ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews three major psychologies of decisionmaking, each of which came into prominence in the twentieth century and is shaped by a major modern philosophical worldview. After a brief review of the pioneering work of William James, yet to be equaled by other American psychologists in his ability to express deep insight, it examines the cognitive approach to decisionmaking. In general, this approach advocates the extension of scientific rationality into the sphere of personal decisionmaking. The chapter describes the phenomenological approach. This is most closely related to existential-humanistic worldviews but also expresses a current of Western rationalism. Finally, the chapter presents a sketch of the psychoanalytic approach, which calls into question the assumptions of the cognitive and phenomenological approaches by emphasizing the limits on self-understanding that stem from unconscious processes. Psychoanalysts are ideally positioned to witness the dilemmas and decisions of their patients.
