Since I’ve been debating whether or not to write about A: decision making throughout our lives or 2: a conspiracy theory that i thought up when i was both trying to rationalize with myself about who i was going to vote for for president in november, along with being only slightly inebriated, I’ve finally made a DECISION to write about decision making. So I’ve done some reading this week on the beginning: early childhood decision making.
In a study put out by Procedia: Social and Behavior Sciences (Whoever the hell that is), I’ve learned that they have come to the conclusion that decision making is a social process and moreover is a significant living skill which is LEARNED. This i can totally agree with. Although for myself, the best learning I’ve had in terms of making decisions is actually making them and more often then not learning that the decision was not perfect in either some small degree, some giant degree, or somewhere in between. Procedia, however, wants to attribute better decision making in people to teaching children decision making skills during their early childhood development, which makes sense to me, because like everything else, if we are religiously taught something at an early age (4-6) we will hold onto that teaching as more or less true throughout most of our, at least adolescent, lives. Obviously, this can be both good and bad, depending on what it is the child is being taught at this age.
I found a good example of Procedia’s stance makes sense on another website that stated that thinking and reasoning skills are very important to making decisions and these are best learned “as their brain develops as well as through practice and experience”. So, these skills will help kids A: make decisions effectively as kids but also 2: help them prepare to make more important decisions as adults, as long as they remember to plan and make thoughtful choices. Making thoughtful choices means having knowledge of issues and of consequences along with being able to consider and take into account other people’s situations and feelings.
Another important aspect of making good decisions that is largely instilled at a young age is a person’s self esteem. the ability to feel ok and to say no when going against what a group wants is also important to making good decisions.
However, taking all of this into account, problem solving and decision making is a very mature thing to actually accomplish and doing this at a really young age is asking a lot of kids. This is why practice and experience is so important in making the right decisions for ones self. one of the most mature abilities to have in effective decision making is being able to manage one’s feelings. Sustaining this is a lot, almost too much to ask of a 4-6 year old. Which is why I can see how early childhood development is an important time to begin learning how to make good decisions, but when it comes time to making real, important decisions, there is nothing that compares to experience, and recollection.
www.kidsmatter.edu.au/families/about-behaviour/making-decisions/learning-make-good-decisions-and-solve-problems-early
http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042809004108/1-s2.0-S1877042809004108-main.pdf?_tid=65dd426c-88cf-11e6-9b0b-00000aacb360&acdnat=1475433683_e722fc4b603847c34ae531f280e92d69