Decision-making: emotion v reason

Question on npr piece, "The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet": How do teen brains work differently, ie, what is the role of myelin in the frontal lobe and decision-making?

The teenage brain is not the same as an adult brain because the frontal lobe is not fully connected. The frontal lobe helps a teen evaluate the consequences of decisions, but in the teenage brain the nerve cells are not fully connected to the rest of the brain nor do they work as well as they do in adult brains.  They are also missing myelin, which is a fatty substance that covers the nerves, and helps the signals flow more effectively. 

Question on Frontline segment, "You Just Don't Understand": What is the role of the cerebellum in decision-making?

The cerebellum does not fully develop in the brain until at least the early 20s. The cerebellum grows the most during the adolescent years and is involved in the coordination of our thinking process. It also helps the brain navigate through social and intellectual situations gracefully throughout the teenage years. 

Question on NYTimes article, "The Moral Life of Babies": What is the role of socialization in the moral development of children? What are the implications of socialization on the possibility of a universal moral code?

Socialization is critical to the development of children. Although it seems like babies have at least a basic sense of right and wrong, and at least some moral though, from a very early age, socialization plays a major role. Socialization helps adjust the natural right and wrong that children seem to have because the "sense of right and wrong that they naturally possess diverges in important ways from what we adults would want it to be."

When making a decision and taking action, how do you know the benefits outweigh the costs? And, to what extent does it matter? Support with concrete examples.

I think some decisions are easy to weigh to the benefits and costs, and to make the "best" decision easily, the one with more benefits. For example whether to stay up until 2 in the morning on the computer not doing homework, or to go to bed at 10, if you have a test the next day. If you're doing nothing until 2 that's important, going to bed at 10 has way more benefits. Other decisions have more blurred lines, we can't know for sure what the long term benefits and costs will be, such as choosing a college or career. I think sometimes whether the benefits outweigh the costs or not is not of particular importance if you are dead set on making that decision. Sometimes no matter what data or facts are thrown at you to convince you that the benefits do not outweigh the costs, you still choose that decision. This may not necessarily be bad, if it's what you want. For example my parents told me it would be a bad idea to take HL Business instead of another course, like HL English, because they didn't think there were any benefits. Of course there are costs and benefits for taking both, but it's impossible to tell what impact they'd have in my future. As a sophomore, I wouldn't have any idea if in life a business or english higher level course would benefit me, so I went with my gut decision to choose HL Business.