psychology defines decision-making as a cognitive process of selecting particular pathways that will lead to various outcomes. 
  • Every decision-making process will lead to a final choice. Although, this choice may or may not be acted upon, and this is where consequences lie.
  • For example, say you are hungry. You can decide to act on it or not. If you act, you will not be hungry anymore. But if you decide not to act on it, you will continue to be hungry. This is called a consequence – the end result of a decision.
  • To add another layer to it, if you decide to eat, you can choose a healthy snack or an unhealthy snack. These too will have future consequences.  
  • According to CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), responsible decision-making is the ability to make constructive choices about behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms.
  • Decision-making can also be thought of as problem-solving. At first, you are presented with a problem. You then need to think about and analyze the problem to build ideas and create steps about how to solve it.
  • Deciding on choices can be driven by two things – rational thinking, which is being guided by facts and reason, compared to irrational thinking, which is driven without any rational considerations. 
  • Choices that need to be decided upon range from small and inconsequential, like whether to have vanilla or chocolate ice cream, to much more consequential. For example, if a friend asks you to take part in risky behavior, that decision can have lifelong consequences. Or, when it comes to choosing your career path, what college will you need to go to, what grades will you need to get, and what subjects will you need to take.
  • This is why it’s important to develop decision-making skills; firstly so that you feel more in control about your life, secondly so that you’re making the best decisions to get to the best possible outcome, and thirdly so that you can manage feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, disappointed, or afraid.
  • While it’s easy to see decision-making as black and white, as either positive or negative, it can also be neutral. Responsible decision-making doesn’t mean that choices or decisions made always need to be right or perfect, and that mistakes need to be avoided. It’s about the ability to adapt and adjust the flow of decision-making based on the outcome.
  • In learning to be better with decision-making, you’ll become more self-aware and consider your surroundings and the future.
  • It also gives you a greater sense of acknowledgement, validation, and the ability to manage your feelings when making choices.

What Type of a Decision-Maker Are You?

Charismatic Decision-Maker

  • You are open to new ideas and are up for challenges.
  • You welcome the latest proposals backed up by data and facts.
  • Charismatic decision-makers are results-oriented.

Snap Decision-Maker

  • This type of decision-maker makes choices without thinking about the situation.
  • They never consider the results and only react to the current situation.

No Decision

  • Many young people fall into this category.
  • You let other people decide for you because you are afraid of making mistakes or being responsible for the outcome.

Follower

  • Followers make effective decisions that are already implemented and proven successful.
  • You use documented results and facts as the basis for making the right choices.

Responsible Decision-Maker

  • You consider the consequences of your choices and how they can affect you and your surroundings.

Steps in Making Decisions

Identify the Problem or Situation

  • First, recognize the problem and determine how difficult it is to solve.
  • These questions can help you in evaluating problems:
    • What is the problem/situation?
    • Why am I solving this problem? 
    • Why and how important is it that I should solve it?
    • Who can be affected by this problem?
    • How long will it take to solve the problem?
  • For example:
    • What is the problem? I have a sticky ice cream wrapper, but there is no trash can in the park.
    • Why am I solving this problem/situation? I don’t want to carry the wrapper, but littering is bad for the environment.
    • Why and how important is it that I should solve it? If I throw the wrapper on the ground, I am contributing to polluting the environment.
    • Who can be affected by this problem? Myself, my community, and the natural environment will be affected by my decision to litter.
    • How long will it take to solve? A temporary solution will take a few minutes until a trash can is found. The longer solution is speaking to your town authority.

Analyze the Situation and Gather Information

  • After identifying the problem, you must be able to analyze why the issue existed.
  • You can gather the information that you need to make the proper decisions.

Brainstorming

  • Discuss the possible solutions to the dilemma.
  • You can use different methods to come up with solutions.
  • These solutions need evaluation when implemented to identify the consequences that may arise.

Take Note of Ethics and Responsibilities

  • You must also be able to foresee your action’s ethical and moral consequences.
  • For example, if you are tempted to steal candy from a store, you should consider the ethical and moral effects of what you do.

Take Action and Learn to Evaluate and Reflect

  • After making the decision, you must be able to evaluate and reflect on your choices.
  • Whether the decision resulted in a positive or negative outcome, you should be able to recognize it and reflect on what went well and what can be improved.
  • For example, if you did not do well on an important test because you did not pay attention or revise, you have to accept the results of performing poorly. You can’t be angry or disappointed if you did not even try.

Challenges in Making Responsible Decisions

  • Determining the problem is one thing, and making responsible decisions is another.
  • Even though the problem is identified and options for solutions are laid out, some challenges can be experienced while trying to implement it.
  • Information overload or analysis paralysis can be a challenge.
  • You may have all the information you need, but it could be overwhelming and confusing.
  • Being under-informed is another challenge because it would make it hard for you to create solutions without the proper information.
  • If the problem is misidentified, even if there are solutions, there could be other problems that can come from it.
  • The answers to the problem must always be as realistic as possible.
  • Making impulse decisions can also lead to improperly managing these challenges.
  • Some people forget to follow up on the solutions to their problems.
  • Decision-makers should be able to review solutions to assess whether their decisions are right or must be improved.

Knowing Your Students

  • For teachers, it will help you guide your students if you know how capable they are of making responsible decisions.
  • The list shows tips to determine if a student can make responsible decisions.
    • The student recognizes well when they encounter a problem.
    • Being able to analyze where the problem started.
    • Explore a variety of options and their consequences.
    • The student can face their problems morally and ethically.
    • The student takes their time to evaluate how successfully their problem was identified, assessed, and solved.
  • If a student struggles to make responsible solutions, then:
    • It is difficult for them to think about the parts of the problem.
    • The solutions are all impulsive, and the student did not consider the consequences of their acts.
    • The student has difficulties with social communication, so their problems are not easily recognized.
    • Experiences challenges on other options for their solutions.
  • By knowing these things, teachers will be better able to turn challenges into strengths.
    • Teachers can brainstorm with students in creating a visual representation of the process of constructive decision-making to remind them of how to make effective choices.
    • Create activities that will stimulate and practice the decision-making skills of the students.
    • Explain the definition of a responsibility and ethical responsibility.
    • Give students tools with which they can identify the ethical and moral responsibilities associated with their decisions.

Tips on Making Quality Decisions

  • Making responsible decisions is not always an easy task because you have to consider a lot of things.
  • After knowing an organized way to make decisions, it would be helpful to use some tips to make it possible.
    • First, do not let stress get to you. Tough choices can be overwhelming and can make you feel anxious and stressed. These feelings may lead you to impulsive decisions or an unsolved problem. When you feel anxious or stressed, it is advisable to pause and relax before making decisions.
    • Decisions made under pressure are usually not the best options. Give yourself enough time to think about the problem and process options. 
    • Go over the pros and cons of your options.
    • When making decisions, always take into consideration your goals and values.
    • Consider all possibilities and consequences of your options.
    • It is also healthy to seek guidance from another person.
    • Keep track of your feelings and experiences while solving the problem. Keeping a diary can help you.
    • If you see that there will be negative feedback to your solution, prepare how you would respond to people kindly and in a way they can understand.
    • You can go through your options again whenever you are facing doubts. The first option might be a good one but be open to the possibility of changes.

Decision-Making Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Decision-Making across 28 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Responsible Decision-Making, which is a cognitive process involving thought, planning, and logic to anticipate the outcomes.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Responsible Decision Making
  2. The Decision Maker
  3. A Piece of Advice
  4. Considerate Decisions
  5. Step By Step
  6. My Options
  7. Take Me Back
  8. The Party Planner
  9. Rating Myself
  10. Tough Decisions
  11. Tips From Me

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Link will appear as Decision-Making Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 30, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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