Knowledge and Emotions in Socioscientific Decision Making
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Socioscientific issues require practical decisions that use knowledge and emotions as inputs for the decision-making process. To examine how these resources influence decision-making, this investigation was conducted from a constructionist epistemological stance, a symbolic interactionism theoretical perspective, and a grounded theory methodology. Twenty-five informants were purposefully selected based on the study’s selection criteria. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, transcribed, and analyzed using Hennink and Kaiser’s strategies to achieve theoretical saturation. The analysis revealed that: (1) Knowledge of socioscientific issues was associated with emotion-related objects that elicited negative emotional responses from decision-makers; (2) These negative emotions triggered the use of related conceptual and contextual knowledge in generating decision alternatives; (3) Positive emotions motivated decision alternatives toward specific goals; (4) Decision alternatives contained both cognitive and affective components; and (5) Decisions were based on the appraisal of the overall cognitive and affective baggage of these alternatives. The findings underscored the importance of decision-makers enhancing their cognitive and affective resources and incorporating both when making practical decisions to effectively ad-dress socioscientific issues, thereby contributing to positive outcomes for individuals, societies, and the global community.
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Agnisarman, S., Madathil, K. C., Bertrand, J., Piratla, K., Gajjar, D., & Gramopadhye, A. (2021). Context enabled decision aids to support the situation awareness and performance of risk engineers carrying out loss prevention surveys. International Journal of Industrial Er-gonomics, 83, 103108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2021.103108 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2021.103108
Asikhia, O., Ogunode, O., Oladipo, S., & Fatoke, O. (2021). Effective management decision making and organisational excellence: A theoretical review. The International Journal of Business & Management, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.24940/theijbm/2021/v9/i1/bm2101-049 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24940/theijbm/2021/v9/i1/BM2101-049
Azhar, N. A., Radzi, N. A., & Wan Ahmad, W. S. (2021). Multi-criteria Decision making: A systematic review. Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 14(8), 779–801. https://doi.org/10.2174/2352096514666211029112443 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2174/2352096514666211029112443
Bader, J. D., Ahearn, K. A., Allen, B. A., Anand, D. M., Coppens, A. D., & Aikens, M. L. (2023). The decision is in the details: Justifying decisions about socioscientific issues. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 60(10), 2147–2179. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21854 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21854
Bairagi, B. (2023). Multiple objective and subjective criteria evaluation technique (MOSCET). Optimization Techniques in Engineering: Advances and Applications, 297–311. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119906391.ch18 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119906391.ch18
Barberà-Mariné, M.-G., Fabregat-Aibar, L., Ferreira, V., & Terceño, A. (2024). Assessment of the Progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European Union. The European Journal of Development Research, 36, 1372–1397. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-024-00641-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-024-00641-0
Braithwaite, D. W., & Sprague, L. (2021). Conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognition in routine and nonroutine problem solving. Cognitive Science, 45(10), Article e13048. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13048 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13048
Bratianu, C., & Bejinaru, R. (2023). From knowledge to wisdom: Looking beyond the knowledge hierarchy. Knowledge, 3(2), 196–214. https://doi.org/10.3390/knowledge3020014 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/knowledge3020014
Briggs, C., & Lumsdon, D. (2021). Practical wisdom: How do personal virtue beliefs and contextual factors interact in adolescents’ moral decision-making? Journal of Moral Education, 51(3), 293–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2021.1891871 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2021.1891871
Campbell, N. M., Dawel, A., Edwards, M., & Goodhew, S. C. (2023). Motivational direction diverges from valence for sadness, anger, and amusement: A role for appraisals? Emotion, 23(5), 1334–1348. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001165 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001165
Card, D. E., DellaVigna, S., Jiang, C., & Taubinsky, D. (2024). Understanding expert choices using decision time: NBER Working Paper No. w32515. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4851789 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w32515
Carrick, J., Bell, D., Fitzsimmons, C., Gray, T., & Stewart, G. (2022). Principles and practical criteria for effective participatory environ-mental planning and decision-making. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 66(14), 2854–2877. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2086857 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2086857
Chae, H., & Shin, I. (2024). Compete or cooperate? goal orientations and coworker popularity in the knowledge-sharing dilemma. Be-havioral Sciences, 14(3), 250. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14030250 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14030250
Chen, J., Ge, X., Li, W., & Peng, L. (2021). Construction of spatiotemporal knowledge graph for emergency decision making. In 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS (pp. 3920-3923). Brussels, Belgium. https://doi.org/10.1109/igarss47720.2021.9553867 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS47720.2021.9553867
Dohn, N. B. (2021). Conceptualizing knowledge transfer as transformation and attunement. Frontline Learning Research, 9(3), 13–30. https://doi.org/10.14786/flr.v9i3.733 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14786/flr.v9i3.733
Elgendy, N., Elragal, A., & Päivärinta, T. (2023). Evaluating collaborative rationality-based decisions: A literature review. Procedia Computer Science, 219, 647–657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.335 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.335
Feng, J., Han, P., Zheng, W., & Kamran, A. (2022). Identifying the factors affecting strategic decision-making ability to boost the entre-preneurial performance: A hybrid structural equation modeling – artificial neural network approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038604 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038604
Filho, W. L., Sierra, J., Price, E., Eustachio, J. H., Novikau, A., Kirrane, M., Dinis, M. A., & Salvia, A. L. (2024). The role of universities in accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals in Europe. Scientific Reports, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65820-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65820-9
Fischhoff, B., & Broomell, S. B. (2020). Judgment and decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 71(1), 331–355. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050747 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050747
Ge, Y., Han, F., Wu, F., Zhao, Y., Li, H., Tian, Y., Zheng, Y., Luan, W., Zhang, L., Cai, X., Ma, C., & Li, X. (2024). Sustainable decision making based on systems integration and decision support system promoting endorheic basin sustainability. Decision Support Systems, 179, 114169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2024.114169 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2024.114169
Hallo, L., & Nguyen, T. (2021). Holistic view of intuition and analysis in leadership decision-making and problem-solving. Administrative Sciences, 12(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12010004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12010004
Hamzah, S. R., Kai Le, K., & Musa, S. N. (2021). The mediating role of career decision self-efficacy on the relationship of career emotional intelligence and self-esteem with career adaptability among University Students. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 26(1), 83–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2021.1886952 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2021.1886952
Hennink, M., & Kaiser, B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests. Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523
Hou, L.-X., Mao, L.-X., Liu, H.-C., & Zhang, L. (2021). Decades on emergency decision-making: A bibliometric analysis and literature review. Complex & Intelligent Systems, 7(6), 2819–2832. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-021-00451-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-021-00451-5
Imani, E., Harati, A., Pourreza, H., & Goudarzi, M. M. (2021). Brain-behavior relationships in the perceptual decision-making process through cognitive processing stages. Neuropsychologia, 155, 107821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107821 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107821
Kapeke, K., Muse, K., Rowan, J., Saw, P., White, T., Ojinnaka‐Psillakis, A., Peries, T. D., Miranda, N. P., Ali, S., Dau, A., Taafua, L., Nalupta, C., Harvey, M., & Zorbas, C. (2023). Who holds power in decision making for Young People’s Future? Medical Journal of Australia, 219(S10), S30-S34. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52147 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52147
Kerzner, H. (2023). Developing alternatives. In Project Based Problem Solving and Decision Making (pp. 73–80). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394207862.ch6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394207862.ch6
Kim, H. (2023). Voters’ political decision making in the 20th presidential election: Voters’ affective valence. Journal of the Korea Contents Association, 23(1), 12–23. https://doi.org/10.5392/jkca.2023.23.01.012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5392/JKCA.2023.23.01.012
Klaver, L. T., Sins, P. H., Walma van der Molen, J. H., & Guérin, L. J. (2022). Strengthening science education through attention to student resources: A conceptualization of socioscientific capital. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 60(5), 1162–1192. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21827 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21827
Kóbor, A., Tóth-Fáber, E., Kardos, Z., Takács, Á., Éltető, N., Janacsek, K., Csépe, V., & Nemeth, D. (2023). Deterministic and proba-bilistic regularities underlying risky choices are acquired in a changing decision context. Scientific Reports, 13, 1127. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27642-z DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27642-z
Lerner, J. S., Dorison, C., & Kim, J. (2023). How Do Emotions Affect Decision Making? In A. Scarantino (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Emotion Theory. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xbsza DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xbsza
Mabade, A. S., & Mapangwana, N. L. (2022). Moving from general knowledge to specific knowledge in a democratic culture: A case study approach. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10(02), 298–313. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.102022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.102022
McLean, M., Warner, B., Markham, R., Fischer, M., Walker, J., Klein, C., Hoeberechts, M., & Dunn, D. C. (2023). Connecting Conserva-tion & Culture: The importance of indigenous knowledge in conservation decision-making and resource management of Migratory Marine Species. Marine Policy, 155, 105582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105582 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105582
Mohajan, D., & Mohajan, H. K. (2022). Constructivist grounded theory: A new research approach in Social Science. Research and Advances in Education, 1(4), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.56397/rae.2022.10.02 DOI: https://doi.org/10.56397/RAE.2022.10.02
Munir, A., Aved, A., & Blasch, E. (2022). Situational Awareness: Techniques, challenges, and prospects. AI, 3(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.3390/ai3010005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ai3010005
Nykänen, P., Schön, U.-K., & Björk, A. (2021). Shared decision making in social services – some remaining questions. Nordic Social Work Research, 13(1), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2021.1958908 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857X.2021.1958908
Ortiz Barrera, M. (2023). Tacit and explicit knowledge: Drivers of the competitiveness of Universities. Mercados y Negocios, 50, 51–70. https://doi.org/10.32870/myn.vi50.7708 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32870/myn.vi50.7708
Pettersen, E. B., Ertesvåg, S. K., Pöysä, S., Vaaland, G. S., & Virtanen, T. E. (2023). Students’ situational engagement and its as-sociation with overall engagement: The application of the InSitu instrument in the context of a Norwegian lower secondary school. Scandi-navian Journal of Educational Research, 68(4), 619–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2023.2175245 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2023.2175245
Philippine Health Research Ethics Board. (2017). National Ethical Guidelines for Health and Health-related Research. Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
Polhill, J. G., & Edmonds, B. (2023). Cognition and hypocognition: Discursive and simulation-supported decision-making within Com-plex Systems. Futures, 148, 103121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103121 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103121
Samsuri, W., Sumarta, S., & Acep Bahrum, A. B. (2023). Exploring teachers’ practical decision making in terms of teaching procedures. Academy of Education Journal, 14(1), 40–48. https://doi.org/10.47200/aoej.v14i1.1356 DOI: https://doi.org/10.47200/aoej.v14i1.1356
Sari, A. R. (2023). The impact of good governance on the quality of Public Management Decision making. Journal of Contemporary Admin-istration and Management, 1(2), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.61100/adman.v1i2.21 DOI: https://doi.org/10.61100/adman.v1i2.21
Sari, M. P. (2022). Decision-making and life satisfaction: The role of General Decision-making styles and maximizing tendency as pre-dictors. Humaniora, 13(2), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.21512/humaniora.v13i2.7769 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21512/humaniora.v13i2.7769
Schulz, M. (2023). Knowledge and inquiry—the missing key for a knowledge-based decision theory. Asian Journal of Philosophy, 2, 54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-023-00106-x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-023-00106-x
Sebele-Mpofu, F. Y. (2020). Saturation controversy in qualitative research: Complexities and underlying assumptions. A literature review. Cogent Social Sciences, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2020.1838706 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2020.1838706
Sipiorski, E. (2023). Scientific Knowledge: Its Impacts on Judicial Decision-Making and International Law in the Era of Sustainability. In M. d. G. Garcia, A. Cortês (Eds), Blue Planet Law. Sustainable Development Goals Series (pp. 59-69). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24888-7_5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24888-7_5
Staller, K. M. (2021). Big enough? sampling in qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Social Work, 20(4), 897–904. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250211024516 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250211024516
Suomala, J. (2020). The consumer contextual decision-making model. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570430 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570430
Taherdoost, H., & Madanchian, M. (2023a). Decision making: Models, processes, techniques. Cloud Computing and Data Science, 5(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.37256/ccds.5120233284 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37256/ccds.5120233284
Taherdoost, H., & Madanchian, M. (2023b). Multi-criteria Decision making (MCDM) methods and concepts. Encyclopedia, 3(1), 77–87. https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3010006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3010006
Tops, L., Cromboom, M. L., Tans, A., Deschodt, M., Vandenbulcke, M., & Vermandere, M. (2024). Healthcare providers’ perception of caring for older patients with depression and physical multimorbidity: Insights from a focus group study. BMC Primary Care, 25, 223. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02447-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02447-9
Tsopanova, E. (2023). The role of emotions in decision-making systems. Problems of Engineering Cybernetics and Robotics, 80, 33-40. https://doi.org/10.7546/PECR.80.23.04 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7546/PECR.80.23.04
Wu, Z., & Liang, C. (2024). A review and prospects of manufacturing process knowledge acquisition, representation, and application. Machines, 12(6), 416. https://doi.org/10.3390/machines12060416 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/machines12060416