University of Phoenix Material

Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Worksheet

Problem Solving and Decision Making

1. Create a problem scenario to respond to the following questions:

a. What is the problem?
i. You are at work in an office building and all of a sudden the printer stops working and you have 100 flyers to print out. What do you do?
b. What problem-solving approach would you implement to solve this problem?
i. Identify the problem and assess ii. Understand and analyze the problem iii. Analyze the situation iv. When I think outside the box I come to figure out that the printer is not usable and reach out to a co-worker in another dept. to print these flyers for me.
c. Which approach was effective? Why?
i. Identifying the problem and assessing all components of what could possibly be wrong help me narrow down my best plan of action.
d. What were some obstacles or barriers you faced in solving the problem? Obstacles I faced in solving this problem were the time constraint and the stress it put on me.

2. You have received several job offers from different companies and must decide which job to accept. All jobs are the same position with the same duties, but vary in salary, benefits, company size, and distance from your home. Using the additive decision making model, outline the process you would go through to determine which job is best for you. Explain why.
a. I have tallied up each benefit as a score. I have given each perk a score of -5 or +5 to give my deciding factor. The job with the highest score has the most benefits for me.

Job #1

Salary: $35,000 -5
Benefits: medical insurance paid +5; 5 days paid vacation each year -5; free lunch every day +5
Company size: medium (200-500 employees) -5
Distance from home: 20 miles +5

Job #2

Salary: $38,500 +5
Benefits: medical insurance partially paid - 5; 10 days