This course examines the psychology of human decision making and judgment. How do we make judgments? What influences our choices? We will cover basic models and strategies of decision making and look at applications of these models in a variety of fields, including consumer choice, medicine, law, and public opinion. We will try to integrate the study of judgment and decision-making with its psychological Aneighbors,@ social and cognitive psychology. Although a pronouncement of human decision making abilities as either Agood@ or Abad@ is sort of pointless, we will touch on relative strengths and weaknesses and compare human judgment to various ideals and standards. In addition, we will look at possible ways that performance may be improved.

By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding of some of the major topics of study and how research in this field is conducted. The content of the course is research based, meaning that the information taught is mostly derived from empirical research in the fields of judgment and decision making and cognitive and social psychology. Thus, you will not only study theories of judgment and decision making, but also study experiments and observations that have been carried out to test and demonstrate these theories. The readings in the reading packet are mostly Aprimary sources@ -- that is to say, reprints of original journal articles. For this reason, Psychology 302 and 303 (Statistical Methods and Research Methods), or their equivalents, are required as prerequisites for this course.

In order to consolidate and reinforce your understanding of the topics in this course, you will be encouraged to look for examples of topics covered in class in the world around you. Take note of your own judgment and decision making and that of other people throughout the term.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with me soon. Please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.

REQUIREMENTS

1) Course readings: The required readings for this course are The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making by Scott Plous and the course reading packet (available at the bookstore). A few required readings are on reserve at the Knight Library and not in the packet (check the schedule to see which). Reading assignments should be completed before lecture on the day they are listed on the syllabus. Some information in the reading will not be covered in class. Thus, you must do the reading to cover the full subject matter. Allow yourself ample time for doing ALL the readings in this class. Plous=s book is written clearly and in an engaging style. The readings in the reading packet are mostly journal articles. You may find that they are harder to digest. If you are having troubles reading the articles, you should read the Ellyson and Halberstadt article on reserve at the Knight Library.

2) Class participation and attendance: You are expected to attend class. Some topics not found in the reading will be covered in lecture. In addition, there will some in-class activities in which you will be expected to participate. Furthermore, your contributions to the class are a potentially valuable resource to the other class members. I don=t plan on taking attendance regularly, but I may do so periodically, and absences will count against your participation grade.

I strongly recommend planning to attend EVERY class. If you miss a quiz or an in-class assignment, you cannot make it up. If you miss more than two classes, I will not use office hours to go over what you missed. (I reserve the right to grant exceptions to the two previous statements under dire circumstances, but don=t count on being an exception.) If you know you must miss a class, I would appreciate you telling me in advance.

I hope to foster a class environment in which you will feel comfortable speaking up in class, but I realize that it=s hard to speak up with 60+ other students. You may feel more comfortable making your comments over e-mail, or writing them down and giving them to me, or speaking with me or the GTF.

Your attendance at the scheduled exam period (10:15, Monday, June 7) is mandatory. If you do not attend, you will fail the course.

3) E-mail communication: If you don=t already have an e-mail account, please get one, as there may be additional class information that I will distribute via e-mail. In general, I will not use e-mail to discuss things that have not been previously introduced or announced in class. Thus, I may use e-mail to remind you of an assignment that is already on the syllabus or was announced in class, or I may use e-mail to answer a question that someone asked after class. If something is announced first on e-mail, it is almost definite that you will have been told in class that such an announcement is impending and that you should check your e-mail for it, or it will be an announcement that would have been impossible to make in class (for example, if class has to be unexpectedly canceled). The idea is that e-mail will ADD to the amount of instruction you get in this course, rather than REPLACE any traditional instruction.

If you need help getting an account, go to the University Computing Center. Once you have your account, or if you already have one, send an E-mail message to me (sdhodges@darkwing.uoregon.edu) so I will know you are on-line. (The content of the message is up to you--you can just say hi, or tell me about a particular interest or reason you are taking Psych 458 or something else about you, or even just send a blank message).This is your first class assignment and it is due no later than April 5. If you are having trouble with it, please let me or the GTF know. You will also be using e-mail as a means of communicating your Adecision making diary@ to your study group and you are encouraged to use it to help in preparing your group presentation (both described below). As soon as you have your group, exchange e-mail addresses with them.

If you send me e-mail questions about the class, I will try to answer them as soon as I can; however, if they are long or complicated, it is possible (but unlikely) that you will have to wait until my next office hours for an answer.

4) Term paper: You will write one term paper (6-20 pages of text) for this class. Although you may petition to do otherwise, you are encouraged to write your paper on some topic related to your group project. The purpose for this encouragement is twofold: Your additional research for your paper will enrich the group presentation, and working on the same topic for two assignments will deepen your understanding of your topic.

At various points during the course, there will be opportunities for you to receive feedback about your paper from your group members and to give them feedback about their papers. These activities are required. More information about the paper itself and these assignments will be distributed in class.

All papers in this class will be typed in a readable font, double-spaced, left justified only, and with margins of one inch at the top, bottom, left side and right side (these are all consistent with the APA style). Use the APA Publication Manual (4th edition) style for reference citations. A reference copy of the manual is available in the Knight Library. If you foresee problems meeting these qualifications, please discuss them with me.

Your final draft of your term paper is due at the beginning of class on Monday, May 24, 1999. Papers turned in after the start of class are half a day late, with a 5% penalty, up until 4:30 pm of the due date; papers turned in after 4:30 are 1 day late with a 10% penalty. Each subsequent day rolls over at 4:30 pm, with an additional 10% penalty. Do not plan to skip class to finish your paper--your paper will be penalized anyway, and you will miss class and get behind.

5) Quizzes/Final Exam: There will be 5 quizzes during the quarter and a final exam during exam week. The quizzes will take approximately 20 minutes (probably 10 short answer questions). Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. If you plan to drop the last quiz, you don=t have to take it, but please come to class anyway. Quizzes are designed primarily to make you keep up with the reading and pay attention in class, but questions may test your ability to apply concepts in addition to the ability to define or identify them. Quizzes will cover class material and reading since the last quiz (i.e., they are not cumulative, although later concepts that build on earlier ones are fair game). The final exam is cumulative.

6) ADecision journal@: Each week, you are required to make an entry in your Adecision journal.@ These entries can be as short as a paragraph or two. They can be longer too, but should not ramble. In addition to sending these entries to the instructors, you will share these entries with other members of your group. These entries can address a variety of topics:

a. Describe a decision you made, or observed someone else make. Why was it hard? Was it a good decision? Why or why not?

b. Describe a research idea for a judgment or decision making study.

c. Provide an example of something discussed in class (e.g., a heuristic), either from your life, someone else=s life or the media (e.g., the movies, news, or a song).

d. Suggest a way of improving an institution, policy, or aspect of life, based upon what you have learned in this class.

e. Comment on a report of judgment and decision making research (either in a journal, book, or news report)

f. Report other thoughts that you have that are related to the subject matter of the class.

Entries are to be sent to sdhclass@darkwing.uoregon.edu AND to your group members by 5 pm each Friday. Please note the address above is NOT my regular E-mail address and should be used for journal entries only. You MUST put AJDMJE@ (for Judgment and Decision Making journal entry), the date, and your first initial and last name in the Aheader@ of the E-mail. You get two weeks Aoff@ from submitting entries (your choice which weeks). If you write something every week, it is conceivable (but not assured) that extra entries may count towards extra credit.

7) Group Presentation - You will be assigned a group, based upon your interest in presentation topics. Each group (of approximately 5 - 8 people) will be responsible for preparing a class long (50 minutes) presentation. This presentation should cover the readings assigned for that day, but MUST also go beyond the readings, by presenting additional research on that topic, with a demonstration or learning activity, with an application of the topic, or some combination of these. Your grade will be based mostly on the quality of the presentation (same for everyone in the group), but also on your group=s ratings of your contributions to the presentation. It is highly recommended that your group consult with the instructor or the GTF before your presentation.

5 quizzes, dropping the lowest one, leaving 4 quizzes @ 30 points each = 120 points

Term paper = 100 points

Editing points = 10 points

Decision journals - 8 entries@5 points each = 40 points

Group presentation = 75 points

(60 points for presentation, 15 points for group grade)

Final exam = 80 points

Class participation, attendance, and in-class activities = 25 points

There are a total of 450 points. Final grades will be curved upwards if I think it is necessary at the end of the quarter.