Decision Theory and Decision Behaviour Normative and Descriptive Approaches

Rapoport, Anatol

ISBN 10: 0792302974 / ISBN 13: 9780792302971

Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht Holland, 1989

About this Item

6 1/2 x 9 3/4 " 430 pages plus publisher's list. part of the Theory and Decision Library Series B: Mathematical and Statistical Methods Volume 15. ex university library, call # spine label partially removed. stamped on inside front cover and verso of title page which has bled through so as to be visible on the title page. stamped discard. sticker on rear cover and table of contents page. small indentation to top edge of last couple of pages where a paper clip had been. Seller Inventory # 122152

Bibliographic Details

Title: Decision Theory and Decision Behaviour ...

Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht Holland

Publication Date: 1989

Binding: hardcover

Condition: very good

Dust Jacket Condition: no jacket

About this title

Synopsis:

This book presents the content of a year's course in decision processes for third and fourth year students given at the University of Toronto. A principal theme of the book is the relationship between normative and descriptive decision theory. The distinction between the two approaches is not clear to everyone, yet it is of great importance. Normative decision theory addresses itself to the question of how people ought to make decisions in various types of situations, if they wish to be regarded (or to regard themselves) as 'rational'. Descriptive decision theory purports to describe how people actually make decisions in a variety of situations. Normative decision theory is much more formalized than descriptive theory. Especially in its advanced branches, normative theory makes use of mathematicallanguage, mode of discourse, and concepts. For this reason, the definitions of terms encountered in normative decision theory are precise, and its deductions are rigorous. Like the terms and assertions of other branches of mathematics, those of mathematically formalized decision theory need not refer to anything in the 'real', i. e. the observable, world. The terms and assertions can be interpreted in the context of models of real li fe situations, but the verisimilitude of the models is not important. They are meant to capture only the essentials of adecision situation, which in reallife may be obscured by complex details and ambiguities. It is these details and ambiguities, however, that may be crucial in determining the outcomes of the decisions.

Synopsis:

Presents the content of a year's course in decision processes for third and fourth year students. Roughly equal emphasis is placed on normative and descriptive approaches, this two-track approach incorporating theory and concerns usually relegated to the separate camps of economics or political science (for normative decision theory) and psychology