Decision making is very complex as many concepts play their role to make it happen. For most of the time, we don’t know which concept is leading ourselves towards an immediate decision. These are hidden concepts that make our background to work within our brains. Here, I am least interested in concepts that we consciously choose to play with or concepts that are given to us to play with by others. For the cause of our real behavior/attitude, we need to know hidden forces behind our actions. Because they are strong motivators that are prerequisite for the environment we are dealing in at any particular moment.Brain Environment is the ground of the story, and in most of the cases, we are destined to play in an already set environment.

Decision making process will also be affected by our values, self-talk, self-concept, self-esteem and religious priorities. Some psychologists suggest other fellows to learn about religious and spiritual developmental issues while dealing with psychological problems of patients. As many of us are under the influence of heresy, false ideas, miss perceptions and fake concepts that drive us towards unrealistic and risky decisions.

We all possess a unique set of attributes that form our unique personalities. When it comes to learning skill, we set our mind to join a specific field of study like Science, Math’s, English, etc. which is called aptitude towards learning a specific skill. When it comes to status, we compare people by their success in the special field they work in which makes sense to some extent. When it comes to relationship status, we could not rely solely on social status/success. We need to see something else. For a lay man that something else could be any one of the human traits- morality, empathy, decisiveness, purity, honesty, trust worthy, contentedness, balanced, brave, etc.

For a psychologist, things are more complex and hard to explain under a simple heading. For example, an honest person can be totally different from another honest one. As honesty can be depicted by different way under different scenarios, and would look totally different under different circumstances. Like a dishonest cheater is not necessarily a thief, a cruel man could honestly play his game, or an honest friend could steal something to help his friends.
Therefore we judge the terms like ‘honesty’, ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘cool’, etc. as per our own understanding and decision making takes place according to that very definition of the phenomenon which is buried in our brain several years ago.

Similarly our ways of doing certain things, dealing with people around us, setting priorities in life and even all events of life from morning till evening depend on our beliefs about such events/experiences. We, ultimately, unconsciously keep on justifying our system of beliefs, and then to decision making all the time. Thus our beliefs act as models of the world to help us make predictions and policies.

Sometimes decisions are more important than beliefs, so we leave our belief for a while and take decision accordingly. Like maintaining friendship with the person you personally do not like due to some benefits you are getting from that guy. Sometimes you think your decision will destroy your belief, so you avoid that decision. Like you stop yourself from stealing because you think it is not a good habit. Sometimes you have different beliefs about one thing and could not decide which is better,so you remain confused and could not take decision.

Unfortunately we are not aware of our decisions real causes-the beliefs behind those decisions. We usually miss perceive ourselves and our decisions. Decisions do not happen alone. They are strong predictors of our beliefs. You know the quote very well: action is stronger than words. So to truly analyze yourself, you need to go through your decisions, not beliefs. Then you will understand your inner, true beliefs in reality.

Based on your true evaluation, decisions can be maintained or rejected with the help of belief modifications. If you want to continue with your decisions, you do not need any interruption in your belief system. But if you want to change your decisions, check your core beliefs underneath and try to replace them with similar new ones. You cannot remove your old beliefs from data, but can modify them and add some more beliefs to interfere with and change their basic shape and structure. With the passage of time, things (decisions) will take effect, and your beliefs will certainly guide you in the right direction.
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Author's Bio: 

Mona Aeysha, PhD, is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist, have been working as a Teacher and Researcher in several institutes of Pakistan and Cambodia. Her major areas of interest are: self –esteem, self-concept, conceptual psychology, belief psychology, self psychology, preferential psychology, cultural psychology and women psychology.
You are always welcome to contact her via email if you have any query in this regard.
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Dr Mona