Value function methods and outranking methods for this process are compared in a book presenting an “integrated approach” to this process by Valerie Belton and Theodor J. Stewart. Nodes named after this process are drawn as rectangles on directed acyclic (“ay-SICK-lick”) graphs that also include oval uncertainty nodes and octagonal value nodes. Methods like MACBETH and the analytic hierarchy process are used in the “multi-criteria” approach to this process. A branch of probability theory named for this process often makes use of the expected utility hypothesis. Influence diagrams are used in a field named for the “analysis” of this process, which is often considered a branch of operations research and which is abbreviated DA (“D-A”). For 10 points, name this general process that is often aided by namesake “trees” that resemble flowcharts. ■END■
ANSWER: decision-making [or deciding or word forms of decide; accept making choices or choosing or word forms of choose; accept decision trees; accept decision analysis; accept decision theory; accept decision nodes; accept Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis]
<Social Science>
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