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Judgement

To make a decision is to make a judgement. Judgement is the comparison, evaluation and weighting of options. Comparison and weighting are natural human processes, implicit in most intuitively reasonable decisions. The decider judges priorities between options by comparing one against the other, and judging their relative importance in specific priority weights or points (not merely rank-order). The priority weights reflect his/her views, values and references for each option.

The focal question are :
How do any two options compare?
Which do we judge more important of any two options?
How much more or less priority does one option warrant, as compared with another?

The decider may make his/her judgement on a objective-by-objective basis (in analytic decisions) or all things considered (in synthetic decisions).

RATING	DEGREES OF PRIORITY	DEFINITION
1	EQUAL	You consider two options of equal priority or importance.
3	WEAK	You slightly favour one option over the other, involving a 'just noticeable' preference.
5	SIGNIFICANT	You significantly favour one option over the other, at a noticeably higher threshold of performance.
7	STRONG	You strongly favour one option over the other at a demonstrably higher threshold of preference.
9	ABSOLUTE	You comprehensively favour one option over the other
2, 4, 6, 8	INTERMEDIATE	Intermediate priorities between two scale points

Judgement : Options

Each person (decider) runs through the options deciding which is more important than which. In this case, the family membes each make judgements on the options.

You compare one option with another, then decide which is most important. Take two options ARCTIC versus England for comparison. Suppose you decide you very significantly prefer to holiday in ENGLAND rather than the ARCTIC. You indicate this by moving the pointer on the screen towards ENGLAND. The more you prefer ENGLAND by comparison to the ARCTIC, the nearer you move the pointer towards ENGLAND away from ARCTIC.

If you move the pointer 4 or 5 places towards ENGLAND, this indicates that the option of a holiday in ENGLAND is significantly more preferable (or has 5 times more priority) than the option of an ARCTIC holiday. If you want, you can visualise the scale for comparison as follows:

Judgement : Objectives

Each person (decider) runs through the objective deciding which is more important than which. In this case, the family membes each make judgements on the objective.

You compare one objective with another, then decide which is most important. Take two objective WEATHER versus LOW COST for comparison. Suppose you decide you very significantly prefer LOW COST than the WEATHER. You indicate this by moving the pointer on the screen towards LOW COST. The more you prefer LOW COST by comparison to the WEATHER, the nearer you move the pointer towards LOW COST away from WEATHER.

If you move the pointer 4 or 5 places towards LOW COST, this indicates that the objective LOW COST is significantly more preferable (or has 5 times more priority) than the objective WEATHER for a holiday. If you want, you can visualise the scale for comparison as follows:

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