Decisionmaking III: Cognitive Decisionmaking

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Decisionmaking IIICognitive Decisionmaking

• Soc 641

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Cognitive/Constitutive/Definitional Decisionmaking

• Basics
• Unrecognized decisions
• Taken for granted
• Action is structured by categories and
  definitions
• Terminological note

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Behavioral Consistency

• Cognitive models are socially constructed
• Reification treating a social construct as
  though it were a natural object, beyond human
  control.
• Dramaturgical metaphor All the world is a stage

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Implications for Sociology of Law

• Law sets the scene and casts the parts
• Three constitutive aspects of law
• Sensemaking discourses
• Labeling rituals
• Taken-for-granted ground-rules
• Evidence

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Summary of Decisionmaking

• Instrumental decisionmaking Material
  self-interest legal deterrence
• Normative decisionmaking Moral values legal
  socialization and internalization
• Cognitive decisionmaking Taken-for-granted
  scripts legal definition and constitution