Family Decision Making

Decision making is a cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice called a decision. It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what. Therefore, decision-making is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions. (McGlone, 2000)

There are several steps in the decision-making process: Define the problem, brainstorm all possibilities or potential alternatives, select the best possible alternative, follow through and carry out the decision, evaluate the decision and adapt. (McGlone, 2000)

Every decision making process may not be produced individually, sometimes it covers more than one household like a decision making within a family, which is a complex unit consisting of individuals with different thoughts, feelings, and ideas that can make decision-making challenging. How a decision can be made in a family? McGlone (2000) proposes three different decision-making styles:

A decision may be reached by one person giving up her or his position to reduce or settle the conflict. This may be an easy way out for less vocal family members, but there is a risk of cutting off communication with those family members and increasing stress.

Sometimes families have trouble getting past the brainstorming part of the process so one person may make a decision for the whole family. The family’s reaction to this decision making style can be either positive or negative. Family members may feel angry or hurt because they have no control over the decision, or they may be relieved that a decision has finally been made.

Another style is when family members take an active role in the decision making process by each person taking a turn “stating their case.” Everyone then has a say in the outcome. Families who use this style are typically more flexible and open because they seek input from each member.

Households’ involvement in the decision making process can depend on the family structure measured by wives’ occupational status and sex-role orientation.

H.L. Davis (1971) suggests that a person’s power to make decisions stems from the ability to provide for the fulfillment of his/her marriage partner’s needs. Therefore, the more a husband fulfills his duty to provide for the family, the more the wife will allow the husband to define the norms of decision making. We can conclude that if the wife contributes significantly to the household income, her influence would be greater than a housewife. It does not mean that wives contributing the family budget are more dominant in household decision making, rather, more equality in the decision making process comes to play. That is to say, whether the wife contributes financially to the household funds, that is, is employed outside the home (either as a carrier or just a job), could impact the family decision making process as well as outcomes. Thus, a wife’s occupational status may have an effect on the nature of household decision making (Lee and Beatty, 2002).

Changes in cultural norms and societal standards result in also changes in sex-role attitudes and behaviors. A family’s Sex Role Orientation (SRO) (whether a family is modern or traditional) is the underlying force that ultimately affects household decision making process (Qualls, 1987). For example, a modern SRO suggests that both family members will make decision together, sounds more democratic, while a traditional SRO suggests a more dictatorial role by the husband and more autocratic decisions are seen.

According to Douglas’ findings (1999), egalitarian (a person who believes in the equality of all people) sex-role attitudes have been found to encourage more equal household decision influences and family responsibilities between spouses. Wives from modern households have either equal or more influence in the decision issues whereas traditional husbands are more dominating, make more decisions (especially important ones such as a car or flat purchase).

The subject of interest here is the influence of different family members including children and adolescents. Before talking about the children involvement in decision making process, we mention the phases of decision making.

Decision making process is divided into three stages: Configuration, negotiation, and outcome (Lee and Beatty, 2002). Configuration describes the stage in the decision making process where the group members first approach the decision situation and decide on the “rules of the game”. Configuration would be involved if discussion occurs among family members suggesting how the decision process would proceed. The negotiation stage describes the