Prototype matching: A strategy for social decision making.

116 college students responded to a series of questionnaires while they were in the process of selecting housing from a choice of 7 available options for the coming fall. Questionnaires concerned their self-concepts, housing prototypes, preferences in housing, and goals in housing selection. Ss also completed a self-monitoring scale. Analyses of the self-to-prototype matching strategy suggest that most Ss preferred the type of housing for which their prototype of the "representative" resident most closely matches their self-perceptions. Individual differences in attention to self-fit in situations were observed. Among Ss who reported that they had interpersonal goals in the housing selection task, those who reported that many personality characteristics (both positive and negative) were untrue of self were more systematic in their use of the self-to-prototype matching rule; this was also true of low self-monitors. Neither pattern of individual differences were obtained for Ss with practical goals in the housing decision. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making and normative versus informational influence: Effects of type of issue and assigned decision rule.

Groups and individuals often shift their preferences following discussion of an issue. Explanations for such shifts typically invoke either informational or normative influence processes. The former refers to influence based on sharing of facts or persuasive arguments about the issue, and the latter refers to conformity to implicit decision norms and others' preferences. We investigated conditions under which one or the other influence mode predominates during discussion. Groups discussed and made decisions on either an intellective issue (attempting to discover the true or correct answer) or a judgmental issue (deciding on the moral, valued, or appropriate position), given either a unanimity or a majority decision rule. The largest shift in preference was found for the judgmental issue decided by unanimity rule. The least satisfaction with both the process and the outcome of discussion was found in groups that decided a judgmental issue under majority rule. Content analysis showed that, as expected, the intellective issue elicited more informational than normative influence, and the judgmental issue provoked more normative than informational influence. This pattern was stronger under unanimity rule than under majority rule. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multialternative decision field theory: A dynamic connectionst model of decision making.

The authors interpret decision field theory (J. R. Busemeyer & J. T. Townsend, 1993) as a connectionist network and extend it to accommodate multialternative preferential choice situations. This article shows that the classic weighted additive utility model (see R. L. Keeney & H. Raiffa, 1976) and the classic Thurstone preferential choice model (see L. L. Thurstone, 1959) are special cases of this new multialternative decision field theory (MDFT), which also can emulate the search process of the popular elimination by aspects (EBA) model (see A. Tversky. 1969). The new theory is unique in its ability to explain several central empirical results found in the multialternative preference literature with a common set of principles. These empirical results include the similarity effect, the attraction effect, and the compromise effect, and the complex interactions among these three effects. The dynamic nature of the model also implies strong testable predictions concerning the moderating effect of time pressure on these three effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A three-phase model of retirement decision making.

The present article organizes prominent theories about retirement decision making around three different types of thinking about retirement: imagining the possibility of retirement, assessing when it is time to let go of long-held jobs, and putting concrete plans for retirement into action at present. It also highlights important directions for future research on retirement decision making, including perceptions of declining person–environment fit, the role of personality traits, occupational norms regarding retirement, broader criteria for assessing older workers' job performance, couples' joint decision making about retirement, the impact of self-funded and self-guided pension plans on retirement decisions, bridge employment before total withdrawal from the work force, and retirement decisions that are neither entirely forced nor voluntary in nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does expert psychological testimony inform or influence juror decision making? A social cognitive analysis.

The authors examined whether expert testimony serves an educational or a persuasive function. Participants watched a simulated sexual abuse trial in which the child witness had been prepared for her testimony (i.e., she was calm, composed, and confident) or unprepared (i.e., emotional, confused, and uncertain). The trial contained different levels of expert testimony: none, standard (i.e., a summary of the research), repetitive (i.e., standard testimony plus a 2nd summary of the research), or concrete (i.e., standard testimony plus a hypothetical scenario linking the research to the case facts) testimony. Repetitive testimony bolstered the child's testimony, whereas concrete and standard testimony did not. Concrete testimony sensitized jurors to behavioral correlates of sexual victimization; standard and repetitive testimony desensitized jurors to these correlates. Implications for the use of procedural innovations in sexual abuse trials are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of social and utilitarian factors in decision making.

Decision making is influenced by social cues, but there is little understanding of how social information interacts with other cues that determine decisions. To address this quantitatively, participants were asked to learn which of two faces was associated with a higher probability of reward. They were repeatedly presented with two faces, each with a different, unknown probability of reward, and participants attempted to maximize gains by selecting the face that was most often rewarded. Both faces had the same identity, but one face had a happy expression and the other had either an angry or a sad expression. Ideal observer models predict that the facial expressions should not affect the decision-making process. Our results however showed that participants had a prior disposition to select the happy face when it was paired with the angry but not the sad face and overweighted the positive outcomes associated with happy faces and underweighted positive outcomes associated with either angry or sad faces. Nevertheless, participants also integrated the feedback information. As such, their decisions were a composite of social and utilitarian factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group and computer-mediated discussion effects in risk decision making.

Managers individually and in 3-person groups made multiattribute risk choices (two investment alternatives, each with multiple outcomes). Two group decisions were reached during face-to-face discussion, and two were reached during (real-time) computer-mediated discussion. In comparison with prediscussion individual preferences, groups' multiattribute risk choices and attitudes after face-to-face discussion were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses, a tendency predicted by prospect theory and consistent with choice shift and other group extremitization research. By contrast, group decisions during computer-mediated discussion did not shift in the direction of prospect theory predictions. The results are consistent with persuasive-arguments theory, in that computer-mediated discussion contained less argumentation than face-to-face discussion. Social decision schemes were used to evaluate alternative assumptions about the group process. A "(prospect-theory) norm-wins" decision scheme described group choice well in the face-to-face discussion condition, but not in the computer-mediated discussion condition. Another decision scheme, first-advocate wins, which described choices well in both face-to-face and computer-mediated discussions, was explored in a discussion of the role of communication in group decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of social loafing in predeliberation decision making.

The relationship between social loafing and decision making was examined in an individual predeliberation thinking task. Participants (N?=?189) were asked to read information and make decisions ostensibly in order to make a future individual or group decision. Decision type (intellective or judgmental) and anticipated group size (individuals or 4 or 8 members) were manipulated to examine their effect on information recall. Individuals who anticipated working alone or who believed they were making intellective decisions recalled more information than did those who anticipated working in groups or who believed they were making judgmental decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of transoesophageal echocardiography on intra-operative decision making. A European multicentre study. European Perioperative TOE Research Group

The role of transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) in anaesthesia remains controversial because it is a rapidly evolving technique with few proven benefits and considerable cost. Recently, the Society of Cardiovascular Anaesthesiologists has published practice guidelines for the use of peri-operative TOE. To determine the current role of transoesophageal echocardiography and the relative impact of category-based transoesophageal echocardiographic indications the present study investigated its use in seven Western European countries. The study sample was taken from a prospective cohort of 224 patients with acute or chronic haemodynamic disturbances or at risk of myocardial ischaemia. All patients were monitored with two-lead electrocardiography and radial and pulmonary artery catheters, as well as biplane or multiplane transoesophageal echocardiography. A total of 2232 clinical interventions were made in these patients. The most frequently observed intervention was the administration of a fluid bolus (45% of all interventions). Overall, transoesophageal echocardiography was the most important guiding factor in 560 (25%) interventions. It was the most important monitor in guiding the following therapeutic interventions: anti-ischaemic therapy--207 of 372 interventions (56%); fluid administration--275 of 996 (28%) interventions; vasopressor or inotrope administration--56 of 316 (16%) interventions; vasodilator therapy--six of 142 (4%) interventions and depth of anaesthesia--four of 211 (2%) interventions. We found that transoesophageal echocardiography is frequently influential in guiding clinical decision making and is used most frequently for category II indications but category I indications were associated with more frequent change in management.     

Outpatient psychotherapy with dangerous clients: A model for clinical decision making.

The precedent-setting 1976 judicial decision of Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California established a duty to protect whereby psychotherapists are expected to exercise reasonable care to protect the potential victims of their clients' violent behavior. However, no standard of care for dangerous clients has been established. In this article, the authors present a model for clinical decision making to determine the best interventions for dealing with dangerous outpatient clients. The model takes into account the degree of violence risk and the strength of the therapeutic alliance. Four cases are presented to illustrate the application of the model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of depression on social economic decision making.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 119(3) of Journal of Abnormal Psychology (see record 2010-15289-020). In the article, the last revision received date printed on the final page of the article was incorrect due to an error in the production process. The correct publication dates are as follows: Received April 14, 2009; Revision received November 6, 2009; Accepted November 9, 2009.] Although the role of emotion in social economic decision making has been increasingly recognized, the impact of mood disorders, such as depression, on such decisions has been surprisingly neglected. To address this gap, 15 depressed and 23 nondepressed individuals completed a well-known economic task, in which they had to accept or reject monetary offers from other players. Although depressed individuals reported a more negative emotional reaction to unfair offers, they accepted significantly more of these offers than did controls. A positive relationship was observed in the depressed group, but not in controls, between acceptance rates of unfair offers and resting cardiac vagal control, a physiological index of emotion regulation capacity. The discrepancy between depressed individuals' increased emotional reactions to unfair offers and their decisions to accept more of these offers contrasts with recent findings that negative mood in nondepressed individuals can lead to lower acceptance rates. This suggests distinct biasing processes in depression, which may be related to higher reliance on regulating negative emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some social mechanics of group decision making: The distribution of opinion, polling sequence, and implications for consensus.

The 1st study extrapolated earlier findings (J. H. Davis et al; see record 1989-15329-001) that the critical 4th voter in 6-person mock juries evenly divided between guilty- and not-guilty-inclined jurors (3,3) were significantly influenced by the preceding sequence (guilty or not-guilty faction voting first) and timing of a straw poll. Results implied that both procedural variables would have an effect on jury verdict distributions, but their magnitude was surprisingly low, especially for sequence. Exp 2 focused only on sequential voting in (4,2) groups in which sequential voting by majority-minority factions first was again observed to influence critical individuals, although the effect was sharply mediated by the "leniency bias." The additional empirical parameter estimates permitted a more comprehensive exploration of probable verdict consequences. Results showed that group-level decisions, under the particular conditions studied, remained counterintuitively robust against significant social influence pressures observed at the individual level, and familiar from numerous studies of conformity and minority influence. Discussion emphasized conceptual hazards associated with inferring group-level actions from individual member behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making in hidden profile situations: Dissent as a facilitator for decision quality.

The effect of diversity in individual prediscussion preferences on group decision quality was examined in an experiment in which 135 three-person groups worked on a personnel selection case with 4 alternatives. The information distribution among group members constituted a hidden profile (i.e., the correct solution was not identifiable on the basis of the members' individual information and could be detected only by pooling and integrating the members' unique information). Whereas groups with homogeneous suboptimal prediscussion preferences (no dissent) hardly ever solved the hidden profile, solution rates were significantly higher in groups with prediscussion dissent, even if none of these individual prediscussion preferences were correct. If dissent came from a proponent of the correct solution, solution rates were even higher than in dissent groups without such a proponent. The magnitude of dissent (i.e., minority dissent or full diversity of individual preferences) did not affect decision quality. The beneficial effect of dissent on group decision quality was mediated primarily by greater discussion intensity and to some extent also by less discussion bias in dissent groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical influence in phonetic decision making: Evidence from subcategorical mismatches.

In 5 experiments, listeners heard words and nonwords, some cross-spliced so that they contained acoustic-phonetic mismatches. Performance was worse on mismatching than on matching items. Words cross-spliced with words and words cross-spliced with nonwords produced parallel results. However, in lexical decision and 1 of 3 phonetic decision experiments, performance on nonwords cross-spliced with words was poorer than on nonwords cross-spliced with nonwords. A gating study confirmed that there were misleading coarticulatory cues in the cross-spliced items; a sixth experiment showed that the earlier results were not due to interitem differences in the strength of these cues. Three models of phonetic decision making (the Race model, the TRACE model, and a postlexical model) did not explain the data. A new bottom-up model is outlined that accounts for the findings in terms of lexical involvement at a dedicated decision-making stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age, executive function and social decision making: A dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive aging.

Current neuropsychological models propose that some age-related cognitive changes are due to frontal-lobe deterioration. However, these models have not considered the possible subdivision of the frontal lobes into the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions. This study assessed the age effects on 3 tasks of executive function and working memory, tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction; and 3 tasks of emotion and social decision making, tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. Age-related differences in performance were found on all tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction. In contrast, age-related differences were not found on the majority of the tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. The results support a specific dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive changes with age, rather than a global decline in frontal-lobe function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating advice and experience: Learning and decision making with social and nonsocial cues.

When making decisions, people typically gather information from both social and nonsocial sources, such as advice from others and direct experience. This research adapted a cognitive learning paradigm to examine the process by which people learn what sources of information are credible. When participants relied on advice alone to make decisions, their learning of source reliability proceeded in a manner analogous to traditional cue learning processes and replicated the established learning phenomena. However, when advice and nonsocial cues were encountered together as an established phenomenon, blocking (ignoring redundant information) did not occur. Our results suggest that extant cognitive learning models can accommodate either advice or nonsocial cues in isolation. However, the combination of advice and nonsocial cues (a context more typically encountered in daily life) leads to different patterns of learning, in which mutually supportive information from different types of sources is not regarded as redundant and may be particularly compelling. For these situations, cognitive learning models still constitute a promising explanatory tool but one that must be expanded. As such, these findings have important implications for social psychological theory and for cognitive models of learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and social influence: A social psychological analysis.

Men and women are believed to differ in how influential and easily influenced they are: Men are thought to be more influential, and women more easily influenced. In natural settings, men and women tend to differ in these ways, but these differences stem largely from formal status inequalities by which men are more likely than women to have high-status roles. Status is important because of the legitimate authority vested in high-status roles. Within appropriate limits, people of higher status are believed to have the right to make demands of those of lower status, and people of lower status are expected to comply with these demands. Yet, small, stereotypic sex differences in leadership and social influence generally have been found in laboratory experiments and other small-group settings where men and women have equal formal status. These small sex differences may occur because experience with hierarchical social structures in which men have higher status creates expectancies about male and female behavior, and these expectancies affect social interaction in ways that foster behavior that confirms the expectancies. Sex differences that occur in the laboratory as well as natural settings may stem from social structural factors—namely, from the existing distributions of women and men into social roles. (77 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making by experts: Field study of panels evaluating medical technologies.

Investigated decision-making processes and their outcomes in 6 consensus development conferences in which panels of experts evaluated new medical technologies. Self-administered questionnaires were obtained from 177 medical experts, and data were analyzed along with data derived from content analyses of the 6 consensus statements produced by the conferences. Results of these analyses provide support for the hypothesis that the quality of the outcome is determined by the existence of an interaction process, a decision procedure, and a chairperson, which facilitate the exchange of relevant information. Strong disagreements among the Ss inhibited such exchange and harmed the quality of the consensus statement. Personal satisfaction was more strongly related to the quality of the process and of the information disseminated than to the quality of the outcome. A clear relation was found between the Ss' status and expertise, their participation in the process, and their contribution to the consensus statement. The pattern of these findings is similar to that obtained in laboratory studies. The role of preconference organizational factors—such as the selection of conference questions, panel, and speakers—and the characteristics of the technology are discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)