PSY 3109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sat, Impulsivity
15 May 2018
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Unit 3: Epistemic Needs
Decision Making:
• Often we opt for the easy way out when solving a problem by going with the first
solution that comes to mind
• At other times we might be paralyzed with indecision
The need for Closure: The motivation to find an answer to an unambiguous situation
• This motivation is enhanced by the perceived benefits of obtaining closure (Ex. The
increased ability to predict the world)
• This motivation is also enhanced by the perceived costs of lacking closure (Ex. Such
as missing deadlines)
Individual difference -> Some people make decisions quickly while others take a very
long time to make decisions
According to Kruglanski: the need for closure exerts its effects via two general
tendencies
1. Urgency tendency: The inclination to attain closure as quickly as possible
2. Permanence tendency: The tendency to maintain closure for as long as possible
• Together these tendencies produce the inclinations to seize and then freeze on
early judgmental cues, reducing the extent of information processing and hypothesis
generation and introducing biases in thinking
Arie Kruglanski Theory:
• People are not only driven by directional motivation, or the motivation to seek
specific conclusions (Ex. ) am a wonderful person)
• They also are guided by non-directional motivation, or the motivation to do more
or less thinking in general (regardless of what that thinking is about)
• The emphasis in the present article is on the need for non-specific closure
Kruglanski and Webster systematically spell out:
• numerous ways in which a high need for closure or a high need to avoid closure may
be manipulated in the laboratory
• numerous consequences of being in a state of high need for closure versus a high
need to avoid closure
People with a high need for closure are more likely to:
• rely on underlying personality dispositions (rather than situational pressures) to
explain another persons behaviour
• judge people based on first impressions
• use stereotypes
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