[Jdm-society] NY times article aboutpsychologists talking to economists

[Jerome Busemeyer]

Hi Nanyun

Thanks for a very interesting and well written review of the concept of 
utiltiy from a historical economic perspecitve.  

According to my understanding, as a psychologist, we borrowed the 
utility concept from economics. In 1954 Ward Edwards gave birth to the 
field that we call behavioral decision making or psychology of decision 
making in the article

Edwards, W. (1954) The theory of decision making. Pyschological 
Bulletin, 41, 380-417.

In that paper you will see that the field started out by adopting the 
von Neumann and Morgenstern theory as a first hypothesis for describing 
human preferences. Edwards was one of the first to find empirical 
problems in psychologicl research with this theory.  Later theorists 
such as Kahneman and Tversky were also working (or at least moving away) 
from this basis, modifying it as needed in reaction to empirical 
findings from the psychological laboratory.

Other Psychologists  in the fields of motivational psychology or social 
psychology were using similar concepts called motives or values or 
valence (e.g. Kurt Lewin, Tolman, Fishbein and Ajzen) but this work had 
little impact on judgment and decision researchers in psychology with 
the exceptions of Clyde Coombs and Lola Lopes.

Now with the new interest in emotion were are beginning to see linkages 
between the social psychological concepts and decision making concepts.

For an excellent review of the concept from an integrative perspective 
see the relativel new book by Duncan Luce

Luce . R. D. (2000) Utility of gains and losses. Erlbaum Press.

-- 
Jerome R. Busemeyer, Full Professor
Psychology, Indiana University, 
1101 E. 10th St.
Bloomington Indiana 47405-7007
http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbusemey/home.html
jbusemey at indiana.edu 
Voice: 812-855-4882 
Fax: 812-855-4691

Life is complex, 
it has both real and imaginary parts.
(Anonymous)