Spring 2008

PSY 355R • Reasoning and Decision Making-W

Course Description

Two of the abilities that make humans unique are our abilities to reason about situations and to make informed decisions. For this reason, there has been a lot of research by psychologists that has explored the nature of human reasoning and decision making. This course will survey research on a variety of types of reasoning including deductive reasoning, reasoning by analogy, and scientific reasoning. In addition, it will explore a variety of issues in the way people make decisions, drawing on work from social and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and consumer behavior.

Grading Policy

Students will be expected to turn in a 1-page reaction paper each week that discusses their thoughts about the readings These reaction papers are useful for stimulating class discussion. Reaction papers will be graded. In addition, students will complete a final paper that reviews research in an area of reasoning or decision making and either proposes a new study or applies the existing theories to a problem in another area of psychology.

Texts

There will be a packet of readings.

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