Decision-making theory

Stewart TJ (1992) A Critical Survey on the Status of Multiple Criteria Decision Making Theory and Practice. Omega International Journal of Management Science 20 569-586... 

Chankong, V. and Haimes, Y. Y. (1983). Multi-objective Decision Making Theory and Methodology, Elsevier Science Publishing, New York. 

Stewart, T. J. (1992). A critical survey on the status of multiple criteria decision making theory and practice, OMEGA 20, 5-6, pp. 569-586. 

Hammond, K. R., McClelland, G. H., and Mumpower, J. (1980), Human Judgment and Decision Making Theories, Methods, and Procedures, Praeger, New York. 

WP Tanner, JA Swets. A decision-making theory of visual detection. Psychol Rev 61 401-409, 1954. 

Kahraman, C. (2008) Fuzzy multi-criteria decision making Theory and applications with recent developments. Berlin et al. 2008. 

Considerable attention has been focused on the kind of motives which drive the decisions and choices of individuals in a work setting. An influential model of motivation was the "scientific management" movement of F. W. Taylor (1911) which viewed motivation largely in terms of rational individual decisions to maximize financial gain. This theory claimed that workers only wanted to make as much as possible for as little effort as possible, and that they were neither interested in, nor capable of planning and decision- making. 

There are areas in the field of management science where it has not been easy or fruitful to produce theories of use in decision making. The complexity of the concepts and structures involved have so far presented investigators with great difficulties. Some continue to attempt formalizing the structure of the field of management science but there have been no breakthroughs. Often, one is limited by the... 

MehrezA, GafniA (1989). Quality adjusted life years, utility theory, and healthy years equivalents. Med Decision Making, 142-9. 

The theories on individual decision making from other scientific disciplines tend to stress factors such as status, social peer pressure, time availability, mood, cultural aspects, self-affirmation, altruism, and self-perception, as explanatory variables to decision making [12, 13]. These latter factors are far less favourable for economic valuation since the value would be unpredictable and varying dependent on situation. They may, however, provide an equally or even better description of decision making. 

Finally, the last step is the decision making process which is supported by the results provided by the combination rules. Indeed, as previously highlighted, the combination of the available sources of information provides us with a new belief function which represents the most reliable and complete information. However, if the choice of the most likely h3rpothesis is straightforward in the probabilistic framework, it can become quite complex in the Evidence theory. 

The theory of decision making under risk tells people to maximize expected utility. In cases like the one 1 have just discussed, this means the same as utility averaged over many periods. The theory has been extended, however, to cover choice situations that do not repeal themselves day after day or year after year. In that case the decision maker is asked to rely on his "subjective probabilities" or, in less solemn language, on his informed hunches. The utility of each possible outcome of an action is weighted by the estimated probability of that outcome, to yield the expected utility of the action. The theory tells us to take the action that has associated with it the highest expected utility. In the next chapter 1 state my reasons for being skeptical about this extension of the theory. 

Roy B (1999) Decision-Aiding Today What Should we Expect. In Gal T, Stewart TJ, Hanne T (eds) Multicriteria Decision Making Advances in MCDM Models, Algorithms, Theory, and Applications. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston et al., pp 1.1-1.35 Roy B (1996) Multicriteria Methodology for Decision Aiding. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston et al. 

On a more philosophical or meta-physical level, one may suspect that free will and consciousness may have some quantum mechanical origin rooted in the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Perhaps at some neurological level an electron at a synapse exists in a superposition of two or more states that ultimately results in someone making some sort of decision. Should I run for President, or not Should I get married, or not . Perhaps there are two states with eigenvalues yes or no that asymptotically lead to very different actions. Does quantum theory enter into our decision making process Perhaps the brain itself acts as some sort of quantum computer taking... 

Abelson RP, Levi A. 1985. Decision making and decision theory. In Handbook of Social Psychology, p. 231. New York Random House. 

Williams-Jones B, Burgess M. Social contract theory and just decision-making Lessons from genetic testing for the BRCA mutations. Kennedy Institute of Ethics J 2004 14 115-142. 

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