Chapter 6 Perception and Individual Decision Making

Question 1

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

Answer 1

perception

Question 2

Factors That Influence Perception

Answer 2

perceiver
target
situation

Question 3

An attempt to explain the ways we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a behavior, such as determining whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

Answer 3

attribution theory

Question 4

_______ caused behaviors are those an observer believes to be under the personal behavioral control of another individual.

Answer 4

Internally

Question 5

________ caused behavior is what we imagine the situation forced the individual to do.

Answer 5

Externally

Question 6

_______ refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations.

Answer 6

Distinctiveness

Question 7

If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows ________.

Answer 7

consensus.

Question 8

An observer looks for _______ in a person’s actions. Does the person respond the same way over time?

Answer 8

consistency

Question 9

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 9

fundamental attribution error

Question 10

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

Answer 10

self-serving bias

Question 11

The tendency to choose to interpret what one sees based on one’s interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

Answer 11

selective perception

Question 12

The tendency to draw a positive general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic.

Answer 12

halo effect

Question 13

The tendency to draw a negative general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic.

Answer 13

horns effect

Question 14

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 14

contrast effect

Question 15

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

Answer 15

stereotyping

Question 16

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 16

self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 17

Choices made from among two or more alternatives.

Answer 17

decisions

Question 18

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

Answer 18

problem

Question 19

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

Answer 19

rational

Question 20

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

Answer 20

rational decision-making model

Question 21

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

Answer 21

bounded rationality

Question 22

An unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

Answer 22

intuitive decision making

Question 23

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

Answer 23

anchoring bias

Question 24

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

Answer 24

confirmation bias

Question 25

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

Answer 25

availability bias

Question 26

An increased commitment to a previous decision despite negative information.

Answer 26

escalation of commitment

Question 27

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

Answer 27

randomness error

Question 28

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 28

risk aversion

Question 29

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

Answer 29

hindsight bias

Question 30

An ethical perspective in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for all.

Answer 30

utilitarianism

Question 31

Individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders.

Answer 31

whistle-blowers

Question 32

A perspective in which ethical decisions are made because you “ought to” in order to be consistent with moral norms, principles, standards, rules, or laws.

Answer 32

deonance

Question 33

Analyzing how people behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas.

Answer 33

behavioral ethics

Question 34

The ability to produce novel and useful ideas.

Answer 34

creativity

Question 35

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

Answer 35

problem formulation

Question 36

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

Answer 36

information gathering

Question 37

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

Answer 37

idea generation

Question 38

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

Answer 38

idea evaluation