PERSONAL DECISION COUNSELING - COUNSELORS WITHOUT CLIENTS

Behavioural decision theory is being applied successfully to business and organisational problems. Efforts have also been made to develop decision aids for personal decision problems, e.g. family planning or career choice. However, after more than ten years of theory and research, the result is disappointing. The present paper asks why. In section 1, the major decision aids that have been developed in the past ten years are reviewed, with a particular emphasis on interactive computer programmes. In section 2, some features of decision aids, types of decision problems, and characteristics of decision-makers are discussed as sources of the apparent lack of success of decision counselling. In section 3, potential lines of future work on decision aids and their integration in more general counselling framework are suggested.