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415.640.92
Health Judgment and Decision Making

Location:
NIH - Bethesda, MD
Term:
3rd term
Department:
Health Behavior and Society
Credits:
2 credits
Academic Year:
2022 - 2023
Instruction Method:
In-person
Class Times:
  • Friday,  9:00 - 10:50am
Auditors Allowed:
No
Undergrads Allowed:
No
Grading Restriction:
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructors:
Contact:
William Klein
Resources:
Description:

Provides a foundation in cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes underlying judgment and decision making in a variety of health contexts. Focuses on antecedents and consequences of adaptive and maladaptive health judgments and decisions, with particular attention to risk perception and communication, application of decisional heuristics, and personal beliefs underlying health decisions. Considers how people make decisions, how they respond to health information, and how they mentally represent illness, as well as how health teams make decisions. Prepares students to apply basic research on health judgment and decision-making to effective genetic counseling and other applied settings.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

  1. Identify key assumptions of normative and descriptive decision-making
  2. Explain how human emotions and motives influence health judgments and decisions
  3. Develop risk communication modalities that build on extant research on risk perception and risk communication
  4. Apply the principles taught in the course to a specific research or clinical domain
Methods of Assessment:

This course is evaluated as follows:

  • 50% Participation
  • 50% Final Paper

Enrollment Restriction:

No undergraduates

Instructor Consent:

Consent required for some students

Consent Note:

Required for students other than ScM in Genetic Counseling students

For consent, contact:

kleinwm@mail.nih.gov