My emotions played a role in my tone during this chain of events. Emotionally its been a
nightmare. Communication played a huge role. Communicating what was and wasn’t
happening with his care. If I had removed emotion from this situation, the outcome would
have been almost the same. I just would not have been emotionally attached. There are
several different levels to decision-making in my opinion. My decision making will always
have a lot to do with the situation in front of me, the people that may be involved, the
severity of the situation and whom it can effect be it bad or good. My example of a situation
where emotion influenced my decision-making would be, when years ago I had to decide if
I would remain friends with a person that I and others felt that they were toxic and they were
not growing that I had known since age 15. We were both in our 30's at this point. I decided
to end the friendship. I do feel my decision was reasonable based on the history and lack of
respect and bad energy that was coming from it. Emotion played a very high and important
role in this decision because we both had children that had known each other all there lives
and our families were close as well. Communication definitely played a role in this situation
because I felt as though communication was not there and it never would be. Some people
never learn this and I and other friends tried for years with no change.If I had removed
emotion from making this decision at that point, there still would have been no
communication and no reasoning to remain in that friendship and I think I still would have
come to that conclusion based on all other factors that were present and with out the
emotions, It would have happened earlier, most likely by the age of 22. When facing the
opportunity to take important decisions, I depend a lot on my family I have grown in a very
close family and we help each other at the time of making decisions by being supportive
more than trying to impose our own opinions, about a month ago my four-month-old niece
had heart surgery about 8 hours away from where I live. The first reaction was to be there
with the family for the surgery. I went ahead and planned at first reaction leave the kids with
inlaws in order to be able to be there personally for the surgery supporting during these
tough times. I wanted to be there emotionally speaking as the time of the surgery was
approaching communication with my wife play a significant role cause we decided it was
better and that we were going to help my sister more if my wife would go instead of me
going, I admit that at first it was tough for me to accept but thinking it through it was the
best decision for all of us. I think that emotion is always an influence in our decisions and
many of the choices we make are driven by our gut instinct. As the old saying goes,
following your gut will never lead you wrong. I always trust my gut to guide my decisions,
if I don't feel right about something, I won't do it. I am raising my children to do the same,
to follow their gut instincts but also use common sense and critical thinking skills when
making decisions. We have moved houses a few times in the last few years and I've had to
make big choices about whether to have my sons' change schools or stay at the school
they've been at since kindergarten. Ultimately, I went with my initial decision of keeping
them at the school they are comfortable with. This decision was largely influenced by
emotion, because I knew my sons didn't want to change schools and even though it would
have been easier, I chose to allow them to stay there. My approach to decision making is
dependent on the situation. I am more likely to make a decision with emotion when it comes
to personal issues. Recently, I had to decide whether to return to college and get my
bachelor’s degree or be content with an associate’s degree. In a conversation with a
coworker, she questioned how I received my promotion without a bachelor’s degree. I found
myself defending my experience and my accomplishment of an associate’s degree. This
situation frustrated me and made me feel my qualifications were insignificant. I decided I
had to register for school and get the degree. I spoke to my husband about my frustration
and the enormous amount time and commitment it would take to accomplish my bachelor’s
degree. He was supportive but questioned my motive. He helped me realize, I needed to set
my goal because it was what I wanted and not to prove to anyone I was worthy. I
contemplated for several months, before I decided to register for class. Once I removed the
emotion from my decision to rush back to school, I evaluated my and situation and
considered the benefits of attaining my bachelor’s degree. I researched several online
schools, evaluated my financial situation to avoid debt and utilized the resources my
employer offers to find the right school. My decision would have been different if my
abilities had not been challenged. I have 7 years until retirement so furthering my education
seemed unnecessary. I was content with my accomplishment of an associate’s degree and
the accomplishment of my promotion which were both part of my long term goal. Now I
clearly can see the benefits of a bachelor’s degree even after retirement. Once again, I am
balancing life, work and school. I am usually considered a "thinking" person and get a lot of
complaints from family because they feel I think too much. I do however, have an example
of a time when I let my emotions influence my decision-making. One of my previous bosses
was a very difficult person to work for. She was very demanding, which wasn't really the
issue, but her lack of appreciation and the fact that there was no pleasing became an
increasing issue. I love working where I do and have always done well and received very
high performance evaluations. But after a short time of working for this person, I began to
doubt myself and started making more and more mistakes. I would get stressed out every
morning just getting ready to go work because I dreaded it so much. After I finally had
enough and we had a disagreement, I decided promptly to find a new position with the
company. We are normally expected to have that type of discussion with our current
manager. I, however, began to avoid her and started interviewing for other positions without
her knowledge. When I did get a new job offer, I immediately accepted and informed her
that I would like to transfer to my new role as soon as possible. She was not happy with how
I handled the situation. I think I made a reasonable decision, but I could have handled it
more professionally had I not let my emotions get in the way. I think I still would have left
but would have discussed it with her prior to beginning the job search. Well, I had to decide
on leaving someone who only wanted a friendship. Especially when it’s more than a
friendship. However, we’ve been talking for six years and within those six years he claim he
only like me as a friend . The role did I emotion play in was I told him we couldn’t do extra
in our friendship especially if he’s not willing to take it to the next level . I know this is not
going to be an overnight thing but I know if I try to eliminate talking and or seeing him on
social media . Things will get better . If I didn’t act off emotion I probably would still be
right there trying to work things out with someone who really just see me as a friend and
nothing else . When making important decisions I always make a pros and cons list and play
out every possible outcome on paper as well as in my mind before I make a sound decision.
I am a big researcher so before I make any decision whether it be important or even a lesser
important decision I want to be informed on the matter at hand. I never make a hasty
decision when it comes to important matters I feel it will backfire on me if I do.One example
I can give of a situation where I let my emotions influence my decision-making would be
that I stayed in my former marriage longer than I should have. I knew my ex-husband and I
were no longer compatible; we continued to grow apart over the years and I just could not
emotionally bring myself to end an almost 20 year marriage. I continued to think with my
heart and not what would be the best for both of our lives in the long run. My ex-husband
and I never did communicate well from the beginning when it came to our relationship and
unfortunately that lack of communication killed our marriage. If I had removed my emotions
from the thought process of what was truly best for myself, him and our children it would
have saved all four of us a lot of heartache. In the end he became bitter towards me and in
turn no longer has a relationship with his children. Had I approached the demise of our
marriage from a non-emotional way perhaps the bitterness would not be there towards and
he might still have a relationship with his children. Decision making has been something
that I have developed with time. I can look back and see how different my thought process
was compared to what it is now. A great example of emotion influencing my decision was
years ago when I traded in a car and got a new one. We had a small car at the time. I was
not in love with it and we wanted something bigger. Was it logically the right time to trade-
in the car? No, but emotions get the best of you and cloud your judgment. We ended up
going to the car dealership, test driving and falling in love with the car. In the end, we drove
out with a new car. We ended up with terms that could have been better had we used our
critical thinking. Looking back, I don’t think this was a reasonable decision. I blame it on
emotion and lack of experience (youth). The emotion acted as a catalyst in the situation,
feeling almost forced/rushed to make the decision. Something that we wanted turned into a
NEED in our mind. In this specific situation, I don’t think communication played a big role.
I do believe that if the emotion had been better controlled, there could have been a much
better outcome. We could have waited more time, gone to other car dealerships, look at
other vehicles, and etc. This would have allowed us to find a better option, but our emotions
gave us tunnel vision. Much like the reading assignment for this week, I believe emotion can
have a good and bad effect on our critical thinking. In my situation, it was a negative one.
However, it does not always have to be a negative factor.
