Psychology Decision Making

The Psychology of Decision-Making

How people think, choose, and sometimes get it wrong

The Psychology of Decision-Making logo
Quick Course Facts
18
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
18
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
5.6
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the The Psychology of Decision-Making Course

This course explores the Psychology of Decision-Making and explains how people think, choose, and sometimes get it wrong in everyday life and at work. You will learn practical ways to recognize hidden influences, reduce mistakes, and make clearer choices with more confidence.

Master Psychology to Improve Every Decision You Make

  • Understand the foundations of choice and what decision-making really is
  • See how heuristics, cognitive biases, and mental shortcuts shape judgments
  • Learn how emotion, stress, time pressure, and social influence affect choices
  • Apply practical tools for better decisions in personal life, leadership, and work

A practical course in Psychology that helps you make smarter, more deliberate decisions.

Throughout this course, you will examine how theory meets reality in The Psychology of Decision-Making, moving from rational models to the real-world limits of attention, memory, and information overload. Each lesson builds a deeper understanding of why decision quality changes depending on context, pressure, framing, and the way information is presented.

You will also explore how people think, choose, and sometimes get it wrong through the lens of cognitive biases, risk, uncertainty, emotion, motivation, identity, and group dynamics. By studying authority, persuasion, overconfidence, hindsight, confirmation bias, and automatic habits, you will gain a clearer view of the forces that steer everyday behavior and professional judgment.

In the final lessons, you will focus on practical methods, checklists, and systems that improve decision-making over time. You will leave with stronger self-awareness, better judgment, and a repeatable framework for making thoughtful decisions in your personal life, workplace, and leadership role.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations of choice

1 lesson

This lesson defines decision-making as a process of selecting one option from multiple possible actions, often under uncertainty, limited time, and incomplete information. Students will learn the diff…

How theory meets reality

1 lesson

Lesson 2: Rational Models and Their Limits

18 min
Rational decision models assume people compare options, weigh evidence, and choose the alternative that best fits their goals. This lesson explains what those models are good for, why they are so infl…

Cognitive limits in action

1 lesson

Lesson 3: Attention, Memory, and Information Overload

18 min
This lesson explains how attention , working memory , and information overload shape the decisions people make every day. When attention is fragmented, important cues are missed. When working memory i…

Fast thinking strategies

1 lesson

Lesson 4: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts That Shape Choices

18 min
Heuristics are mental shortcuts people use to make decisions quickly with limited time, information, or attention. They are not inherently bad; in many everyday situations, they are efficient and usef…

Systematic errors in judgment

1 lesson

Lesson 5: Common Cognitive Biases

20 min
Common cognitive biases are predictable ways our thinking can go off track when we judge evidence, estimate risk, remember the past, or choose between options. In this lesson, students learn the most …

How presentation changes decisions

1 lesson

Lesson 6: Framing Effects and Choice Architecture

18 min
Framing effects show that people often make different choices depending on how the same information is presented. A medical treatment described as having a 90% survival rate can feel more attractive t…

Thinking clearly about odds

1 lesson

Lesson 7: Risk, Uncertainty, and Probability

20 min
People often talk about risk as if it were the same thing as uncertainty, but they are not identical. In this lesson, we look at how people judge odds, why probabilities feel harder than they are, and…

Feeling before choosing

1 lesson

Lesson 8: Emotion in Decision-Making

18 min
Emotion is not a flaw in decision-making; it is one of the main systems that shapes how people judge value, risk, urgency, and regret. In this lesson, learners explore how feelings can speed up choice…

Choices under strain

1 lesson

Lesson 9: Stress, Time Pressure, and Decision Quality

18 min
Stress and time pressure change how people evaluate options, notice risks, and use mental shortcuts. In this lesson, we focus on how decision quality drops under strain , why people become more impuls…

Why preferences are not neutral

1 lesson

Lesson 10: Motivation, Values, and Identity

18 min
Preferences may feel personal and neutral, but they are often shaped by motivation , values , and identity . In this lesson, learners see how goals, moral priorities, and self-image influence what fee…

Decisions in groups and cultures

1 lesson

Lesson 11: Social Influence and Conformity

18 min
People rarely make decisions in isolation. Social influence shapes what we notice, what feels acceptable, and what we choose, often without our awareness. In this lesson, we examine conformity , norms…

When outside forces steer choice

1 lesson

Lesson 12: Authority, Persuasion, and Manipulation

19 min
This lesson examines how authority, persuasion, and manipulation shape decisions before we realize it. You will learn why people defer to experts and leaders, how persuasion works through social and c…

Why people trust bad judgments

1 lesson

Lesson 13: Overconfidence, Hindsight, and Confirmation Bias

20 min
This lesson explains three common decision-making biases that make people trust bad judgments: overconfidence , hindsight bias , and confirmation bias . Students learn how each bias shows up in everyd…

The power of routine

1 lesson

Lesson 14: Habits, Defaults, and Automatic Behavior

18 min
This lesson explains how habits, defaults, and automatic behavior shape everyday decisions. Instead of carefully weighing every choice, people often rely on routines, learned shortcuts, and whatever o…

Personal choices and self-management

1 lesson

Lesson 15: Decision-Making in Everyday Life

18 min
This lesson explores how decision-making shows up in everyday life: what we choose, what we postpone, and what we do on autopilot. You will see how small decisions are shaped by habits, limited attent…

Managing responsibility and tradeoffs

1 lesson

Lesson 16: Decision-Making at Work and in Leadership

20 min
Workplace decisions rarely happen in a vacuum. They are made under time pressure, with incomplete information, competing goals, and visible consequences for other people. This lesson shows how leaders…

Practical methods and checklists

1 lesson

Lesson 17: Tools for Better Decisions

20 min
This lesson focuses on practical tools that improve decision quality in everyday life, work, and high-stakes situations. Students will learn simple checklists and decision frameworks that reduce impul…

From insight to lasting improvement

1 lesson

Lesson 18: Building a Better Decision-Making System

19 min
This lesson shows how to turn decision-making insight into a repeatable system you can actually use. Instead of relying on willpower or hoping to think better in the moment, you will learn how to buil…
About Your Instructor
Professor Bo Bennett

Professor Bo Bennett

Professor Bo Bennett guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.