Question

It’s your first year of high school, and it’s a lot different from the 8thgrade. Your school is a lot bigger. There are a lot more cliques. There’s a lot more pressure to be cool. An-nie has been your best friend since 3rdgrade, but in high school, she’s not fitting in as well as you are. A lot of the upperclassmen have started inviting you to go out with them on the weekends, but they never invite Annie. You want to be friends with them and with her. This weekend, you and Annie have planned an all-night movie marathon at her house. Then, on Friday, a junior asks if you want to go to the football game with a big group of people. You feel torn. You really want to go with the group, but you would feel horrible ditching Annie.

Demonstrate your skill at problem solving by using the seven-step method to solve thisproblem. You may assume details such as what time the football game starts, what time you planned to be at Annie’s, how Annie reacts to being left out, etc. Since this is a hypothetical situation, you will not be able to perform step seven, evaluating the so-lution. Use a separate sheet of paper to record your response.

Answer 1

The seven problem solving processes include:

1. Identify the issues.

2. Understand everyone's interests

3. List the possible solutions (options)

4. Evaluate the options.

5. Select an option or options.

6. Document the agreement(s).

7. Agree on contingencies, monitoring, and evaluation the solution.

From these steps, Annie, can decide how to solve her dilemma.

From the first step, she will identify the problems she's facing which is deciding who she wants to spend her time with, either her best friend from 8th grade or juniors in high school.

Next step would be understanding the interest of everyone involved. These interests are needs that you want satisfied. Annie needs to find the solution that would satisfy everyone's interest.

Then, she needs to list the possible solutions. This can be, asking the juniors to let her best friend come along with them whenever she is asked out, it could be asking her best friend to blend in faster so she would be asked out too.

Annie would then select of of the options she feels will be more satisfying. So, Annie decides to ask her friend to blend in better so she would be asked out too and not left out.

Next she would need to document her decision which could involve writing it down or making a memo so she wouldn't forget.