These two weeks, we have been talking about emotions, those pesky processes in our brains that do most of our thinking for us. First, you’ll read a nice thorough overview of the research of emotions in decision making studies. Lerner, Li, Valdasolo, and Kassam (2015) assess a series themes that emerge from decades of JDM (judgment and decision making) research. It looks long, but really it’s only 18 pages and the massive reference section.

This week’s discussion is pretty simple, but requires a careful reading of the article. I want you to do four things:

Identify the theme (1-8) that may help explain the decision you made and discussed in your first paper (the Decision Journal). If you feel that the decisions you discussed in the first paper don’t apply, you can come up with another example.
Explain the gist of the theme in your own words
Identify any subtopics in the theme that are most relevant
Explain how the theme (or its subtopic) relates to the decision situation you went through
E.g.:  Let’s say I walked away from a potential argument with my partner

Theme 8
I explain theme 8 in my own words
I decide suppression and reappraisal were relevant and briefly explain them
I discuss how the reactions I had suggested that I was suppressing, and how some reappraisal occurred.