PSYCH 178 Lecture 8: Lecture 8 - 27.01.11.docx
Document Summary
The person as a decision maker: you are at a horse race and there are a number of horses running and each horse has a probability of. 27th january 2011 winning and a payoff and you have to choose where to place your money. Expectancy value theory says that what determines your choice is what are you going to get and what are your odds of getting it: the ultimate goal of life is hedonic. Not to maintain balance or to expand your gene pool. It assumes people are selfish and act out of self interest: take a group of rats with the tendency to turn right and breed them so that they all eventually turn right. There is food at the right side of the maze. You do not know if the rat turns right because of evolutionary history or if it is how it maximizes its gains because it is a selfish rat.
