Parent–Child Roles in Decision Making About Medical Research

Our objective is to understand how parents and children perceive their roles in decision making about research participation. Forty-five children (ages 4–15 years) with or without a chronic condition and 21 parents were the participants. A semistructured interview assessed perceptions of up to 4 hypothetical research scenarios with varying levels of risk, benefit, and complexity. Children were also administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Third Edition, to assess verbal ability, as a proxy for the child's cognitive development. The audiotaped interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes related to parent and child decision-making roles. Both parents and children varied in their perceptions of decision-making roles. Child perceptions of parental influence on decision making as knowledge-based increased with cognitive development, whereas perceptions of parental influence as power-based decreased. Both children and parents commented that they would collaborate with each other when making decisions. Collaborative decision making appeared to increase with cognitive development. These findings suggest that approaches to child assent and parent permission should consider the parent–child relationship and how children and families typically make decisions. Future research is necessary to explain variation in the process of research decision making across children and families, explore the role of collaboration on children's decision-making skills, and understand developmental trajectories and mechanisms related to research decision making.     

Predicting Behavior From Actions in the Past: Repeated Decision Making or a Matter of Habit?

This paper summarizes research on determinants of repeated behaviors, and the decision processes underlying them. The present research focuses on travel mode choices as an example of such behaviors. It is proposed that when behavior is performed repeatedly and becomes habitual, it is guided by automated cognitive processes, rather than being preceded by elaborate decision processes (i.e., a decision based on attitudes and intentions). First, current attitude-behavior models are discussed, and the role of habit in these models is examined. Second, research is presented on the decision processes preceding travel mode choices. Based on the present theoretical and empirical overview, it is concluded that frequently performed behavior is often a matter of habit, thereby establishing a boundary condition for the applicability of attitude-behavior models. However, more systematic research is required to disentangle the role of habit in attitude-behavior models and to learn more about the cognitive processes underlying habitual behavior.     

Social Perceptions of Termination of Medical Treatment: Suicide or Rational Decision?

In two studies, college students read about a critically ill patient who died after CPR attempts failed, CPR was not attempted pursuant to a "Do-Not-Resuscitate" (DNR) order, he terminated all medical treatment, or he self-administered a lethal injection. Death resulting from treatment termination was perceived as significantly more unconventional than were death by CPR failure or DNR order. Ending treatment and lethal injection were perceived as equivalent acts of suicide, and resulted in the patient's being seen as less rational and less capable of making health care decisions. Timing of the patient's decisions regarding treatment, as indicated by the presence or absence of Living Will information, did not alter these perceptions. Results are discussed in light of opposing hypotheses regarding views of "naive" social perceivers toward actions with identical outcomes: that acts of commission are perceived as causal and rated more negatively than acts of omission (Spranca, Minsk, & Baron, 1991), and that acts seen as abnormal are attributed greater causal impact (Hilton & Slugoski, 1986).     

Forecasting and Ethical Decision Making: What Matters?

This study examined how the number and types of consequences considered are related to forecasting and ethical decision making. Undergraduate participants took on the role of the key actor in several ethical problems and were asked to forecast potential outcomes and make a decision about each problem. Performance pressure was manipulated by ostensibly making rewards contingent on good problem-solving performance. The results indicated that forecast quality was associated with decision ethicality, and the identification of the critical consequences of the problem and consequences for others were associated with both higher quality forecasts and more ethical decisions. In addition, the identification of a larger number of consequences was negatively associated with ethical decision making. Performance pressure did not impact forecast quality or ethicality of decisions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Can Constructive Thinking Predict Decision Making?

We assume that executive function constitutes an integrated set of cognitive processes that mediate working memory, planning, inhibition, flexibility, and decision making. Despite the acknowledged theoretical connection between executive function processes and emotional intelligence, such relationships have rarely been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential relationship between constructive thinking, conceived as a component of emotional intelligence, and executive function, as indexed by various existing neuropsychological and experimental instruments. We used the Constructive Thinking Inventory as a measure of emotional intelligence. We found that some constructive thinking subscales were able to predict distinct executive function variables. Emotional Coping, Categorical Thinking, and Esoteric Thinking subscales explained performance on various measures of executive function. Thus, we conclude that intervention programs designed to train a specific component of emotional intelligence, namely constructive thinking, could also facilitate performance in executive function processes, and vice versa. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Can Decision Making Be Improved?

ABSTRACT— The optimal moment to address the question of how to improve human decision making has arrived. Thanks to 50 years of research by judgment and decision-making scholars, psychologists have developed a detailed picture of the ways in which human judgment is bounded. This article argues that the time has come to focus attention on the search for strategies that will improve bounded judgment because decision-making errors are costly and are growing more costly, decision makers are receptive, and academic insights are sure to follow from research on improvement. In addition to calling for research on improvement strategies, this article organizes the existing literature pertaining to improvement strategies and highlights promising directions for future research.     

Diagnostic Decision Making: Do Counselors Delay Final Judgments?

Although there is a theoretical, empirical rationale warranting the delay of diagnostic decision making, it is unknown whether this debiasing strategy is actually implemented in counseling practice. This study investigated whether counselors delayed their diagnostic decisions in a setting that allowed them the option of doing so. Clinical records were selected from a counselor training center at a large midwestern university and coded for delayed diagnostic decision making. Three pairs of chi‐square analyses were performed. Results indicated that delayed diagnostic decision making occurred to a greater extent than immediate diagnostic decision making across counselor‐client dyads, counselors, and clients.     

Does Anxiety Improve Voters' Decision Making?

Affective Intelligence (AI) theory proposes to answer a fundamental question about democracy: how it succeeds even though most citizens pay little attention to politics. AI contends that, when circumstances generate sufficient anxiety, citizens make informed and thoughtful political decisions. In Ladd and Lenz (2008 ), we showed that two simpler depictions of anxiety's role can explain the vote interactions that apparently support AI. Here, we again replicate Marcus, Neuman and MacKuen's (2000 )'s voting model, which they contend supports AI, and again show that it is vulnerable to these alternative explanations, regardless of how candidate choice is measured. We also briefly review the broader literature and discuss Brader's (2005, 2006 ) important experimental results. Although the literature undoubtedly supports other aspects of AI, few studies directly test AI's voting claims, which were the focus of our reassessment. In our view, the only study that does so while ruling out the two alternatives is our analysis of the 1980 ANES Major Panel ( Ladd & Lenz, 2008 ), which finds no support for AI, but ample support for the alternatives. None of the responses to Ladd and Lenz (2008 ) addresses these findings. Overall, evidence that anxiety helps solve the problem of voter competence remains sparse and vulnerable to alternative explanations.     

Numerical vs Cardinal Measurements in Multiattribute Decision Making: How Exact Is Enough?

Multiattribute decision making can involve consideration of both quantitative and qualitative measures of criteria attaintment. Some decision support systems (decision aids) to help multiattribute decision making quantify value functions. One of the most popular of these systems, multiattribute utility theory (MAUT), requires two types of input. Decision makers need to express the relative value of different attainment levels on each criterion, as well as express the relative importance of these criteria. Some systems (such as DECAID) require simple direct graphical input of value and criterion importance. Other systems (such as LOGICAL DECISION) use more complex means of expressing relative value. Either way, MAUT converts expressions of criterion importance into quantitative form. This study compares the relative stability of numerical results obtained through two decision support systems, DECAID and LOGICAL DECISION (LD), used in the task of evaluation of multiattribute alternatives. Additionally the relative stability of results was measured by comparison with results obtained using an ordinal method, ZAPROS. ZAPROS is a decision support system for construction of a partial order over the set of alternatives. It does not require conversion of qualitative measures into quantitative form. The relations among alternatives are close to those based on ordinal dominance. The results of experiments show that ordinal relationships between task parameters are much more stable than those obtained from quantitative measures. Results from DECAID and LD are much less coincident with each other than with results obtained through ZAPROS. Many inconsistencies were found in subject responses. It is concluded that more attention should be given to the means of testing judgment consistency, and that in some cases, attempts to solve decision tasks through more "exact" judgments of value function parameters may lead to erroneous results.     

Letters of Recommendation for the Predoctoral Internship in Medical Schools and Other Settings: Do They Enhance Decision Making in the Selection Process?

Since the 1970s, letters of recommendation to medical and other internship settings have surfaced as important variables in the internship selection process. However, several studies have challenged their value in the selection process, specifically by pointing out that these letters have an overly positive bias and fail to address applicant weaknesses. Our study, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis method, developed a quantitative profile for a sample of letters of recommendation, determined whether letters differentiated among applicants with regard to positive/negative attributions, evaluated letters for positive and negative bias, and investigated potential gender bias of writers toward applicants. Results indicated that writers apply positive and negative attributions homogeneously across applicants, thus, rendering applicant differentiation on this basis impossible. Also, results demonstrated that letters of male and female writers were not biased toward male or female applicants. These findings, in combination with previous studies, question the utility of letters of recommendation as presently structured. Possible modifications are discussed.     

Referees' Decision Making in Handball and Transgressive Behaviors: Influence of Stereotypes About Gender of Players?

We offer norm theory as a framework for developing some common ground within both feminist psychology and lesbian and gay psychology about the meaning of empirical differences between social groups. Norm theory is a social cognitive theory that predicts that empirical differences will be consistently explained by taking more typical groups (e.g., men, straight people) as implicit norms for comparison and by attributing differences to less typical groups (e.g., women, lesbians, and gay men). Results of an experiment (N = 114) are presented to show that norms shape interpretations of empirical differences between lesbian/gay and straight persons by (1) leading explanations to focus on attributes of lesbian/gay persons, and (2) leading to judgments that straight persons have less mutable attributes. Stereotypes also affected interpretations; stereotype-consistent results led to more essentialistic explanations and, when targets were female, to higher ratings of the results' importance and fundamentality. We highlight how experiments can be used to understand the process of constructing the meaning of scientific data, and make recommendations for empiricists' interpretive practices and constructionist theories in feminist psychology and lesbian and gay psychology.     

Education and the Importance of Religion in Decision Making: Do Other Dimensions of Religiousness Matter?

The relationship between education and the importance of religion in everyday decision making is examined using data from two national surveys of American adults. People who have higher levels of education are less likely to rely on the Bible and the teachings of their place of worship for guidance in their decision making. However, previously undocumented contingencies attenuate the effect of education: (1) attending religious services regularly; (2) involvement in religious activities; (3) praying more frequently; (4) believing in the literal interpretation of the Bible; and (5) greater certainty in one's personal faith. These patterns hold net of income, which is also negatively associated with religious‐based decision making—and only the socially integrative aspects of religiousness attenuate that association.     

Aerobic conditioning and stress reduction: Participation or conditioning?

The efficiency of an aerobic conditioning program (jogging) is compared to cognitive therapy (stress inoculation) and a waiting list control in modifying self-reported chronic stress. The participants were community residents; 48 were females and 25 were males. Treatment sessions were conducted over a 10-week period with subjects meeting in small groups for 1$\text{1}\text{2}$ hours per week. The State/Trait Inventories, a Tension Thermometer and a submaximal bicycle ergometer test were administered pre, post and follow-up. Repeated measures, multivariate analysis of variance indicated that both treatments were effective in reducing stress compared to the waiting list control and that these changes were maintained at 3-month follow-up. Multivariate analysis indicated that participants with higher initial levels of aerobic fitness did not report less stress, while participants who obtained higher levels of fitness during the conditioning program fared no better in reducing stress than their counterparts who obtained lower levels of aerobic fitness. These findings are of interest because they suggest that the psychosocial components of the fitness program were active ingredients of treatment rathee than the effects of improved cardiovascular functioning.     

Reinforcement,Rationality, and Intentions: How Robust Is Automatic Reinforcement Learning in Economic Decision Making?

Reinforcement learning is often observed in economic decision making and may lead to detrimental decisions. Because of its automaticity, it is difficult to avoid. In three experimental studies, we investigated whether this process could be controlled by goal intentions and implementation intentions. Participants' decisions were investigated in a probability‐updating task in which the normative rule to maximize expected payoff (Bayes' rule) conflicted with the reinforcement heuristic as a simple decision rule. Some participants were asked to set goal intentions designated to foster the optimization of rational decision making, while other participants were asked to furnish these goal intentions with implementation intentions. Results showed that controlling automatic processes of reinforcement learning is possible by means of goal intentions or implementation intentions that focus decision makers on the analysis of decision feedback. Importantly, such beneficial effects were not achieved by simply instructing participants to analyze the feedback, without defining a goal as the desired end state from a first‐person perspective. Regarding intentions supposed to shut down reinforcement processes by controlling negative affect, effects were more complex and depended on the specified goal‐directed behavior. The goal intention to suppress the disappointment elicited by negative feedback was not effective in controlling reinforcement processes. Furnishing this goal with an implementation intention even backfired and strengthened unwanted reinforcement processes. In contrast, asking participants to keep cool in response to negative decision outcomes through the use of goal intentions or implementation intentions increased decisions in line with Bayes' rule. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.