The Effects of Social Influences on Decision-Making - Essay Example

? The Effects of Categorization and Social Influences on Decision-Making Insert Insert Grade Insert Insert IntroductionHumans are bound to various decision making scenarios in their everyday life. As a result, decision making is an important phenomenon of everyone at all stages of life. The only difference that comes in decisions made is that sometimes they may seem correct or otherwise according to the consequences of those decisions. This is because accuracy in decision making usually depend on various influencers. There are external and internal factors that influence decision making which is usually a process. However, the social factors and categorization may be the major influencers of individuals’ decision making. The social environment and categorization factors have in fact made impossible for human beings to make decisions with restraint rather than on free will. This paper will examine the various categorization and social influencers that may determine the way an individual makes decisions on a daily basis. The analysis will first look at the various cognitive processes that help create understanding. Consequently, the paper will then examine the various ways in which categorization and social factors determine how individuals make decisions. Cognitive Processes The various models of cognitive process of decision making point towards a dual process, in which individuals take either side of the model. The major theories of the cognitive process are the heuristic processing and risk relevant decision making process. A major common factor of the cognitive process models is the agreement that decision making develops with time. In other words, the process develops with age and hence the difference between adults and adolescents or children in terms of decision making. The heuristic model proposes that there are some forms of shortcuts that people may take in the process of decision making. As stated earlier, this develops with time given the repetitive nature of situations where the same decisions may be applicable. This is therefore a kind of decision making process that shows in individuals that may depict that they may be adapted to make decisions in certain ways. As a result, it is common to find individuals making quick and reactive decisions that may have been internalized or memorized (Albert and Steinberge, 2011). On the other hand, risk relevant decision making model proposes various ways in which the risk factor may affect the cognitive process. First is the ‘reasoned pathway’ framework that states that individuals will make decisions based on the likely consequences. Through this, humans will first weigh the situation and arrive at final decisions based on the benefits of choosing the available or possible scenarios of the required decision to be made. This framework therefore tends to avoid the risks that might be associated with making certain decisions over the others. In contrast, the ‘social reaction pathway’ frame work is based on the willingness of individuals to get involved in certain risky behavior. Since the cognition process is subject to time for development purposes, it is through this that adolescents are likely to get involved in risky behavior like drug taking, drinking, reckless driving among other things. In addition, emotions may also have an effect on the cognitive process and hence may largely affect decision making. Categorization Categorization is based on the model of social classifications. It is a wider form of stereotyping where people tend to have some form of abstract or general meaning of certain objects, people or places. As a result, decision making is pegged on these ideas. Generalization may involve the process of placing objects or people into categories (Crisp, 2002). This is necessitated by the need of cognitive process to become efficient by associating meaning to groups of objects or people. In the decision making process, this will mean that an individual will be likely to have a perception on the object or individual in accordance with the category it is placed in. Since this process tends to create some meaning through simplifying and prioritizing objects, individual’s decision making is based on the already created perceptions. For example, one may classify countries in terms of safety or dangerous may be because of the terror alerts assigned to them. As a result, the decision to tour the country or not will be influenced by this categorization. Social Influences Social factors have been established to influence decision making in individuals. This is based on the fact that human beings tend to interact and want to belong in certain groups of people. Through these groups, there might be shared beliefs, culture, values or norms. During the decision making process, the cognitive processes are likely to be guided by the cognitive models discussed earlier in this paper. As a consequence, the individuals in certain social groupings or identities may make decisions according to the risks or adaptations that are perceived through the values of such groups. For instance, the social grouping’s norms may prohibit or despise people who involve themselves in certain behavior or conduct. As a result, when faced with situations of decision making, individuals will tend to weigh the options to take against the norms or requirements of the social norms related to those decisions. The social judgment theory also points out to the likely influence of sociality in decision making. The theory proposes that the social life affects individual’s attitudes through influencers like persuasion. Persuasion majorly occurs when one is undecided or seems to have made a hard line decision. As a result of social influences, decisions are made according to what the society may dictate or stand for with regards to the issue in question. Individuals are therefore likely to opt for the most acceptable option instead of their individual choice when making decisions. This theory contends that the social environment has some form of latitudes. When the decision made is acceptable, there is a latitude of acceptance and the vice versa results to a latitude of rejection to the individual. As a consequence, since it is within the nature of humans to strive for belonging, they are likely to be influenced by social factors like religion, race, family and others. Conclusion From the discussions above, it is therefore evident that decisions are influenced by various social constrictions. The freedom of choice may only be an illusion because even when decisions are made without interference, the individual may consider some factors and categories that may result into indirect influence of the society on the individual’s choice (Eleswed, 2011). Self control has however been pointed out as a factor in which individuals may learn to make decisions without considering the consequences of their decision. However, as long as choices will continue to have consequences assigned to them, the social influence on decision making will remain a great challenge to human beings. References Albert, D. & Steinberg, L. (2011). Judgment and Decision Making in Adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1) p211 – 224 Crisp, R. J. (2002). Social Categorisation: Blurring the Boundaries. Psychologist, 15, (12), p.612. Eleswed, M. (2011). 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