I’m delighted that Psychology Today has given me a forum to discuss what I consider to be one the most important components of a happy and successful life: the ability to make good decisions. I’m a math professor, and during the 20th century mathematics went where it hadn’t gone before – it began to investigate the social sciences and human interactions. One of the most valuable disciplines to emerge was decision theory. The major results of decision theory are easy to understand, and can be used as a tool in successful decision-making.
For the past twenty years, I’ve had lunch almost every Friday with Liz, who is a practicing psychologist in Brentwood. I’ve learned a lot about psychology during these lunches. Although Liz cannot discuss specifics, sometimes she has an interesting case that can be discussed in a context which does not jeopardize doctor-patient confidentiality. Additionally, as good friends often do we discuss the events of our own lives, and I have frequently benefited from these discussions.
When I learned that I would have the opportunity to write a blog for Psychology Today, I asked Liz during our latest lunch what she thought was the purpose of psychology. I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to say, but it turned out I only realized half of the picture. She believed that two primary goals of psychology were to help people get “unstuck” (her word) with their lives, and to help those people who had great difficulty coping with everyday life to start living a normal life.
One of the reasons that I asked was because I was pretty sure that psychology and decision theory had a similar goal; helping people to live a happier and more fulfilled life. That is how I would have described the process of getting “unstuck”. However, decision theory must leave to psychology the problem of helping people who have great difficulty coping with everyday life, because learning to make better decisions tacitly implies that one can generally carry out a decision that one has made. People who have difficulty coping with everyday life frequently cannot even make decisions, much less carry them out. The principles of decision theory aren’t much help in this case; but they can be invaluable to those who are capable of carrying out the decisions they make – especially if they sometimes make catastrophically wrong decisions. A good case in point would be a certain well-known golfer.
The goals of decision theory and psychology are similar, although the approaches differ. Liz and I might have different views of how to get “unstuck” with one’s life – but it has to be beneficial to have different ways to approach a problem. Hopefully this blog will supply you with some useful tools to live a happier and more fulfilled life.
