Psychology
Salimag3
SVDecisionMakingII.pptx"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." -Roger Lewin
Psych 105 Decision Making Chapter 8(2)
How To Increase Decision to Help
1) Modeling
Watching someone give help increases helping
A reminder of what you should do
Shows you the consequences of helping
2) Competency
If you are trained to help, much more likely to give assistance!
3) Communicate with others
Foot-in-the-Door
Get someone to agree to a small request (foot-in-the-door) in order to get them to do something bigger (get through the door!)
Sign this petition in favor of safe driving!!
(A bit later) Donate money to a safe driving campaign!
Well, Ok, I already signed the petition, might as well
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Cognitive Dissonance Study
Behavior that conflicts with attitudes can arise cognitive dissonance
Dissonance creates tension, which people are motivated to reduce
Dissonance can be decreased by changing the attitude that conflicts with behavior
Group paid $1 to lie about the boring task said they liked it more.
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Ways to Reduce Dissonance
Change attitude to be consistent with behavior
“Diets don’t really work anyway”
Acquire supporting information
“Many overweight people live long healthy lives”
Trivialize the behaviors in question
“Looking thin is not all that important”
Restore positive self-evaluations
“I like the way I look, regardless of my weight”
So how can we make good decisions?
Elimination by aspects
a. Create a list of the attributes the possibilities have, decide what’s important and what you don’t what
b. Create a list of what’s important, look for the possibility that has the most of
your desired attributes
Making a Decision Worksheet
Frame the decision
How you word it matters!
Generate alternatives
Must have options
List considerations
What matters to you?
Weigh considerations
Weigh alternatives
Calculate a decision
Example
Step 1: Frame the decision
A succinct statement of the problem
I need to buy a house.
What is your major decision?
E.g., I buy a new house right now.
Step 1: Frame the decision
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Step 2: Generating alternatives
| Alternatives | |||||
| Wait until next year | Move close to my work | Move close to her work | Move to a larger apartment | Buy a used house | |
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Step 4: Weigh the considerations
How important is each consideration
5-point scale (5 = very important, 1 = not at all important)
| Alternatives | |||||
| Wait until next year | Move close to my work | Move close to her work | Move to a larger apartment | Buy a used house | |
| Considerations | |||||
| Comfort ( ) | |||||
| Money ( ) | |||||
| Distance ( ) | |||||
| Stress ( ) |
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Step 5: Weigh the alternatives
How well does each alternative satisfy each consideration?
The scale goes from -2 to +2
| Alternatives (X) -2 to + 2 | |||||
| Wait until next year | Move close to my work | Move close to her work | Move to a larger apartment | Buy a used house | |
| Considerations (Y) 1 – 5 scale | X * Y | ||||
| Comfort ( ) | |||||
| Money ( ) | |||||
| Distance ( ) | |||||
| Stress ( ) |
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Preparing a Worksheet: Stages
5. Weighing the Alternatives
Think carefully about each alternative and determine how well each satisfies the considerations
Weigh the alternatives using -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2
A positive number indicates the alternative is favorable to the consideration (+2 = highly favorable); a negative number indicates the alternative is incompatible with a consideration (-2 = highly incompatible)
Zero is used when an alternative is neither favorable nor unfavorable to a consideration
Preparing a Worksheet: Stages
4. Weighing the Considerations
Considerations are not always equally important to the decision maker, and thus need to be weighed in terms of importance
Weighing considerations is personal and subjective
Try using a 5-point scale to evaluate each consideration, with 1 = slight importance, 5 = great importance (2, 3, 4 = gradations of importance)
Preparing a Worksheet: Stages
6. Calculating a Decision
There are three different strategies for calculating a decision at this point
Overall Assessment of the various weights is obtained by determining how well each alternative satisfies the considerations taken as a whole or overall
This is calculated by multiplying the weight assigned to each consideration by the value assigned to how well an alternative satisfies the consideration
Then a total score is calculated for each alternative by adding up all the products
Preparing a Worksheet: Stages
6. Calculating a Decision
Dimensional Comparison is a method for calculating a decision from a worksheet
The alternative that has “won” the greatest number of considerations (with highest scores) would be selected
The 2/3 Ideal Rule is a method for calculating a decision from a worksheet in which only alternatives whose worksheet totals are at least 2/3 of the ideal choice would be chosen; a satisficing process
Subjective calculations
Weighing considerations
1 through 5; 3 being neutral
Weighing alternatives
-2 through 2; 0 being neutral
Calculate the decision
Overall assessment
Dimensional comparison
2/3 ideal rule
Post-decision Commitment and Evaluation
Cognitive Dissonance is a theory based on the notion that people want their beliefs, attitudes, and actions to be consistent
When they are not consistent, an unpleasant internal state (dissonance) arises, which needs to be reduced
We reduce dissonance by changing our beliefs or attitudes so that they are in accord with our actions
Post-decision Commitment and Evaluation
Foot-in-the-Door is a two-stage persuasive technique
People are more likely to comply with a large request after they have first complied with a much smaller request
Perspective taking is the ability to “see” an issue from the other side’s perspective
Several studies have documented advantages of taking perspective when at the bargaining table (Galinsky et al., 2008)
Post-decision Commitment and Evaluation
Hindsight involves a re-evaluation of a decision after it has been made and its consequences have occurred, with the belief that the consequences should have been known before the decision was made
Hindsight is of little value in the decision-making process
It distorts our memory for events that occurred at the time of the decision so that the actual consequence seems to have been a "forgone conclusion”
Unlike hindsight, retrospective (after the fact) review can be a valuable aid in improving future decisions because it does not involve a faulty reconstruction of information available at the time the decision was made
