Framing the Problem

Abstract

This chapter contains a description of the framing process in the ethical decision-making methodology. Before attempting to handle questions of ethics, a scenario must be deconstructed into component pieces. Facts, concepts, and morals are defined and discerned from like objects that contain some degree of ambiguity (known as factual issues, conceptual issues, and moral issues). Gaps in these components are filled with assumptions, an important but often insidious part of the decision process. Finally, process can continue iteratively until stopped by the decision-maker.

“ If while traveling in a mountain range you notice that the apparent relative height of mountain peaks varies with your vantage point, you will conclude that some impressions of relative height must be erroneous, even when you have no access to the correct answer. Similarly, one may discover that the relative attractiveness of options varies when the same decision problem is framed in different ways... The susceptibility to perspective effects is of special concern in the domain of decision-making because of the absence of objective standards such as the true height of mountains.”

-Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1981)