Perception, Attribution, & Decision Making Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts of perception, attribution theory, decision-making biases, and bounded rationality from the Organisational Behaviour lecture.

Perception

The process of organising and interpreting sensory data to make sense of your position vis-à-vis the environment.

Social Cognition

Decisions and actions about how we relate to other people, informed by our perceptions.

Theory of Mind

Our own conception of how other people think and how their thoughts influence their behaviour.

Attribution Theory

A theory based on the assumption that humans are "intentional" and that when observing behaviour, we ask if it was caused by internal or external factors.

Attribution Errors

The tendency to attribute our own successes to internal factors and failures to external factors, while attributing the successes of others to external factors and their failures to internal factors.

Stereotyping

The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to see what confirms our assumptions and suits our desired course of action.

The Halo Effect

The assumption that, if someone is good (bad) at one thing, they are good (bad) at everything.

Anchoring

The tendency to use the first piece of information we come across as the comparison for subsequent experiences, as identified by Kahneman & Tversky.

Availability

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

Escalation of commitment

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

Non-Decision Making

The reliance on taken-for-granted conventions to make decisions for us.

Unskilled and Unaware

A phenomenon where a lack of skill deprives an individual of both the ability to improve and the ability to recognise that their performance is poor.

Bounded Rationality

A concept proposed by Herbert Simon suggesting individuals cannot make truly rational decisions because they have limited information processing capabilities.

Satisficing

The process of making decisions on the basis of being able to satisfy certain minimum standards rather than finding an optimal solution.