Spring 2012 PSYCH 489-0 Topics in Social Psychology- Motivated Thinking

"Motivated Thinking" - Topics in Social Psychology

In this course we will explore the multiple ways in which people's motivations (e.g., their goals, values, needs, and desires) can affect their thoughts (i.e., their impressions, perceptions, decisions, and explanations). In so doing, we will discuss several broad classes of motivation, including desires for specific outcomes during judgment (e.g., self-enhancing conclusions), desires for more general outcomes during judgment (e.g., conclusions that are as accurate, or as clear and concise as possible), and desires for using particular means to reach judgmental outcomes (e.g., risky versus conservative decision strategies). The primary focus of this discussion will be on how such motivations initiate and guide basic cognitive processes, such as hypothesis testing, decision making, and recall, in ways that help to ensure that the appropriate desires are fulfilled. The overall objective is to provide students with a solid understanding of the principles that describe the interaction of motivations and cognitions so that they may apply these principles to their own research interests.

Current as of 05/06/13 11:25:14 AM