Posted: March 10th, 2016

A paradox of choice–do people maximise or satisfy and why? (title)

Data analysis (choose about 2 or more from below to analyse in deep details):
1. Examine the internal consistency of the maximizing and regret scales.
• Cronbach’s alpha to measure internal consistency of a measure.
• Use SPSS to identity items that do not fit well with other items from the same scale.

2. Examine whether maximising scores are related to regret scores or operation span.
(examining divergent validity, and possible sources of variation in maximizing)
• People satisfy as they find it difficult to maximize due to cognitive capacity. So operation span can be related to scores on the maximizing scale.
• Tendency to experience regret might also lead people to put a lot of effort into choosing. Therefore, could examine whether maximizing scores are related to regret scores or operation span.
• If maximizing was very strongly related to regret could imply that they are not distinct constructs. Hence, we might be concerned.
• So if regret and maximizing scores are strongly correlated, we could explore whether it would be better to have a single scale that had items from both scales than to have two separate scales.

3. Test whether maximizing scores predict the amount of information collected in the data sampling tasks. (examining predictive validity)
• Analyse the relationship between maximizing scores and the amount of information collected in the two decision-from-samples tasks (using correlation or regression).
[As we know ‘maximizers’ need to examine all the details of their options in case there is a better option than their current favourite, while ‘satisficers’ can stop looking at information as soon as they find an option that satisfies their requirements.]
• There were considerable individual differences in the amount of information collected in these tasks, so you may have to be alert to the influence of outliers in these analyses.
• Examine the consistency of information collec