Psychology of Judgment and Decision-Making

PSYCH 4508: Psychology of Judgment and Decision-Making

In this course, we will discuss some “descriptive” psychological models of how people actually make judgments and decisions, as well as some “normative” models of how people should make judgments and decisions. The emphasis will be on empirical research rather than on making you a better decision maker, but I hope you will find some of the material to have significant practical value.

Some questions we will address are: • How do we choose among various options, such as apartments, jobs, or investments? • How do we make predictions and other judgments? • Are our judgments and choices rational? What does “rational” mean, anyway? • Are our judgments and choices prone to systematic biases? • How can we improve our judgments and decisions?

Prereq: A grade of C- or above in 2220 and 2300. Not open to students with credit for 4508H.

Credit Hours

Sample Topics:

Thinking & Deciding
What is Decision Making?
A Rational Decision Theory
A Descriptive Decision Theory
Experienced Utility
A General Framework for Judgement
Reasoning the Fast and Frugal Way
Anchoring & Adjustment
Availability
Basic Probability Theory
Representativeness
Explanation-Based Judgements
Overconfidence
From Preferences to Choices
Heuristics & Biases in Multiattribute Choice
Debiasing & Nudges
Affect & Decision Making
Affect & Risk Perception

Meets the following Psychology Major Goals:

Knowledge Base in Psychology

Describe key concepts, principles, & overarching themes in psychology
Develop working knowledge of psychology's content domains
Describe applications of psychology

Scientific Inquiry & Critical Thinking

Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomena
Engage in innovative & integrative thinking & problem solving
Interpret, design, & conduct basic psychological research
Incorporate sociocultural factors in scientific inquiry