Content Area
Decision Making Factors
List different factors that influence decision making, such as reason, emotions, background information, memories, and biases. Conduct a "post-mortem" decision making analysis for a significant decision that you recently made. Create a flow chart that identifies the various mental processes that you may have been consciously or unconsciously aware of at the time.
Intuition and Reason
Define the difference between intuition and reason. What are the pros and cons of using each type of thinking for making decisions, like picking a person to join a sports team? Can every factor be reduced to a number and an equation or should "gut feelings" still have a chance to play a role in decision making?
Phrenology
Read about phrenology, a popular field of science in the 1800s, that attempted to classify humans based on physical characteristics. How and when was phrenology eventually debunked? Why? Do you see any similarities with phrenology and how baseball players used to be picked for teams?