Decision Making Within College Life - Term Paper Example

Lecturer’s Introduction What is decision making? It occurs when an individual has to choose between two or more courses of action. The courses of action may in the end have different outcomes and therefore there may be a ‘correct’ decision and a wrong one. However, in some circumstances both courses of action with which one has to choose maybe wrong. While making decisions we rarely have the benefit of hindsight, but this is substituted by precedents (Harris, 2012). By this the author means that one should learn from the consequences of other people’s actions. Different courses of actions have different consequences and therefore since one cannot experience all these consequences before making a decision, then one should review previous decisions made and their consequences. Decision making is a process that one must undertake at one point in their life time. This therefore means that we all have to make choices. Decision making can be a very difficult process especially when one is under pressure. Young people especially those at the campus level are faced with various decisions to make within the course of their stay in school. Colleges are attended mostly by people between the ages of 19-25 years and these are the so called years of exploration. It is at this stage in life when one has obtained freedom in terms of not being shackled by parental rules such as curfews. While here, these young minds are at a curious stage in their lives. They want to experiment on what their parents have been shielding from them. It is at this point in life when most young people experiment with drugs, sex and other things. This paper seeks to discuss decision making in campus with the author including personal experiences. Personal Experiences The author will include some of his personal experiences while in campus in order to better understand decision making. Relationships There are very many relationships that are cultivated while in campus; relationships between lecturers and students, lecturers and subordinate staff, students and the administration and students with other students. Some of these relationships are benefitial to the students while others are detrimental. Take for instance relationships between students and lecturers. The relationship formed could be one of a mentor and a mentee. Such relationships could be very fruitful because the lecturer acts as a guardian and is concerned with the all-round life of the student and not its educational aspect only. Compare this with discreet relationships between these two same parties (lecturer and student) which are more sexual in nature. In campus, these are not uncommon relationships which in most cases are initiated by the students in search for better grades not because they deserve them but because they ‘forgot’ to work hard during the year. Degrees or diplomas obtained through such means are referred to as “STDs” which stands for- “Sexually Transmitted Degrees/Diplomas”. When such a student approaches a lecturer in such a manner, wearing skimpily in the hope of seducing him she has made a choice. The question as to whether she has considered the consequences is a different matter. A female student I was well acquainted with decided to pursue such a degree but unknown to her the lecturer was infected by HIV. One day she went for testing and upon discovering that she was positive she became so angry and vowed to take a large number of her fellow students to the grave with her. She went on a revenge mission and slept with around 150 men after she was infected. When on her death bed she relased a list of all the men she had sexual relations with. The list included the names of lecturers, subordinate staff and fellow students. The list was pinned on the notice board. This is one of the examples of detrimental relationships and the female student in this case made a choice to be vengeful. She had other options available to her such as forgiving and forgetting. Attribution Theory This theory was proposed by Heider (1958), but Weiner developed its theoretical framework which has become a major research paradigm of social psychology. According to Heider, people were like amateur scientists, as they attempted to understand other people’s behavior. They do this by piecing information together until they arrive at a reasonable explanation or cause. Attribution theory is based on the assumption that people try to determine why others do what they do. According to Heider, one can make two attributions: i. Internal attribution. Here, an inference is made that one behaves in a certain way mainly because of something about them such as; attitude, character or personality. ii. External attribution. This type of attribution is not concerned with the internal attributes of an individual but rather the situation one finds themselves in. This reiterates what the author had previously stated that decisions made are based on different factors and these factors can be categorised into the two categories above. Night Life in Campus It is in campus where one becomes exposed to the trappings of the world such as; drugs and alcohol. Parties are the order of the day- students converge here to let lose and socialise. At first this may usually seems as though there are no ulterior motives behind the parties but behind the closed doors and in the middle of those pockets of crowds a lot happens. As a student what I have realised is that students will look for any little reason to host parties. For instance; parties can be held on a Monday so that the students simply forget that its Monday and so as to fight the “Monday Blues”. On Tuesday, the reason could be because Monday’s party was so awesome we have to do it. Parties on Wednesdays are held because it is “Ladies Night” and we have to celebrate. Thursday parties are held because it is almost Friday which means the weekend is here as well. Parties held on Friday are held simply because its Friday based on the famous phrase “Thank God It’s Friday”, which in social media is abbreviated as TGIF! Parties held on Saturday are based on the reason that its the weekend and we have nothing better to do and lastly on Sunday students have to say good bye to the last day of the weekend. The cycle begins all over again the following week. Cheating During Exams Very few students like exams because it forces them to knuckle down and read. Exams is one of the methods used by lecturers to test whether the students have grasped the content during the semester. Some of the points highlighted above are a major cause for dismall performance by students in their exams. As a result students resort to crude means to ensure they pass their exams. This include; copying, buying the exams before they sit for it, seducing lecturers to give them undeserved grades just to mention a few. The author shall however focus on copying during exams. It is here where one trully appreciates the ingenuity of students. Some of the ways they come up with to copy during exams are simply genious and some even hilarious. The common ways include sneaking illegal material into the exam room but the real test for them is in how to sneak it in. The ladies have more options when compared to the men. Ladies usually copy answers in their inner wear mostly petticoats. During the exams they lift their skirts and check on the answers. Another way is by exchanging answer booklets with other students during the exams and the students go ahead and write answers for each other and then they return the booklets to their respective owners. In exams with multiple choice questions, students have devised even more creative methods of relaying answers to their colleagues. For instance; if the answer to a prticular question is C, one can simply point to their ear, if the answer is D one simply points to his nose. It is important to note that students resort to these methods fully aware of the repucurssions. They therefore choose to disregard the rules against cheating in examinations and have selective amnesia with regard to the consequences. It is noteworthy that the consequences in these cases are dire, for instance; expulsion, suspension for a number of days usually 1,000 academic days- this means only those days which are fully recognised as learning days therefore weekends, public holidays and being out of session are not included. Time Management This is one of the major challenges students face while in college. This is mainly because they feel obliged to engage in several activities other than academic related. It is advisable to engage in other activities other than academic work as the saying goes, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Students are therefore forced to prioritise. Time can be properly managed through planning. Planning helps us realise how much work we have to do and then develop an action plan on how to tackle them. It is amazing how we all have equal hours in a day yet some people are able to accomplish more than others in the same time. Many students are victims of poor time management and as a result many end up submitting their assignments late, turn up for exams while unprepared or miss classes. Time can properly be managed through prioritising. This involves tackling those assignments or carrying out activities they deem to be important. Attending parties is importnt for ones social life as this ensures that one is also socially well-rounded but this should not be at the expense of academic works. This is a good example for prioritising; Peter and Jane are both in the same class and they have two term papers due the following week and have just been invited for a party. They are conflicted. Do they go for the party or do their assignments? Jane opts for doing her term papers. Going by the logic of prioritising, the term papers seem the most important but it should not be assumed that whatever seems important to Jane is also important to Peter. Conclusion Decision making implies that one has alternative choices to consider, and in such a case it is important to identify or seek out as many alternatives as possible and in choosing one ought to choose: i. One that has the highest probability of success or effectiveness and ii. One that best fits with our goals, desires, lifestyle and various other things. The greatest power man has been given by God is the power of choice. Power to choose between good and evil, power to choose between success and failure, and power over various other things. It should be noted that it is not all doom and gloom for my fellow young colleagues in colleges this is because some of the greatest minds made the great inventions while college. Take Mark Zuckerberg for instance, the founder and CEO of Facebook who invented it in 2004 while in his college dorm room together with his roomates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft was a student at Havard till he made the decision to drop out and start his own company. References Harris,  R. (2012). Introduction to Decision Making. Heider, F. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley. http://www.businessballs.com/timemanagement.htm- Time Management Techniques and Systems Read More