Psychological Distance and Judgment in Decision Making

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Module 3 – Psychological distance and judgment and decision making
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PSYCHOLOGY
Task 1
Psychological distance refers to the cognitive parting between oneself and other
occurrences such as, events, persons, and/or times. In other words, psychological distances
encompasses the extent to which a person removes themselves from all forms of connexion
with others (Liberman & Trope, 2014). This concept was illustrated by the Construal Level
Theory (CLT) on social psychology that aimed at describing the association between the
extent of one’s thinking (regarding events and objects) and psychological distance
(Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018). Hence, it can be suggested that greater the distance of an
object from a person, the more abstract the thinking pattern becomes, in contrast to concrete
thinking that originates when the object is closer. The CLT helps people perceive certain
instances that differ based on varied kinds of psychological distance namely, (i) temporal
distance (time), (ii) social distance (interpersonal distance), (iii) spatial distance (space), and
(iv) hypothetical distance (likely or unlikely imagination of an event). There is mounting
evidence for the insightful effects that decision making by professionals, work environment
and succeeding implications for the usefulness and efficiency of the audit (Wilson, Crisp &
Mortensen, 2013).
Decision making is considered as one of the most crucial aspects of businesses.
However, the procedure of arriving at major judgments and decision should be precise, and
should take into account the fact that high level construal will occur under circumstances
when people think in an abstract manner (Pettigrew, 2014). It is a well-known concept that
individuals often judge different aspects of lives namely, people, society and events. In the
words of Maglio, Trope and Liberman (2013) occurrence of an event close in time will
increase the likelihood of thinking in relation to concrete low-level construal. The scenario
involves designing an intervention program where decision making process and judgment in

2PSYCHOLOGY
the company needs to be improved in the organisation. Hence, the intervention would focus
on keeping comfort, in order to maintain psychological distance.
The intervention in the aforementioned case scenario would encompass analysing the
facilitators, participants, and great powers in the organisation. An analysis of the
aforementioned factors suggests that the organisation agents are namely, Personnel Manager
and the Board of Directors. On the other hand, while managers and sales force would be the
participants, the consultants would be facilitator (Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018). The
intervention that would be made at the request of the Great Power would encompass making
the process transparent, clarifying its implication, and recognising the power structure,
existing in the organisation (Berson et al., 2015). In the increasingly competitive and
connected business environment, there is a need for the employees to have the capability of
quickly accessing all pertinent information, regardless of its location. Hence, the primary aim
of the intervention would be to make information more accessible, avoid unnecessary risk
taking among the employees, and enable collaboration and sharing between them. Decision
making improvement by increasing transparency of the organisation would involve the
following:
 Forming an alignment of the senior leadership
 Closing perception gap between middle managers and leaders
 Gaining a sound understanding of the financial effect of decisions (Belal, Cooper &
Roberts, 2013)
 Addressing communicating vital problems to frontline employees
Using the theory to for implementing communication efforts will indorse action and
consciousness among the employees and will habitually border the issue of decision making
and judgment. By and large, the strategies will aim to understand the emotional barriers that