Review normative decision theory (the six steps that make up the theory) and then think of some recent important decision you have made for which you feel you were systematic and thorough and represents the theory. How closely did your behavior resemble steps in theory? Were there any steps you omitted? Did you take any of the steps in a different order from that indicated? How much information did you have and how much additional information did you acquire in trying to reach a decision? How many criteria did you consider? Did you consider all of the available alternatives or only a few? Did you evaluate each alternative in respect to each criterion? Also, feel free to do some outside research in the library. Please see the general Discussion Instructions and Grading Rubric on the syllabus so that you are aware of it will take to succeed in these discussions.

Normative Decision Theory: 6 steps

1. Define the problem:

2. Identify the critera:

3. Weigh the criteria:

4. Generate alternatives:

5. Rate each alternative on each criterion

6. Compute the optimal decision: