A new text for positive psychology, this book places the self as the decision maker at the center of the motivational process. "Personal Motivation" represents a new approach for student and scholar to consider motivation theory, self theory, and decision theory. It supports current thinking, which sees the self as possessing power for growth and change. Challenging traditional motivation and personality theories, it puts personality within the context of a new motivation model. It also challenges current thinking by distinguishing between choosing and deciding, and by describing the various characteristics of decision making as uniquely human.

The self is reciprocally influenced by three motivational systems and is formed by the motivational process itself. A triarchic theory of motivation is proposed consisting of interdependent systems: formative, operational, and thematic. This book places the study of psychology back in the arena of life by developing a model of motivation and decision making immediately relevant to personal experience.

'In a time when too many minds seem closed, this is a masterful analysis of what it takes to open them' Adam Grant, author of the bestselling Think Again 'Optimistic, illuminating and even inspiring' Guardian As the world is increasingly polarised, it feels impossible to change the mind of someone with a conflicting view. But this book shows that you could be one conversation away from changing someone's mind about something, maybe a lot of things. Self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney sets out to discover not just what it takes to influence others, but why we believe in the first place. Along the way he meets a former Westboro Baptist Church member who was deradicalised on Twitter, goes deep canvassing to see how quickly people will surrender their character-defining views, finds a 9/11 Truther who turns his back on it all, and reveals how, within a few years, half a country can go from opposing the 'gay agenda' to happily attending same-sex weddings. Distilling the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, How Minds Change reveals how beliefs take hold, not over hundreds of years, but in less than a generation, in less than a decade, and sometimes in an instant.

Current edition description Written by two of the leading experts in critical thinking, this book focuses on an integrated, universal concept of critical thinking that is both substantive and applicable to any and every situation in which human thinking is necessary. It provides readerse with the basic intellectual tools needed for life-long learning, helping them understand the mind and how its three functions - thinking, feeling, motivation - influence and are influenced by one another. This book fosters the development of fair-minded critical thinking. Features the intellectual standards: clarity, precision, accuracy, logicalness, significance, depth, breadth, and fairness; The importance of good questioning; and intellectual tools to read for deep and lasting comprehension, and to write in ways that show clarity of reasonability of thought. For all that want to improve their critical thinking skills to apply to their job or life. The text features: Think for Yourself activities - throughout each chapter. (Ex. pp 29, 127). ~Help students take ownership of basic concepts as they learn them. Practical and learnable format. ~Simplifies complex ideas to make learning easier for students. Focus on thinking across the disciplines. (Ex. pp 119-120). ~Helps students to think within the various disciplines, rather than memorizing facts. Students are taught to learn to think like an historian, like a scientist, like a psychologist, etc. Critical thinking focus - When students internalize intellectual standards - such as clarity, precision, accuracy, logicalness, significance, depth, breadth, and fairness - they use them on a daily basis to upgrade their thinking, and to assess the thinking of others. (Ex. 12, 152). ~Gives students intellectual standards they can use in every dimension of their thinking. Features intellectual tools to read for deep and lasting comprehension, and to write in ways that show clarity of reasonability of thought. (Ex. 133). ~Teaches students to read closely and write substantively. Good questions are the key to good thinking - Thinkers who know how to ask relevant questions in context are better able to think their way through complex issues. (Ex. pp 83, 87, 93). ~Teaches students to ask the questions the best thinkers ask. Website - www.criticalthinking.org. ~Links students to the world's largest and most prestigious critical thinking website and provides forums for student and faculty discussions. International approach - with translations into German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Malay. ~Provides students with the opportunity to read portions of the text in their native language. "This book is well-written, lucid and contains abundant examples and applications that not only enliven the subject matter but present relevant contexts for building understanding and advanced critical thinking. In addition, it is faithful to the complexity and work required to improve one's thinking. It does not soft-pedal the challenge but actually throws down the gauntlet to the worthy Reader to pick it up." --Stephen J. Knopp, Ph.D., Ohio University "This concise version is a more comprehensive and robust textbook. Many Critical Thinking books cover thinking from a narrow angle, but Paul and Elder offer a model of critical thinking that can be applied not only to academic disciplines but also to life in general." --Connie Wolfe, Surry Community College

This book offers a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the latest research on hesitant fuzzy decision-making theory. It includes six parts: the hesitant fuzzy set and its extensions, novel hesitant fuzzy measures, hesitant fuzzy hybrid weighted aggregation operators, hesitant fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making with incomplete weights, hesitant fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making with complete weights information, and the hesitant fuzzy preference relation based decision-making theory. These methodologies are implemented in various fields such as decision-making, medical diagnosis, cluster analysis, service quality management, e-learning management and environmental management. A valuable resource for engineers, technicians, and researchers in the fields of fuzzy mathematics, operations research, information science, management science and engineering, it can also be used as a textbook for postgraduate and senior undergraduate students.

Putting forward a unified presentation of the features and possible applications of probabilistic preferences composition, and serving as a methodology for decisions employing multiple criteria, this book maximizes reader insights into the evaluation in probabilistic terms and the development of composition approaches that do not depend on assigning weights to the criteria. With key applications in important areas of management such as failure modes, effects analysis and productivity analysis - together with explanations about the application of the concepts involved -this book makes available numerical examples of probabilistic transformation development and probabilistic composition. Useful not only as a reference source for researchers, but also in teaching classes of graduate courses in Production Engineering and Management Science, the key themes of the book will be of especial interest to researchers in the field of Operational Research.

This book provides an analysis of strategic behavior in international crises. Various aspects of crisis decision and interaction, such as initiation, misperception, deception, learning, and termination, are studied by means of a game model that incorporates psychological variables. This integrative approach is designed to narrow the gap between psychological and game-theoretical studies of crisis, which are generally considered to be incompatible. The utility of the approach is demonstrated by means of an in-depth case study of the 1967 Middle East crisis. This study will be of interest to scholars in political science and international relations and political science, crisis theory, and game theory.

Effective decision making requires a clear methodology, particularly in complex, globally relevant situations. Institutions and companies in all disciplines and sectors are faced with increasingly multi-faceted areas of uncertainty which cannot always be effectively handled by traditional strategies. Complex Strategic Choices provides clear principles and methods which can guide and support strategic decision to face modern challenges. By considering ways in which planning practices can be renewed and exploring the possibilities for acquiring awareness and tools to add value to strategic decision making, Complex Strategic Choices presents a methodology which is further illustrated by a number of case studies and example applications. Dr. Techn. Steen Leleur has adapted previously established research based on feedback and input from various conferences, journals and students resulting in new material stemming from and focusing on practical application of systemic planning. The outcome is a coherent and flexible approach named systemic planning. The inclusion of both the theoretical and practical aspects of systemic planning makes this book a key resource for researchers and students in the field of planning and decision analysis as well as practitioners dealing with strategic analysis and decision making. More broadly, Complex Strategic Choices acts as guide for professionals and students involved in complex planning tasks across several fields such as business and engineering.

Winning takes many forms. For fans of Matthew Syed, this is a great sports book about leadership, judgement and decision-making - rooted in the theory that helped Ed Smith lead England cricket to sustained success. And to help us all win more. 'An absolutely fascinating book' THE GAME, The Times football pod How do you spot the opportunities that others miss? How do you turn a team's performance around? How do you make good decisions amid a tidal wave of information? And how can you improve? As chief selector for the England cricket team, Ed Smith pioneered new methods for building successful teams and watched his decisions tested in real time on the pitch. During his three-year tenure, England averaged 7 wins in every 10 completed matches, better than they have performed before or since. Making Decisions reveals Smith's unique approach to finding success in a fast-changing and increasingly data-reliant world. The best decisions, Smith argues, rely on a combination of differing kinds of intelligence: from algorithms to intuition. This is a truth that the most successful people know: data cannot account for everything, it must be harnessed with human insight. Whatever the power of data, humans aren't finished yet. Sharing for the first time the tools he introduced as England selector, Smith's book captures the immediacy of life at the sharp end, while also exploring frameworks from the top levels of sports, business and the arts. Decision-making is revealed as a creative enterprise, not a reductive system. Making Decisions offers an invaluable guide for those who want a better framework for developing, explaining and implementing new ideas.

Richard Pettigrew offers an extended investigation into a particular way of justifying the rational principles that govern our credences (or degrees of belief). The main principles that he justifies are the central tenets of Bayesian epistemology, though many other related principles are discussed along the way. These are: Probabilism, the claims that credences should obey the laws of probability; the Principal Principle, which says how credences in hypotheses about the objective chances should relate to credences in other propositions; the Principle of Indifference, which says that, in the absence of evidence, we should distribute our credences equally over all possibilities we entertain; and Conditionalization, the Bayesian account of how we should plan to respond when we receive new evidence. Ultimately, then, this book is a study in the foundations of Bayesianism. To justify these principles, Pettigrew looks to decision theory. He treats an agent's credences as if they were a choice she makes between different options, gives an account of the purely epistemic utility enjoyed by different sets of credences, and then appeals to the principles of decision theory to show that, when epistemic utility is measured in this way, the credences that violate the principles listed above are ruled out as irrational. The account of epistemic utility set out here is the veritist's: the sole fundamental source of epistemic utility for credences is their accuracy. Thus, Pettigrew conducts an investigation in the version of epistemic utility theory known as accuracy-first epistemology. The book can also be read as an extended reply on behalf of the veritist to the evidentialist's objection that veritism cannot account for certain evidential principles of credal rationality, such as the Principal Principle, the Principle of Indifference, and Conditionalization.

This book presents a contemporary view of the role of information quality in information fusion and decision making, and provides a formal foundation and the implementation strategies required for dealing with insufficient information quality in building fusion systems for decision making. Information fusion is the process of gathering, processing, and combining large amounts of information from multiple and diverse sources, including physical sensors to human intelligence reports and social media. That data and information may be unreliable, of low fidelity, insufficient resolution, contradictory, fake and/or redundant. Sources may provide unverified reports obtained from other sources resulting in correlations and biases. The success of the fusion processing depends on how well knowledge produced by the processing chain represents reality, which in turn depends on how adequate data are, how good and adequate are the models used, and how accurate, appropriate or applicable prior and contextual knowledge is. By offering contributions by leading experts, this book provides an unparalleled understanding of the problem of information quality in information fusion and decision-making for researchers and professionals in the field.

This book is unique in identifying and presenting tools to environmental decision-makers to help them improve the quality and clarity of their work. These tools range from software to policy approaches, and from environmental databases to focus groups. This title is equally of value to environmental managers, and students in environmental risk, policy, economics and law.

The Art and Science of Making Up Your Mind presents basic decision-making principles and tools to help the reader respond efficiently and wisely to everyday dilemmas. Although most decisions are made informally (whether intuitively without deliberate thought, or based on careful reflection), over the centuries people have tried to develop systematic, scientific and structured ways in which to make decisions. Using qualitative counterparts to quantitative models, Rex Brown takes the reader through the basics, like 'what is a decision' and then considers a wide variety of real-life decisions, explaining how the best judgments can be made using logical principles. Combining multiple evaluations of the same judgment ("hybrid judgment") and exploring innovative analytical concepts (such as "ideal judgment"), this book explores and analyzes the skills needed to master the basics of non-mathematical decision making, and what should be done, using real world illustrations of decision methods. The book is an ideal companion for students of Thinking, Reasoning and Decision-Making, and also for anyone wanting to understand how to make better judgments in their everyday lives.

The concept of fuzziness, inspired by Zadeh (1965), brings us fruitful results when it is applied to problems in decision making. Recently, problems in fuzzy decision making are getting more complex, and one of the most complex fac tors is dynamics in systems. Dynamical approach to fuzzy decision making has been proposed by Bellman and Zadeh's celebrated paper "Decision-making in a fuzzy environment" (1970). The idea has developed into fuzzy mathemati cal programming and has been applied in many fields including management science, operations research, control theory, engineering, systems analysis, computer science, mathematical finance etc. Dynamic programming, advo cated in Bellmans book "Dynamic programming" (1957), is one of the most powerful tools to deal with dynamics in systems, and Bellman and Zadeh has proposed the optimality principle in fuzzy decision making by (1970) introducing fuzzy dynamic programming. Fuzzy dynamic programming and fuzzy mathematical programming has been making remakable progress after they were given life by Bellman and Zadeh's paper (1970). In this volume, various kinds of dynamics, not only time but also structure of systems, are considered. This volume contains ten reviewed papers, which deal with dynamics in theory and applications and whose topics are poten tially related to dynamics and are expected to develope dynamical study in near future. first, fuzzy dynamic programming is reviewed from a viewpoint of its origin and consider its developement in theory and applications."

Decision making is the oil that greases the wheel of social movement organizing. Done poorly, it derails organizations and coalitions; done well, it advances the movement and may model those changes movements seek to effect in society. Despite its importance, movement decision making has been little studied. Section One makes a singular contribution to the study of social movement decision making through seven focused case studies, followed by a critical commentary. The case studies on decision making cut across a wide breadth of social movement contexts, including Peace Brigades International teams, a feminist bakery collective, Earth First, the NGO Forum on Women, Friends of the Earth, the Tlapanec indigenous movement in Mexico, an on-line strategic voting campaign, and Korean labor movements. The section concludes with Jane Mansbridge's synthesis and critical commentary on the papers, wherein she continues to make her own substantive contributions to the literature on consensus decision making. The three papers in Section Two focus on Northern Ireland, where frustration with inter-community conflict resolution spawned a movement promoting intra-community or 'single tradition' programs. Two chapters provide invaluable comparative studies of the benefits and shortcomings of these counter-movements, while the third paper applies constructive conflict and nonviolent action theories to recent developments in the annual parades disputes. The volume closes with two papers on Native American issues. The first examines an initiative to teach conflict history and build conflict analysis and resolution skills among the Seneca Nation. The final case study of two Native American women's organizations demonstrates how socially constructed identities are critical to movement framing processes and collective actions. With this volume, RSMCC continues its long-standing tradition of publishing cutting edge studies in social movements, conflict resolution, and social change.

The Cold War produced a matrix of Canadian/US extra-governmental military and economic relationships which significantly shaped Canadian political decision-making as it related to the defence of the continent under the auspices of the North American Air/Aerospace Defence Agreement (NORAD). In the post-cold War era, these relationships continue to effectively support a traditional security agenda for the Canadian government. The rewritten NORAD Agreement, signed in March 1996, is the vehicle for Canadian participation in US missile defence programs worldwide. Paying particular attention to the decisions to adopt a nuclear weapons role for Canada's continental air defence forces, to test the US air-lunched cruise missile in the Canadian North, and to become increasingly involved in active missile and space-based defence programs, the author examines: * the Cold War construction of Canadian/US military and economic relationships * the effects of these relationships on political decision-making * the public discourse as a site of alternative understandings of Canada's role in the Cold War. Ann Denholm Crosby provides a challenging analysis of Canadian defence decision-making in both its Cold war and post-Cold War contexts.