...The Choice A. The text is about a man called Michael Dillon and his wife Moira Dillon who are taken prisoner in their own home one night by IRA men. In the morning the captor tells Michael what to do: He is told to drive to the hotel which he’s the manager of, park the car in his reserved parking place and then leave the hotel again. Michael guesses that there’s a bomb in his car and he gets really nervous, but the captor threats him with killing his wife if he does anything wrong. He drives to the hotel and parks the car in his reserved parking place. Through the window he sees that a man called Pottinger is going to deliver his speak of religious hatred. He realizes that his car, with the bomb, is parked right under the head table where Pottinger is going to be and he understands that the whole plan is killing Pottinger. As he walks away he looks inside the hotel and sees a lot of innocent people who had families at home. He walks across the road till a wee shop and asks for a telephone. He rings the police who tell him to alarm the hotel and so he do. Then he drives home in a borrowed car to see if his wife is still alive. She is but she is not glad. B. Michael Dillon is in a huge dilemma. On the one hand he will not risk the life of his wife but on the other hand a lot of innocent people will die because of the lack of deed from his side, if he does not ring the police as soon as possible. I think he changed his mind and start to think about how he could ring the...
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...(2012) 424–427 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Behavioural Processes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/behavproc Short report Discounting the freedom to choose: Implications for the paradox of choice Derek D. Reed ∗ , Brent A. Kaplan, Adam T. Brewer University of Kansas, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Organisms prefer to make their own choices. However, emerging research from behavioral decision making sciences has demonstrated that there are boundaries to the preference for choice. Specifically, many decision makers find an extensive array of choice options to be aversive, often leading to negative emotional states and poor behavioral outcomes. This study examined the degree to which human participants discounted hypothetical rewards that were (a) delayed, (b) probabilistic, and (c) chosen from a large array of options. The present results suggest that the “paradox of choice” effect may be explained within a discounting model for individual patterns of decision making. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Article history: Received 5 December 2011 Received in revised form 14 February 2012 Accepted 27 March 2012 Keywords: Choice Choice overload Discounting Paradox of choice Search costs As described by Catania, “Whatever else is involved in the concept of freedom, it at least involves the availability of alternatives” (p. 89; 1975). Thus, within a behavioral framework, freedom may be loosely conceptualized...
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...Are Choices an Illusion? Section 1 Do I believe that the choices we make are just mere illusions? That we do not really have our own free will in making decisions? Yes, I believe this to be true. Section 2 However, some believe that we do have free will. Roy F. Baumeister, a social psychologist states that we do have free will, and he says: If culture is so successful, why don’t other species use it? They can’t—because they lack the psychological innate capabilities it requires. Our ancestors evolved the ability to act in the ways necessary for culture to succeed. Free will likely will be found right there—it’s what enables humans to control their actions in precisely the ways required to build and operate complex social systems. (Baumeister). What Baumeister is saying is that based on how our ancestor has developed a sense of communication is an act of free will. They have free will because they chose how they want to develop and how it will help them evolve. Baumesiter also states how our self-control "counts as a kind of freedom because it beings with not acting on every impulse," meaning that because of our free will, we don't always act straight away when we see something. We think about it first before we trigger a response. Such as thinking about what we say before we say it, we just don't say the first thing that comes to our mind without thinking about it. Steve Zara, a writer in the Richard Dawkins discussion section of the websites states that ...
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...Difficulty In Making An Important Decision Assignment: Describe a particular time in your life when you had difficulty making an important decision. During the course of our lifetimes we make many significant and difficult choices that affect us. These choices affect our personal and professional lives. Therefore, we make these choices with much thought and care. One of the most difficult and important decisions I have made was changing careers. Changing careers at this stage of my life, mid-life, was very difficult. Preparation for my new career required me to resign my job. The former position was providing a major portion of my family's income and most of the medical benefits. Some means of earning a living while preparing for a new career was foremost on my mind during this stage. If I spent to much time and energy pursuing a job to provide a means for supporting my family while retraining, I might not do a sufficient job of retraining for a new career. Another difficulty equally as important as the the financial one was the possibility of failing at a new endeavor or not being able to find a new job. These possibilities made me feel uncomfortable and insecure. If I failed or could not find a new position, what would my family think of me? Failing at a new career would also cause me to lose confidence in myself. These concerns, failure and financial, and not finding a new job made this decision very difficult. The decision...
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...Choices are They Free? AIU Online Throughout history people have encountered many situations with many different outcomes. Many have debated whether fate or free will was the reason behind the outcomes. There are times when situations arise that one might not be able to express their free will due to constraints placed by society. This can cause conflicting feelings and one must evaluate how to resolve the situation and the conflicts of feeling to reach an acceptable outcome. Years ago when my oldest child was in second grade we had a very serious issue dealing with racism at his school with another little boy towards him. Initially I encourage him to do all the socially acceptable things such as ignoring the comments from this little boy, reporting it to a teacher, and speaking to his counselor. I also followed up with talking to the teacher and counselor. The problem continued to persist and my son was very upset and uncomfortable by it. I requested to know who the other child’s parents where so that I may possibly speak to them and try to reach a resolution of some sorts. The school would not provide me the information I needed to do so, instead stating that they would continue to try to fix the situation. I feel that by not allowing me the opportunity to address the situation personally the school denied me the ability to express any preferable outcomes for resolving the situation, as well as kept me from protecting my child from the racial harassment. Also I feel...
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...Working Worries Life is full of choices. Whether they are good or bad; they are still choices no matter what you label them as. Now with me being only twenty-two years old, I don’t believe that I have had to make too many crazy choices but when I think of significant choices that I have needed to make only one pops up into my mind. I think of my decision to begin college or not. This was difficult for me because I was ready to start my life in the “real world” as soon as I walked out of my high school doors on graduation day, so I began by getting a regular job. Little did I know that just a plain “job” was not going to be what I had envisioned. The reason why I think the decision to come to college is a big deal is because of all the other things that the decision affects. For example, starting college means that I need to focus a lot of my energy and attention to doing well in classes, where if I decided to just get another job, then I would have to focus on doing well with my work and my boss. Also starting college means that I need to take a loan out to help pay for my new education. I kept putting off the decision because of all the worries and fears I had about college work and the expenses that would come with my idea of a proper education. After working a few “dead end” jobs that could barely support the gas needed to drive to these “Jobs”, I made my decision. Obviously I decided on starting college, I decided on this course because I had been working straight...
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...Choices Made Karma the cosmic law of cause and effect is evident in the choices made by people all the time. When a choice is made in a split second the consequences of that choice are not always taken into account. Most choices are made for more than just a single sided reason. On one side there is the noble selfless act and then there is the self-centered reasons on which a majority of choices are made. The consequences of a choice can be worse than what is expected at the time the choice is made. In John Updike’s “A&P” the main character Sammy makes the choice to quite his job after his boss embarrasses three girls that are going through his check out lane. The choice Sammy makes is not a wise one to make hastily. The out come is not what he expects and he does not fully understand the ramifications this choice will have on his life in a small town. Sammy’s impulsive choice is the result of his resentment of his boss, Lengel, who starts to scold the girls for coming into his store wearing bathing suits. He doesn’t just inform them that when they come into the store they should put more modest clothing on but instead belittles them in front of the other customers. In this time period if women where out at in swimwear before they would go into a store they would put on a pair of short and shirt or at the least a long shirt that covered them up. During the exchange of words a crowd of people start to form in the other lane trying to avoid the confrontation but looking none...
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...Once done with A’ levels, every student is faced with the impossible task of choosing a career that will decide the path of their life’s from now onwards. Students rarely pay much attention towards career when in high school, and once out of high school they face an endless sea of possibilities, pressure from parents and peers and very little time to make the right choice. Rather than having a panic attack, one needs to consider where their interests and abilities lie. Choosing a career that is only based on the consideration of ‘how much money will I earn in future through this career’ can lead to a student choosing a career that although offers money but rather leads to dissatisfaction in the long term. This does not imply that money is not to be considered at all. It simply means that a student choosing between different options should keep a balance between both interest and earning capability when selecting a career. It would be rather foolish of someone to choose a career that is although based on interest, has little or no market value at all. That interest can then be pursued as a hobby but not as a career. What is rather an important consideration in choosing the right career is whether enough finance is available to undertake that degree. Although lack of finance could be a detrimental factor to a student, nowadays different scholarships are available that one can avail. Taking into account all these different elements a student can then make a list of available...
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...The Effect of Information Overload on Consumer Choice Quality in an On-Line Environment Research has found that online information overload results in less satisfied, less confident, and more confused consumers. The founding ground for the research has been on the notion of limited human processing capacity (Bettman.J.R., 1979) (Streufert, 1965), if consumers are provided with too much information at a given point in time, such that it exceeds their processing limits, the problem of information overload occurs which leads to poorer decision making and affects performance. Study This study examines the effect of on-line information load on consumer decision quality. Model Used Information load was measured by the number of alternatives and attributes and distribution of each attribute value across alternatives. It combines both traditional and structural approaches to investigating information overload. Result Results from this study largely confirm that when the level of attributes is varied equally across alternatives in addition to the number of attributes being increased, that is, when imposing information overload, consumer choice quality suffered a negative effect and is consistent with prior findings using the structural approach (Lurie, 2002) (West, 1996) Satisfaction in Choice as a Function of the Number of Alternatives Investigations have found how satisfaction from choice varies as a function of the number of alternatives faced (Elena Reutskaja,...
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...EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CHOICE? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF CHOICE IN ORGANIZATIONS Roy Yong-Joo Chua and Sheena S. Iyengar ABSTRACT The provision of choice is one of the most common vehicles through which managers empower employees in organizations. Although past psychological and organizational research persuasively suggests that choice confers personal agency, and is thus intrinsically motivating, emerging research indicates that there could be potential pitfalls. In this chapter, we examine the various factors that could influence the effects of choice. Specifically, we examine individual-level factors such as the chooser’s socioeconomic status and cultural background. We also examine situational factors such as the content of choice and the number of choices offered. We then expand our discussion on the effect of giving employees extensive choice by looking at its influence on creative performance. In the second half of this chapter, we discuss implications for future organizational behavior research and examine how emerging research on choice making can inform specific managerial practices. Research in Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays and Critical Reviews Research in Organizational Behavior, Volume 27, 41–79 Copyright r 2006 by Elsevier Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0191-3085/doi:10.1016/S0191-3085(06)27002-3 41 42 ROY YONG-JOO CHUA AND SHEENA S. IYENGAR INTRODUCTION Douglas McGregor’s (1960)...
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...Have you ever made bad choices in your life? Bad choices are bad, but did you know you could learn from them and not feel pressured to be right all the time. I’ve made bad choices in my life and felt like people weren’t supposed to do, but when I realized you make bad choices to learn from your bad choices. Believe it or not if you don’t if you don’t or do wrong or make bad choices your not human. People in society make bad choices, bad choices and some don’t won’t or try to correct themselves and that can lead to bad consequences. Our status more times than not, is defined by what we look like, hoe we dress and where we come from. Status presents itself, especially in the novel Bang! By Sharon Flake. In the novel, status impacts the life of...
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...Topic: How does Hawkeye choose which arrows to use for a mission? Hawkeye is a member of the Avengers whose advanced skills with the Bow are unmatched and who is always able to know the right arrow for the right job. There are many explanations on how he chooses which arrow to use and why; such as the variety of the arrows that are available to him and how successful that arrow will be once used. Another such method is his constant awareness of his limited capacity of arrows that his quiver holds. The last and most importantly is that he considers any possible collateral damage that could occur from the effects of the arrow he chooses. To deal with any number of different situations Hawkeye has created many different types of arrows that suit his needs. These arrows are set apart from his standard Razor arrows; Arrows like his fragmentation arrow which is composed of a shrapnel based explosive that on impact can damage or even destroy large sized structures such as Vehicles or parts of buildings. Another such arrow is his Delivery system arrows where the arrow head has been fitted with a needle that is attached to a delivery system that when it reaches his intended target injects the target with whatever substance he loaded into it which could be anything from acid to a tranquilizer based substance. There are many more that could be talked about and because of this wide variety it allows him to have more of an advantage in any situation. An example would be: a fire has broken...
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...much choice do we really have when we want to purchase goods? Choice is something most people just assume they have when they are picking their cable company, choosing a bank, or even walking through your local food mart. The goal of this essay is to show that while at first glance choices may seem endless, but when you do a small amount of research you can quickly realize that most brands link back to the same parent company. The majority of foods, drinks, and health products we buy trace their way back to 10 major corporations. Society today has this false idea that they have a choice in what they buy at the grocery store. For example you may not like large soda companies and decide to not buy their products. But if you buy bottled water, sports drinks, energy drinks, or fruit juice chances are you are buying a brand from a soda producing parent company. Most retailers charge a fee to get products on the most visible shelves which keeps small companies away from your line of sight. This is because large consumer good companies have a special relationship with retailers. Like an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine ideology”. Many of the products that you see on store shelves are direct competitors that are linked to the same company. “ConAgra sells six varieties of popcorn” (http://www.alternet.org/food/how-big-food-creates-illusion-choice-supermarket). Different brands of products is a ploy that most parent companies use to help give you a false idea of choice. This...
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...Freedom of choice is one of the most important things a person can have, but not all people have it. When someone doesn’t have freedom of choice, they could be missing out on their full potential to do great things. Potential in a person needs to be explored, but they can’t do that unless they can make their own decisions. Freedom to choose where your life goes can change lives heavily, take Barrington Irving for instance. Irving wanted to be the youngest pilot to travel the world alone, but because his family was poor and unprepared to support his dream, people told him he couldn’t fulfill that dream. However, when Irving ignored all of the people forcing the idea that he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, he accomplished great things. If Irving didn’t actually have the freedom to choose what he wanted to do, he wouldn’t have known what great things waited for him to do and complete. From some people’s point of view, freedom of choice is bad. They believe more trouble will come out of one’s unaided decisions than any good. If people do not have the vital freedom needed to choose where their lives go, then how will they learn more to further themselves? Life experience and intelligence is built on making...
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...The consequences of our choices have an everlasting effect on our lives and the lives of people around us. In the novel, Tangerine, by Edward Bloor this is especially true for Paul Fisher and the people around him. Some of these include when Paul’s parents chose not to tell him how his eyesight was permanently impaired, when Erik kills Luis, and when Tino and Victor stand up to Erik. The choices made by the character's in Tangerine help Paul to grow and learn to stand up to people. Paul’s parents decide to keep how he lost his eyesight a secret. The reason his parents keep this a secret is because they don’t want to omit that there football star of a son could have something wrong with him. The way that Paul reacts to this is that he wants...
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