Barry Schwartz's The Paradox Of Choice

The Unbearable lightness of choosing “Because you are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.” -Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000 I personally agree with the writer Jon Spayde on all the aspects he has mentioned in this paper. The writer has discoursed various facets regarding the importance of alternatives in one’s life. But, a very significant point mentioned in this article is, that when a certain individual is in a position to make his own choices or take his own decisions he must keep in mind that he alone will not be the one to face the consequences, but many people will be a part of his decisions. So one must give a serious thought when making a choice, which may have an impact not just on one life but, on the lives of many others. Mr. Spayde points out the fact, that having a choice is the luxury of the privileged class. The unprivileged class cannot afford the luxury of choice. Now the situation is not that bad but we all know that they have limited choices and this lack of choice causes a problem for them in certain situations. According to my own experience, though the lack of choices may cause hurdles at times, still, there deficiency is sometimes ‘a blessing in disguise’. When a person is confined to a certain number of options he has no other way out, but to choose amongst them. This might be the making of an individual. Like we consider an example of a

Choices, the story writen by Susan Kerslake is about how the choices that we make everyday affect who we are and how our life can change by making the wrong decission. But is it always a bad decission? is it always our fault?

Dr. William Glasser was a distinguished psychiatrist and author known for his distinctive views about mental illness. Glasser broke away from the traditional model of psychotherapy in the early 1960s to develop his own model of counseling. Dr. Glasser began with the development of therapy before he developed his theoretical stance. Glasser created what is known as Reality Therapy. Glasser first defined Reality Therapy as “a therapy that leads all patients toward reality, towards grappling successfully with tangible and intangible aspects of the real world” (p.6).

Accepting only the best decisions in life is not always the right choice. Experiencing new things can increase people’s knowledge, and become someone of new and different value during their time in this world. They are able to obtain something that everyone will cherish when they face horrific situations, and overcome it. With all those successes, people are then given the chance to go down a new road. The change may be good, or may even be something terrible, but in the end, people will become their own person with a unique mindset of things. Taking opportunities can lead to positive or negative change.

During this project, my class and I learned many examples of choices and consequences made by people throughout every day life. One specific character in the book, Erik Fisher, made choices that not only affected himself, but everyone around him negatively. Fortunately enough, as bad as these choices were; they did cause a few good outcomes.

Iyengar, S. S., Lepper, M. R. When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?

Having choices can sometime leave a negative result that could affect others. Because of some individuals who could have caused problems for society,or because of strict individuals working for the government, choices are sometimes limited to the privileged. But it can cause problems for individuals who need the ability to make their own choices for their own sake.

The article, “Unnatural Selections” by Barry Schwartz is an inspirational article that shows us all of the default choices that we take for granted in this world. He uses several examples to help give you the overall impression of the article. Along with the examples, Barry creates logic and emotion by the writing style he uses. He creates logic and emotion in his article by using persuasive elements such as evidence and reasoning. Barry Schwartz is a highly known professor of psychology, and has written several books. Therefore, we can be convinced that we are able to trust him as an author. He makes valid points and he does a magnificent job of persuading the readers into believing what he says with his examples.

Humans live in a world in which every day they encounter numerous choices. The way they decide and the outcomes of their decisions define their lives. Their day to day life essentially revolves around the choices they make. As a whole, a community benefits or suffers from the outcomes of its choices. Freedom of choice is the grant to an individual or community to make its own choices out of free will and without restrictions (Pereboom,2003). This is essay will discuss that though freedom choice leads to variety in life, it does not necessarily guarantee satisfaction. It will also argue that although some choice is undoubtedly better than none, more is not always better than less. It will then consider the implications of the paradox of

The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids and “Marketing to kids gets more savvy with new technologies” show how children are targets in marketing. They both show the bad points marketers do to get children to buy their product. For example, on Webkinz they have you watch free ads to earn virtual money but they get money every time you click the “free ad” button on the site while in The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids, Anna Lappe from Real Food Media Project mentions that junk food is etched in the kid’s mind. In Myth of of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids shows how marketers target kids in the case of junk food while “Marketing to kids gets more savvy with new technologies” shows how

Choices are an important part of everyone’s lives and the choices we make can reflex who we are as individuals. Choice and the ability to choose are excellent and can represent a sense of freedom. Schwartz’s and Iyengard’s analysis on choice focused on the effects of choice in people and how people react and deal with it. Schwartz’s Official Dogma and explanation of how Americans act in response to choice making is the most relatable to individuals and clearly chows the consequences of too much choice. His analysis can assist to people realize that maybe because we have more choice doesn’t necessarily mean we will make us happier or the best decision will be made. Understanding the consequences of too much choice can possibly make individuals improve the negative effects it can have and make us happier with our

Dr. Barry Swartz discusses a topic he explores in his book “The Paradox of Choice” written with Kenneth Sharpe. Dr. Swartz examines practical wisdom and the practices currently utilized to mock practical wisdom by bankers, teachers, and doctors. Dr. Swartz is a psychologist who studies the connections between the psychological and the economic communities. Dr. Swartz heads the argument by stating that many people have a general distrust for the specialists who are meant to be working for them such as bankers, doctors, and teachers. He states that this is due to the fact that though most of the population wants to be virtuous they are rarely given the option to demonstrate virtuous behavior.

Malcolm Gladwell is a master storyteller and in his TED Talk “Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce” he aims at convincing his audience that they have been asking the wrong question when it comes to happiness. Therefore, within the first 24 seconds of his talk he states his topic: happiness. Then, as Gladwell launches into the story of Howard Moskowiz and the big idea is revealed: there is no universal way to make everyone happy because people are very diverse. Gladwell proves this one point over and over through the examples of Pepsi, spaghetti sauce and coffee. In essence his big idea pushes against what everyone has always assumed, find the perfect flavor and everyone will like it. However, Moskowiz studies have shown that there is not

They are choosing to stack these boxes even though they have greater potential to further their life and obtain more happiness if they did not desire a life of stacking boxes. Common sense would imply to most people that this theory couldn’t possibly be right, in that everyone’s desires are equal, because a life of stacking boxes couldn’t compare to a life with accomplishment and pleasure. It could also imply that this theory of well-being isn’t actually beneficial to someone in a situation like this where they could receive much more out of life than what they have. This life of stacking boxes seems to be pointless or a waste of time to most people because it lacks the higher pleasure such knowledge and accomplishment that can promote a happier life. This suggest that the desire theory cannot be right for ones’ well-being, that the best life is not one which one desires. This further suggest that the objective list theory would be better because it values what is important in life. But going by ones’ intrinsic value doesn’t mean that it is the same intrinsic value for

People deal with plenty of choices in their everyday lives. At the moment we open our eyes, we have to make decisions. For instance, should we get up and prepare ourselves for a new day, or should we continue resting in our beds? Even after when we have made this decision, we will still face choices after choices. However, we cannot get all the things we want as according to Mankiw, scarcity exists in our society. In other words, scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services people wish to have. To get one thing that we like, we usually have to give up other things that we like. Making decisions require trading off one goal against another. This phenomenon is also called