Sociological Theory of Decision-making Analysis of the Behavior Process

§1. The subject and methodology of this study<BR>Decision-making is the process of selecting such alternative open to the actor that will lead him to the intended future state of affairs. In this definition, “the intended future state of affair” is, in a word, equal to the goal of the actor.<BR>If we want to study the human social behaviors as the sociological phenomena, it would be very important to regard them as goal-directed behaviors. We mean by this goal directendness (1) some definite goal and (2) the path to that goal. Whereas the situations in which the actor will behave always consist of innumerable and heterogeneous elements, he must choose one from these various possibilities. Thus the behavior process will inevitably involve the process of decision-making in so far as they have goal-directendness.<BR>On the other side, the sociological analysis of behavior processes must not be biased in favor of the rational model nor the irrational model. “The sociological theory of behavior” dose not assume the rational behavior model such as home economics; but at the same time it does not refer to behavior processes as form less and unpredictable. Sociologists and social psychologists always think that we will be able to predict those processes by supposing some intervening sociological variables such as attitudes and roles.<BR>§ 2.The types of behavior and of decision-making<BR>Vilfredo Fareto formerly distinguished two types of behavior, that is logical. However, this criteria is relatively ambiguous, because the objective and the subjective point of view never coincide with each other. Meanwhile, Max Weber composed his four types of behavior from the subject side of the actor. He thought that the means-end relations would not exist objectively but exist in the actor's perception. In this point, we can say that Weber is correct. We will call this the “phenomenological approach”. But even if the actor perceives the means-end relation, he will not be able to take definite course of action without full information about that course. Then, “the sociological theory of behavior” requires three conditions of goal-directendness as follows : <BR>1. The goal that is perceived and established consciously by the actor.<BR>2. The adequate course of action according to the path perceived by him.<BR>3. The common regulation principle between ego and alter.<BR>The various types of goal-directed behavior and corresponding decision-making will be distinguished in terms of the quantity of information acquired by actor. We can formulate these types as follows : <BR>§3. The process of decision- making<BR>Decision-making under certainty has been dealt with as the problems of “consumer's choice” by theoretical economists. Recently these analysis has been extended to the problems under risk or probability situation and the game situation by some mathematicians. These are the “formal theory of decision-making” by logical-deductive thinking, and does not depend upon empirical thinking. However, when we want to deal with the problems of decision-making under uncertainty, the logical-deductive thinking does not tell us so much. Because the less the theoretical assumptions, the less available the logical-deductive thinking. Alternatively, the empirical formulation by sociologists and social psychologists will be available in these situations. Among so many sociological generalizations, the most important thesis is that actors confronted by unknown situation develop their own definite frame of reference and expectation, which can be measured by various attitude scales.