The Decision-Making Process Ralph was strolling down the street on his way back from class when he spotted a beautiful ring in the jewelry store window. He immediately went inside and purchased the ring and had it giftwrapped for his new girlfriend. That was the start of a bit of difficulty for Ralph. When he arrived home, a phone message informed him that his new girlfriend had just gotten engaged to another fellow and she was leaving school.

When he took the ring out of the box to look at it, the setting fell out of the ring. A trip to the store proved even more frustrating. The manager pointed to the “all sales final” sign and said they would not take it back, and since they were closing the store they no longer had a repair department that could reset the stone. Ralph also learned that when he charged the ring to his credit card it had exceeded his credit limit, and within a few days he began to get threatening notices and telephone calls from the credit card company. Unfortunately, he will not have any money to pay on his credit card bill until next term starts.

Four steps were presented in the decision model outlined in the chapter. How might these steps have been used by Ralph to attain a more favorable result?