Optimization and Decision Theory

The theory of decision deals with analyzing how a person chooses an action that, among a set of possible actions, leads to the best result given the preferences. If a person should invest or not in capital goods, what career a person is going to choose, what car is foing to buy, are very common problems that affect us in our daily life and to the which - in formal terms - is faced with the theory of decision. On the other hand, in recent years its influence in disciplines such as psychology and economics has been so great, along with applied mathematics, sociology, political science and philosophy - which have that it is very difficult to address some of these specialties without having a knowledge of theory of the decision.

Decision theory has become an indispensable working tool in disciplines as varied as economics, psychology, science politics, sociology or philosophy. Nevertheless, he remains a great stranger for many social scientists despite its great influence. In this work the basic elements of decision theory are presented first then focus on decision theory in situations of uncertainty. Thus, after explaining some classic decision criteria under uncertainty, we discuss the normative model of expected subjective utility (SEU). The limitations of this theory lead us to the more recent descriptive models that are Support of Herbert Simón’s limited rationality theory as the model the adaptive decision maker or the theory of ecological rationality.

Life abounds in situations where it is necessary to make decisions. In some cases, the consequences of decisions depend only on one side, which makes the decision. For example, a programmer makes a decision in any programming language will encrypt algorithm that solves a given problem. However, the consequences of decisions often depend not only on one side but also on the interaction with the decisions taken by the other side, so that the outcome of the decision on the one hand depends on the decisions of others or other parties. It is often the case that such a situation characterized by conflicting-antagonistic interests of the participants in decision-making, ie. we say that the parties to make decisions in the conflict. In the game of chess, the result of the game depends not...