PSY 2110 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: How We Think, Negativity Bias, Condom

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2110
• Professor: Dave Miranda

Document Summary

Although we naturally want to make good decisions, we are confronted almost constantly with decisions, making it truly impossible to think about and process all the relevant information in a careful and deliberative way. Instead, people often rely on automatic thinking, a type of decision-making process that occurs at unconscious or automatic levels and is entirely effortless and unintentional. This type of thinking relies on the use of mental shortcuts, or rules of thumb known as heuristics, which can save us time when making decisions but lead to inaccurate judgements can also. In some cases, people use a more deliberate and careful type of thinking known as controlled / effortful thinking, which can in turn lead to more accurate judgements. We tend to use this type of thinking when we have the time and motivation necessary to make the considerable effort this thinking involves.