Decision Making Models and Why They Are Hard

¶ … MAU Models, explain the similarities and differences between the concepts you learned in multiple-criteria decisions and using a MAU model. The similarities and differences are that multiple-criteria decisions and MAU model allow for criteria to be examined an analyzed by assessing their impact on a decision. But with MAU model, the impact of "Pareto dominance" becomes a factor and specific criteria can be selected or dismissed based on the needs analysis of the particular decision that needs to be made.

What is obtained becomes the "Pareto efficient," which makes the possibility of analysis that much simpler (Lecture Notes, 2016). The subjective process is also involved in this decision making process and therefore needs to be examined in as objective a manner as possible. The lecture discusses four reasons why decisions are hard. For each of the reasons, explain a personal experience you have had making a decision related to the reason. Decisions are hard because you must frame the decision, identify alternatives, specify preferences, and rank alternatives.

Decisions can also be complex (I know this from when I had to decide what to study at school -- a number of factors framed the decision, such as time, money, interest, effort, desire, utility). Decisions also involve uncertainty (I know this from dating -- asking yourself who this person is, whether you should spend time with them).

Decisions are impacted by limited memory (I know this from trading stocks -- I forget the very good reasons I had for avoiding certain stocks and attempt to trade them all over again). Decisions can also be impacted by different perspectives: I had to frame the decision to get married, whether it would be good for me or not. I had to identify alternatives to getting married -- remaining single.

I had to specify preferences -- I preferred to be with someone and have a family, though I wasn't particular about who that someone was so long as the person respected my authority. I had to rank the alternatives about dating for life, being single, becoming a hermit, or getting married and having a family. 3. Discuss the subjective elements that might be involved in analyzing a particular decision. The subjective elements include bias and perspective as well as preference and likes vs. dislikes.

Each of these elements may factor into how we analyze a particular decision and make it easier to arrive at a conclusion or sometimes harder, depending upon which way we approach the decision making process. The way our minds work also affects our deciding -- thinking serially instead of parallel. We are also affected by memory, lack of will, attention, and bias. 4. Explain in your own words why we need to do Step 5 Re-scale Criteria Evaluations and Step 6 Calculate Weighted Average Scores and Aggregate when developing a MAU Model.

Step 5 Re-scale criteria evaluations are necessary because it provides another perspective on the data to be analyzed and factors in alternative approaches to account for bias, personal taste, etc. Step 6 Calculate Weighted Average Scores and Aggregate is necessary because it allows a comparison to be made and a sensitivity analysis to be performed, generating a cohesive assessment of the data and allowing a more objective decision to be made about it. 5.

What happens if your intuition disagrees with the MAU Model results? If intuition disagrees with the MAU Model results a negative correlation is at hand and it may be that the data was entered incorrectly or there is a factor that you left out that your intuition and not your logical reasoning is picking up on. You can reassess the variables and re-do the MAU Model accordingly to see if there are any factors that you want to add or take away.

The subjective process of deciding what will impact your decision making process is part of this process and therefore needs to be taken into consideration very carefully. 6. If you were going to analyze the relationship between your child's allowance, school grades, and how well they do their chores, which of these variables would the dependent variable and which would independent? Explain. The dependent variable would be the variable that I want to measure to see how it is impacted by the independent variables.

So if I wanted to see how grades were impacted by allowance and chores, grades would be the DV and chores and allowance would be the IV. If I wanted to see how chores were impacted by grades and allowance, chores would be the DV and grades and allowance the IV. If I wanted to see how allowance was impacted by grades and chores, I would make allowance the DV and grades and chores the IV. 7.

What kind of things might a scatterplot tell you about the relationship between two variables? A scatterplot would identify the relationship between variables in terms of scope and arrangement and how they are impacted by the same event. Thus it looks for correlation between an event and the arrangement of variables. However, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Plots can tell us about distribution types, whether there is marginal distribution or conditional distribution as well as.