104 Unit 2 Setting and Reaching Life Goals
REVIEW
AND
ASSESSMENT CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER SUMMARY
You will make many decisions throughout your life.
Some will be routine; others will be planned decisions
that will have long-term effects on your life. Your
thinking skills, values, goals, standards, and resources
will all influence the decisions you make.
Your decisions should incorporate your values
as you try to reach your goals. Some of your values
will help you set and carry out goals in your personal
life. Other values will relate to your relationships with
others or to your work. Your values are important in
determining which choices to select from the many
alternatives possible.
As you work toward your goals, you use your
standards as a measure of your progress. Resources,
both human and nonhuman, help you carry out your
decisions. Knowing your resources and using them
wisely can help you overcome obstacles you may face
in the decision-making process.
Making decisions skillfully involves a six-step
method. This process helps you to carefully analyze
an issue, identify possible alternatives, choose the
best one, and develop a plan to put it into action. The
process also helps you judge the success of your
decisions so you develop skill in making them.
Successful decision making helps you achieve
your life goals. Learning to make good decisions will
impact your health and well-being, your relationships,
your success in your career, and the society you live
in. Your decision-making skills will impact your quality
of life.
VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES
1. Work with a partner to write sentences that use
each of the following terms correctly.
Content Terms
addiction (4.2)
alcoholic (4.2)
alternative (4.2)
decision-making
process (4.2)
depressant (4.2)
drug (4.2)
drug abuse (4.2)
ethical decision
making (4.2)
goal (4.1)
group values (4.1)
human resource (4.1)
long-term goal (4.1)
nonhuman resource
(4.1)
planned decision (4.1)
routine decision (4.1)
short-term goal (4.1)
standards (4.1)
subgoal (4.1)
values (4.1)
withdrawal (4.2)
2. Write a brief paragraph that explains how each of
these terms relates to decisions.
Academic Terms
available (4.2)
obstacle (4.1)
participate (4.2)
project (4.1)
reliable (4.2)
resource (4.1)
ASSESS
Your Knowledge
3. List five factors that could affect a person’s
success in making decisions.
4. List and explain the steps that could be used to
set and accomplish goals.
5. Summarize the six steps in the decision-making
process.
Your Understanding
6. How is intellectual maturity related to a person’s
ability to make good decisions?
7. Why should values be part of setting goals?
8. How can standards help a person know if a goal
has been met?
9. How do human resources affect the decision-
making process?
10. What are the consequences and responsibilities
involved in a decision to try out for a school
sports team?
11. Explain how a teen’s day-to-day decisions could
affect his or her health and well-being over time.
Your Skills
12. List and analyze your personal values. How do
they relate to your priorities in your schoolwork?
How do they relate to your friendships?
13. Identify three goals that you could set that would be
consistent with some of your high-priority values.
14. Choose a possible decision that you might make.
Work through the decision using the decision-
making process, giving examples for each step.
Create a diagram to illustrate the steps taken to
reach this decision.
CRITICAL THINKING
15. Draw Conclusions. Write a paragraph
describing a situation in which you overcame an
obstacle to reach a goal. Evaluate your action for
its effectiveness in helping you reach your goal.
In your evaluation, reference the steps in the text
for evaluating a decision. Choice: Create a visual
presentation or a rap that expresses the ideas in
your paragraph.
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