Decision making can be defined as the process of making choices among possible alternatives. The skills considered important to effective decision making are based on a normative model of decision making, which prescribes how decisions should be made. These skills include:
1) identifying the possible options.
2) identifying the possible consequences that follow from each option .
3) evaluating the desirability of each of the consequences.
4) assessing the likelihood of each consequence .
5) making a choice using a "decision rule".