Reflection Essay On The Decision-Making Process

Reflection Essay
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Institution
Reflection Essay
Research plays a crucial role in the counseling profession. Since time immemorial, information has been dictating how people do things as well as the kinds of decisions people make. In the counseling profession, the right information is essential and helps to bridge or smoothen the dialogue between the research consumers and the producers. Counseling should be an evidence-based practice, and this only helps to emphasize the importance of research in the profession of counseling.
The decision-making process is an important and crucial process regardless of an individual’s profession. However, it should always be guided or grounded on credible and reliable information (Huber and Savage, 2009). The above, therefore, cements the importance of qualitative and quantitative research in counseling.
First of all, it is essential to point out the fact that these two methods of data collection often lead to different results. Quantitative research often entails or represents data in numerals while qualitative research often does not necessarily need numerical values for data representation. Additionally, quantitative research data can be used for generalizability purposes while using qualitative research data for the same would be misrepresentative. While it is true that these two methods have their differences and limits, their usefulness in the counseling profession should not be ignored.
Decision-making is often challenging especially when the chosen option will have an effect on many people. First of all, before a decision is made, a problem or a situation must first be identified. A decision always goes on to influence a situation or be the solution to a problem. However, one must first know what the problem is or how the situation is, and for these to be identified, the qualitative and quantitative research methods will indeed be of great help. In counseling, for example, people often visit the professionals because of known and unknown issues. With the help of the two research methods, it is easier for the professionals to unearth the problems that are troubling their patients/visitors.
Qualitative and quantitative research reports can also help one to define the aim or goal of the decision-making process. The reports often unveil the underlying reasons why something is happening the way it is happening as well as the factors contributing to or influencing what is happening. Understanding the above things is crucial to the decision-making process. Each process no matter how trivial always has a goal or aim and the parties involved often work to achieve these. Through the research reports, it would be easy to outline the goals of the process. The information provided, whether lacking in depth or specificity, should offer the help needed and guide the user...