PROBLEM SOLVING & DECISION MAKING

Catalog description

The primary objective of the course is to acquaint students with some of the major conceptual, methodological, and measurement issues within the field of problem solving and decision making. Due to the scope of this field, the course will focus on the psychological research on individual decision making, with special emphasis on the cognitive and motivational processes underlying problem solving and decision making. The second major objective of the course is to encourage students to creatively integrate and apply decision making approaches and findings to traditional areas of concern to the industrial-organizational psychologist (e.g., employee selection, performance appraisal, training, leadership, motivation). The third objective is to hone students' critical thinking skills and their ability to present their ideas in a clear and coherent manner using oral and written formats.