Chapter 6

halo effect

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic

rational decision-making model

a decision-making model that describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome

problem

a discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state

Perception

a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment

Bounded rationality

a process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity

Self-fulfilling prophecy

a situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting expectations cause the second person to behave in ways consistent with the original perception

utilitarianism

a system in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for the greatest number

anchoring bias

a tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information

Attribution theory

an attempt to determine whether an individual's behavior is internally or externally caused 3 factors: 1) distinctiveness 2) consensus 3) consistency

escalation of commitment

an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information

intuitive decision making

an unconscious process created out of distilled experience

intuitive decisions making

an unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

rational

characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specific constraints

decisions

choices made from among two or more alternatives

contrast effect

evaluation of a person's characteristics that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics

whistle-blowers

individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders

stereotyping

judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which that person belongs

confirmation bias

tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgements

Organizational Behavior Theory

studies behavior as it relates to concerns such as absenteeism, turnover, productivity, and performance.

creativity

the ability to produce novel and useful ideas

three-component model of creativity

the proposition that individual creativity requires expertise, creative thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation.

self-serving bias

the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors

availability bias

the tendency for people to base their judgements on information that is readily available to them

randomness error

the tendency of individuals to believe that they can predict the outcome of random events

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome

risk aversion

the tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier outcome might have a higher expected payoff

selective perception

the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one's interests, background, experience, and attributes

fundamental attribution error

the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgements about the behavior of others