At every step in life, we are faced with multiple situations where we have to put an effort to choose between two alternatives. Whenever we make a choice between two competing alternatives after evaluation of its short, medium, and long-term results, we refer to it as responsible decision making. The outcomes of a decision are uncertain before the decision is taken. Responsible decision-making needs an individual to analyze the risk associated with a choice and then make a decision. The probability of making a specific choice depends on the short, medium, and long-term goals that need to be realized. For example, a child may have to choose between finishing their homework first and then going out to play or playing without finishing their homework. Now the choice would involve the analysis of the amount of homework the child has, the importance that the child feels towards the homework, and punishment and rewards associated with the homework. A responsible choice would be to finish the homework and then go out to play.
Decision-making plays an important role in the social adaptation of an individual. We weigh rewards and losses in our daily life and tasks to socially survive. For example, a child may have to make a decision about helping a stray dog or not. This would help a child come closer to the environment and make a responsible decision if he decides to help. It is more difficult to come to a decision when we feel that there is a greater risk of loss associated immediately or in the future.
There are four components that are required for decision-making. First is the presence of at least two choices for the decision-maker to choose from. Second, a situation for which this decision is to be ethically taken. Third, a goal that would be accomplished by this choice, and fourth, something else that would be positively or negatively affected in the process or after making this choice. For example, effective decision-making leads to success whereas an ineffective decision fails. For example, researchers have found that teachers can help students at school learn effective decision-making by providing them with appropriate instructions by relating their environment to their task and choice. Many pieces of research done in the physical education discipline focus on how beneficial and important responsible decision-making skills are to provide a holistic educational environment (Martinek, Zaichkowsky, Cheffers, 1977).
The Orbitofrontal cortex is the relay center for decision-making activities. Studies have found that damage to the orbitofrontal cortex leads to deficits in responsible decision-making abilities even though the cognitive functions remain intact. It works on reward evaluation that a certain choice would provide and then sends signals to the prefrontal cortex to organize and execute behavior and thoughts towards the choice made. It works with satisfying needs as its primal instinct.
Logotherapy was introduced by Victor Frankl to help individuals seek meaning in their life. This approach of logotherapy is utilized in school curriculum and services to develop and achieve educational and counseling goals and highlight the importance of decision-making behavior.
O’Connor, McCormack, and Feeney (Child Development, 85 (2014) 1995–2010) found that children who revealed feeling sadder on discovering they had made a non-optimal choice were bound to settle on an alternate decision sometime in the future.
Role of responsible decision making in the development of a child
Development of the prefrontal cortex is a characteristic developmental milestone during preschool years. However, the decision-making skills are not completely developed in preschool years. Frontostriatal circuits and the connections associated with them develop by the age of 18 or early adulthood. Any functional impairment during the formation of these connections leads to developmental disorders and impairment in decision-making activities. Since adults, as well as preschoolers, rely on intuition as a strategy to make decisions as well, it has been seen that intuition serves as a reliable strategy to them too. However, responsible decision-making skills cannot be developed based on intuition as seen by many studies. Research has proved that intuition is only effective as a strategy when we use it to make decisions about situations we have incurred in the past or made similar decisions before that led to appropriate choice (Henry, 2001).
When compared, it was found that 4-year-old children were better at decision-making skills than 3-year-olds. Though normal to grow wiser with age, it was found that this development was not due to increased abilities and competence in areas of reasoning, logic, language, or increased working memory. It was also found that girls were better at decision-making skills than boys when they were 3 years old, however, the same couldn't be concluded when the study was conducted on 4-year-olds. The study defined that with age children became more aware of the task assigned to them. There was a high correlation seen between the decision-making abilities of four-year children and how aware they were about the task they were asked to perform. This huge developmental leap that correlated age with affective decision making suggests that around the age of 4, the decision-making skills of children and the declarative knowledge associated with working memory have a strong correlation that plays a significant role.
Research conducted on 208 children established the influence that decision-making skills had on the attitude, creativity, and motor skills of children in elementary school. The children were divided into three groups of which one served as control. One of the groups had a dominating teacher assigned that took all the decisions for them whereas the other group was allowed to share decision making. After an 8 week instruction period, it was found that the control group showed lower scores. The group with students in command for decisions showed better creativity, motor skills, and self-concept development. There was a more positive attitude observed in students who were allowed to make decisions in the classroom.
The importance of having strong responsible decision-making ability
The Iowa Gambling test was developed to test decision-making abilities by focusing on the emotion and cognition of individuals. The participants were produced with 4 decks of cards that had reward or punishment-based choices and they had to win as much money as they could. A similar version was developed for preschoolers to check developmental milestones in their decision-making abilities. The test was conducted on 181 students of 3.5-4.5 years of age, who were presented with two decks. One of the decks had choices with more immediate rewards but lesser long-term rewards and was referred to as the bad deck. Whereas the other deck referred to as the good deck had lower immediate rewards but more long-term rewards.
The first experiment explored age differences and the association of the task of gambling with a delay of gratification task. Performance differed based on age, supporting previous findings (Kerr & Zelazo, 2004) of a development difference between three and four-year-old children in making decisions that are future-oriented. In the second experiment, the effect of labeling and the use of symbols on performance was studied. Although having 4.5 years old children label decks as good or bad enhanced their performance on the task, this labeling did not affect 3.5 years old participants' performance. However, having 3.5 years old children place a symbol representing ‘good’ and ‘bad’ next to the decks did enhance performance, but only for those participants who were able to correctly label the decks. These results indicated an interaction between conscious awareness, symbol use, and making beneficial future-oriented decisions during the preschool years.
In another study 230 children of Boston School from grades one through five, who participated either in a physical activity program in which the teacher made all the decisions (vertical model) or in a program in which they participated in the decision-making process (horizontal model). A control group of additional 115 elementary school children was also used. Results revealed that a teacher-directed approach appears to be best for motor skill development and that a student-sharing approach has a definite positive impact on the development of self-concept.
A study conducted by O’Connor, McCormack, and Feeney, tried to find out the effect of making a wrong decision or choice had on children. They found out that children felt more sad when they made a wrong choice and they also chose the other option the next time they were supposed to make a choice.
Thus, it is clear that learning responsible decision-making skills not only help in achieving goals by the right decision but also helps develop adaptive skills in children, helping them perform better academically and in other spheres of life.