This in turn entails different forms of data-driven and concept (or hypothesis) driven knowledge acquisition activities that range along the continuum from direct knowledge (perception based) to indirect knowing (cognition based) that involves more complex inference tasks (Baron and Harvey 1980 Harris 1981 Lindsay and Norman 1977 Taylor and Crocker 1981). The task of choosing between alternatives and behaving in a particular way involves various degrees of information processing. Output in the form of behaviour based on information processing (McLeod 2008).Storing and coding of that information in the brain, with this stored information used by the parts of the brain responsible for mental activities such as memory, perception and attention.Input in the form of visual or auditory information.Making a choice implies commitment to the chosen alternative and can involve searching for reasons or rationalisations to justify the choice.Ī basic model of decision-making consists of three steps: Every outcome is associated with a value or preference, although these beliefs and values may well be idiosyncratic to every decision-maker. Each alternative is associated with a set of beliefs about the outcome associated with each alternative. Below, we review concepts related to decision-making within the field of cognitive psychology that are most relevant for explaining corrupt behaviour and that appear in our literature review.Ī decision involves a choice between two or more alternatives that involve choices about questions like whether, whom, when, and which. Improved understanding about how these processes are involved in decision-making on corruption could improve the design of anti-corruption programs directed towards societies where corruption is the norm or towards individual power-holders. These decisions most likely involve several parallel psychological processes. A core assumption of analysing corrupt behaviour through a cognitive psychology lens is that individuals make conscious decisions to engage in corrupt behaviour.
(We developed this background information to accompany U4 Issue The cognitive psychology of corruption)Ĭognitive psychology is defined as the study of individual-level mental processes such as information processing, attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, decision-making, and thinking (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2002).
0 kommentar(er)
