Avoid Bad Decision Making Under Stress by Training and Practicing Previously

Running Head: AVOID BAD DECISION MAKING UNDER STRESS 1

Avoid Bad Decision Making Under Stress

By training and practicing previously

Yun Xiao

Syracuse University

AVOID BAD DECISION MAKING UNDER STRESS 2

Abstract

This paper explores the topic “decision” related to stress which discussed in class. From many scholarly journals and published materials, training and practicing to learn strategies to deal with stress has been found as a good way to avoid bad decision making under stress. This paper gives several examples of decision making under different stressful situations to show the efficiency of training and practicing.

Keywords: decision making, stress, training, practicing

AVOID BAD DECISION MAKING UNDER STRESS 3

Avoid Bad Decision Making Under Stress

By training and practicing previously

With the development of society, people are facing more and more stressful circumstances. No matter who they are--students, parents, teachers, businessmen, physicians, fire-fighters, and etc--they have to make decisions every single day. Some of the decisions are easy to make, but sometimes, people have to make more difficult decisions under stress. For instance, when an HR are interviewing someone, the HR has to evaluate and decide whether the person is valuable enough to the company to be hired, so the HR are making decisions under the stress of uncertainty. To ensure that people can make better decisions and avoid bad decisions, I believe that previous training and practicing to learn how to deal with problems under stress is helpful.

There are many different things to cause stress. Take “crises” as an example. According to Hagen, Statler, & Penuel (2013), “Stress is one of the key factors that underlie the demands on decision makers when faced with crises.” (p.249). Crises bring decision makers a number of variables and they usually just have a very short time to react. Obviously, crises can cause much stress to decision makers. After the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, people have realized the importance of previous training, and all the candidates of OIM (offshore installation manager) need to get proper training and practicing to know how to deal with really emergencies (Hagen, Statler, & Penuel, 2013, p. 250). When facing crises and making decisions under stress, people who have been through the similar emergency situations need less time to react and make less mistakes compared with people who have no training experiences.

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This strategy has been widely using in many circumstances. For example, Glyn David (1997) claimed: “An ability to make timely, appropriate and effective decisions is an essential competence required