Course Overview:
The course The Psychology of Decision-Making also describes in detail about different factors that affect a decision made by an individual. In this case, the students will evaluate the theoretical perspectives, the research finding, and application of cognitive, affective, and contextual factors on decisions.
It is noteworthy that the course will focus on action in different spheres of decision making on the individual, group /team and organizational levels thus providing an insight to the student of the decision making process.
Key Topics Covered:
1. Foundations of Decision-Making: The course starts of with an assessment of the basic structures of decision making and covers concepts like cognition, perception, and motivation. Students will be able to learn about the concept of decision making dealing with the elementary processes that define the human actions.
2. Cognitive Biases and Heuristics: Another major idea of the course is to study the common cognitive errors that may affect decision making. This paper will use theoretical analysis and real life examples of bias in decision making such as confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and the availability heuristics.
3. Rationality and Irrationality: Continuing with the biases’ disclosure, rationality in decision-making will be the next idea analyzed in the course. With regard to this conflict, questions concerned with the boundaries of rational approach, with the influence of emotions included to the decision-making process, will be answered by the students.
4. Decision-Making in Uncertainty:
- Most decision are made in context that involves some unknown factors and risks that are hard to avoid. The content of this particular part of the course will be devoted to people and groups regulating their uncertainties, including risk management, probability evaluation, and decision making under conditions of uncertainty.
5. Social Influences on Decision-Making: Thus, it may be stated that decision making is not an individual process but also depends on social processes.
The learners will construct their understanding about social influence dynamics and how they operate in conformity and groupthink, or affect decisions in organizations and societie
6. Ethical Decision-Making: Ethical issues are always an essential component of the problem-solving process, especially when the nature of the problem is rather vague. Thus, by studying case and ethical scenarios students will identify ethical considerations in decisions making and have tools to make ethical decisions.
7. Applications and Practical Implications: The final section of this course will demonstrate how psychological theory of decision making may be applied in conditions and will look at the implications of these theories. They will also discover how decision science application helps people make effective policy decisions, business strategies, healing decision, and different choices in everyday life.
Learning Outcomes:
- Know and comprehend the numerous psychological theories and various concepts that relate to the decision-making processes.
- Explain and analyse cognitive biases and heuristics that are involved in decision making processes.
Examine decision making in context such as individual, group and organisational.
- Integrate decision making concepts in case scenarios, thereby evidencing proper decision making and ethical analysis.
- Express orally and in written form, ideas and concepts regarding decision-making processes and theories.
Finally, the book provides a wellrounded examination of the mechanisms involved in decision-making and equips students with useful knowledge and abilities for making good decisions regularly
.