CHOICE AS A REFLECTION OF ALTERNATIVES

From the last chapter, it should be clear that the entire issue of choice can be adequately discussed in terms of the problem-solving framework. Choice analysis is a subcase of problem solving; as we have seen, problemsolving also includes unconscious aspects such as following routines when solving old problems and quasi-automatic aspects such as inferential strategies when a new problem first arises. The incorporation of choice into this broader framework is thus theoretically valuable because no separate choice theory is needed. Nevertheless, since the phenomenon of choice has a prominent position in the theoretical social and economic sciences, a more detailed analysis of this exceptional moment of human reflection seems appropriate.

Choice among alternatives always refers to the future. The reflection taking place whenever an individual discovers more than one alternative to attain an aim is always in reference to the future. We have discussed the ultimate motivation in human behavior and have summarized it in the general form of striving to increase one's own utility. In the case of choice, the motivational and cognitive aspects of behavior are strikingly interwoven. The individual seeks to order, on the basis of conjectures about future states, the different alternatives according to the effects that they will have in changing his utility. In other words, he tries to weigh the impact that the different alternatives will have on his utility.