Chapter 6 - Perception and Individual Decision Making

Question 1

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

Answer 1

Perception

Question 2

An attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

Answer 2

Attribution Theory

Question 3

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

Answer 3

Fundamental Attribution Error

Question 4

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

Answer 4

Self-Serving Bias

Question 5

The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one’s interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

Answer 5

Selective Perception

Question 6

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

Answer 6

Halo Effect

Question 7

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.

Answer 7

Contrast Effect

Question 8

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs.

Answer 8

Stereotyping

Question 9

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.

Answer 9

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Question 10

Choices made from among two or more alternatives.

Answer 10

Decisions

Question 11

A discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state.

Answer 11

Problem

Question 12

Characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints.

Answer 12

Rational

Question 13

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

Answer 13

Rational Decision-Making Model

Question 14

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

Answer 14

Bounded Rationality

Question 15

An unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

Answer 15

Intuitive Decision Making

Question 16

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

Answer 16

Anchoring Bias

Question 17

The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments.

Answer 17

Confirmation Bias

Question 18

The tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them.

Answer 18

Availability Bias

Question 19

An increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information.

Answer 19

Escalation of Commitment

Question 20

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

Answer 20

Randomness Error

Question 21

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.

Answer 21

Risk Aversion

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Hindsight Bias

Question 23

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

Answer 23

Utilitarianism

Question 24

Individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders.

Answer 24

Whistle-Blowers

Question 25

Analyzing how people actually behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas.

Answer 25

Behavioral Ethics

Question 26

The ability to produce novel and useful ideas.

Answer 26

Creativity

Question 27

The proposition that creativity involves three stages: causes (creative potential and creative environment), creative behavior, and creative outcomes (innovation).

Answer 27

Three-Stage Model of Creativity

Question 28

The stage of creative behavior that involves identifying a problem or opportunity requiring a solution that is as yet unknown.

Answer 28

Problem Formulation

Question 29

The stage of creative behavior when possible solutions to a problem incubate in an individual’s mind.

Answer 29

Information Gathering

Question 30

The process of creative behavior that involves developing possible solutions to a problem from relevant information and knowledge.

Answer 30

Idea Generation

Question 31

The process of creative behavior involving the evaluation of potential solutions to problems to identify the best one.

Answer 31

Idea Evaluation