Decision Diary: Exploring Identity and the Decision to Change Name

This decision diary delves into a student's personal experience of changing their name, driven by a desire to escape the negative connotations and stereotypes associated with their surname, which stemmed from a mixed cultural heritage and difficult family history. The student analyzes the decision-making process, exploring the emotional, cognitive, and material goals that influenced the choice. The diary examines various decision-making modes, including cost-benefit analysis, goal satisfaction, and rule-based and affect-based approaches, highlighting the role of stereotypes and personal values. The student reflects on conflicts, cognitive biases, and heuristics that shaped the decision, ultimately concluding that the name change empowered them to pursue their desired future, free from societal constraints and cultural burdens. The assignment references several books on decision-making and leadership to support the analysis.

Running Head: DECISION DIARY
1
Decision Diary
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation

DECISION DIARY 2
Description of decision and decision situation.
Amongst the many aspects of humanity, identity happens to be the most important.
Without it one would lack direction in life and fall into an abyss of confusion. A name while
so cliché represents a lot of things for any human being. It can be ancestry, ownership,
connection, individualism and more importantly, life. I have always thought that without
being able to fit in all those aspects, then a person’s name would just be a combination of
letters. For as long as I can remember, my name represented pain, confusion and stigma. It
might not have started as so, but it’s how it turned up being later.
I didn’t like my surname and neither did I want any sort of association with it as it
reminded me of the shattered pieces of my life not adding to the fact that it was a hard and
complicated name to pronounce. This was due to the fact that my heritage came about from a
mix of two different cultures and races. More to just pronunciation difficulties from many
people my professor included, my name created a stereotype for me in the society, from social
associations, employment opportunities and my general well-being. I was always
uncomfortable with it but I never knew that changing it was an option till I moved to the
United States of America. Then, I knew I wanted it changed and even though that would bring
about many issues with my family and legally as well, I was ready to face the consequences
of my actions.
Analysis of decisions: goals.
Emotionally, my name caged me to my heritage in terms of family and a culture that I
didn’t want to be associated with. Not only did my name make me look like and seem a
certain type of way, but it also reminded me of the ugly past of my father leaving and losing

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communication with us. I wanted to have my life’s achievements, career paths and personal
decisions liberated from both my culture and more so my father’s shadow.
Cognitively, I comprehensively understood what my origins were and what my heritage
was as well. Despite all the reasons I had to change my surname, I didn’t want to lose my
sense of belonging and thus I sought to keep my maternal name. My decision to change my
name was as materially driven as it was socially too. I needed to feel like I had equal job and
relation opportunities as the other people who enjoyed somewhat normal names. At the same
time, I wanted to blend in amongst my friends, colleagues and other people without them
feeling uncomfortable in pronouncing my name or feeling certain ways whenever they were
around me. Moreover, I wanted to settle into my own individuality without feeling weighed
down by my culture or family.
Analysis of decisions made: modes used and how they blend in with my goals.
Calculation based decision-making modes- cost-benefit decision making. Changing
names would not only allow me to enjoy the privileges that came out of a successful career
without my origin and culture influencing the decisions, but it would also give me the
opportunities to visit as many places as time and money would allow.
Goal satisfaction decision-making. The process represented a lot of things among them
being the ability to attain homogeneity with my identity, blending into the society without
feeling or been looked at a certain type of way and most importantly, liberating me from my
past. Similarly, it allowed me to live a new and enjoy my life and future, free of worries and
stereotypes. Among all the decisions, this was definitely my main reason.

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Rule-based decision-making models – stereotype-based decision making. Looking
back, in as much most of the reasons I had for changing my name were personal, I still think I
made the best decisions. I no longer would have to walk into Starbucks and get called XXX
instead of XXX.
Case-based decision-making. There are people that wished to live by different names
other than the ones given to them but didn’t follow up on changing them for reasons based on
heuristic and hedonic adaptations. Being a proactive person, I knew I had to take matters into
my own hands and follow up till the end as a dichotomous life, wasn’t one I desired for
myself.
Affect-based decision-making. From the start, I knew that changing my name would
mean dedicating a lot of work and time to legal matters like changing all my legal documents
and also having to constantly explain why I had two names but I was ready for all of it. This
was because my decision would give me freedom to be. Morally, I had a bridge to cross in the
affairs of the heart but my father’s decision to walk out on us and go silent as well after his
separation from my mother, made the decision much easier to execute.
Conflict and conflict resolution and influences by cognitive biases and heuristics.
I wanted a new life that wasn’t tied to my family or culture without losing my identity and
thus in a heuristic manner, I choose a name that would give me neutrality of identity while not
being too much of a stereotype and neither too different from whom I am. Similarly, the
journey that would come with all the legalities that I had to sort out before being able to enjoy
my new name made the decision more rational than ever. Looking back, even with flashes of
internal conflicts, as I remind myself, I still made the best cognitive rational decision that

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empowered me to go into the future that I had always desired without social norms holding
me back. Was my decision the best? I believe it was. I liberated myself and also got
empowered to achieve even that that seems impossible through dedication and will.

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References
Barrett, R. (2010). The New Leadership Paradigm. U.S.A.: Bath: Fulfilling Books.
Barrett, R. (2014). The Six Modes of Decision. U.S.A.: Barrett Values Center.
Hammod, J. S. (1999). Smart choices: A practical guide to making better decisions. U.S.A.:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication.
Knapp, J. (2016). Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just few days. New
York, NY: Simon and Schuster Publications.
Levitin, D. J. (2014). The Organized Mind: Thinking straight in the age of information overload.
New York, NY: Dutton.
Norman, D. (1983). Some Observations on Mental Models. In D. &. Gentner, Mental Models
(pp. 7-14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.