[Fwd: RE: [Jdm-society] "behavioral decision theory"]

[Ken Kuskey]

I see that Keeney & Raiffa, "Decisions with Multiple Objectives,"
mention the following paper as an even earlier source of information
from Edwards on descriptive aspects of decision making:

Ward Edwards (1954). The theory of decision making, Psychological
Bulleting, 51, 380-417.

What experimental-psychology topic did Ward write his dissertation on at
Harvard in 1952? Was it something about decision-making behavior?

\\Ken Kuskey

Michael O'Connor wrote:
> 
> I'm quite sure Don Klienmuntz is correct. The term became well known as
> a result of Ward Edwards and his 1961 review article. I studied under
> both Coombs in Math Psych and Edwards in Engineering Psych at Michigan.
> Not sure where the birth of the term occurred, but I'm fairly sure it
> was not in business schools. Raiffa and his folks did Decision Analysis
> as a normative theory for business decision makers. Edwards and a large
> set of psychologists including Clyde Coombs in the Math Psych program at
> Michigan studied these normative expectation-based theories of decision
> analysis and statistical decision theory as potential descriptive
> theories of how people actually do behave. Coomb's focused on axiomatic
> theories of decision making behavior that were tested in experiments.
> Edwards and his folks concentrated more on decision aids in engineering
> psychology. Edwards also ran the Society of Bayesian Psychologists, part
> of the work of which was to examine Bayes's Theory as a descriptive
> behavioral theory. Cam Peterson and Lee Beach also began some of the
> work on "man as an intuitive statistician" which later intersected with
> the information processing viewpoint of Herb Simon and Amos Tversky and
> others. To my knowledge, business schools had little to do with all this
> descriptive work, save when one of those folks participated in Coomb's
> Math Psych Society or Edwards's Bayesian Psychologists Society. But I
> could be omitting some folks here. My view is admittedly a local one
> having been young and at Michigan at the time.
> 
> Ken Kuskey wrote:
> >
> > FYI, and maybe your response.  \\Ken
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> >      Subject: RE: [Jdm-society] "behavioral decision theory"
> >         Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 11:52:07 -0500
> >         From: kleinmuntz don n <dnk at uiuc.edu>
> >     Reply-To: <dnk at uiuc.edu>
> > Organization: Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> >           To: <jdm-society at mail.sjdm.org>
> >
> >  Julie:To get a definitive answer, I think we will need to hear from
> > someone affiliated with the Michigan math psych program in the 1960s. My
> > understanding is that the term originally was a reference to the field's
> > original ties to "statistical decision theory," with an emphasis on the
> > development of psychological tests of the descriptive accuracy of
> > normative approaches to decision making. I believe that the term
> > "behavioral decision theory" can be attributed to Ward Edwards.  The
> > earliest citation I can find in the PsycINFO database is: Edwards, W.
> > (1961). Behavioral decision theory, Annual Review of Psychology, vol.
> > 12, pp 473-498.Best,Don
> >
> > Don Kleinmuntz
> > Professor of Business Administration
> > U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> > (217) 333-0694
> > (217) 359-8688 (fax)
> > www.uiuc.edu/~dnk
> >
> >      -----Original Message-----
> >      From: jdm-society-admin at mail.sjdm.org
> >      [mailto:jdm-society-admin at mail.sjdm.org] On Behalf Of
> >      Julie.Irwin at bus.utexas.edu
> >      Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 5:29 PM
> >      To: jdm-society at mail.sjdm.org
> >      Cc: taboot at mail.utexas.edu
> >      Subject: [Jdm-society] "behavioral decision theory"
> >
> >      Hi, everyone--
> >
> >      A grad student of mine is writing a paper for his philosophy
> >      of science class on "behavioral decision theory" and its
> >      classification as a theory.  Does anyone have historic
> >      perspective on this puzzling term?  Who first started using
> >      it?  My instinct is that the term originated in business
> >      schools because I never heard it until I started teaching in
> >      one,  but this may be just my own experience.  People do talk
> >      about "BDT" in marketing, and hardly ever say "JDM."  Perhaps
> >      it is meant as a counterpart to economic theory (which
> >      actually is a theory).
> >
> >      Note that our primary interest is in where the term came from,
> >      not in its usefulness (although if anyone actually thinks we
> >      have one behavioral decision theory, that would be interesting
> >      to know).
> >
> >      cheers,
> >      Julie
> >
> >      ----------------------------------------------
> >      Julie Irwin
> >      Marketing Department
> >      C.B.A. 7.230
> >      University of Texas at Austin
> >      Austin, TX  78712
> >      Phone: 512-471-5419
> >      Fax: 512-471-1034
> >      http://www.bus.utexas.edu/faculty/mkt/irwin/home.html

-- 
\\Ken Kuskey
703 883-3683 (office)
kkuskey at mitre.org