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Judgement (or judgment)[1] (in legal context, known as adjudication) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision.[2] Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses.
Aristotle suggested one should think of the opposite of different uses of a term, if one exists, to help determine if the uses are in fact different.[citation needed] Some opposites help demonstrate that their uses are actually distinct:
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- Cognitive psychology
- In cognitive psychology (and related fields like experimental philosophy, social psychology, behavioral economics, or experimental economics), judgement is part of a set of cognitive processes by which individuals reason, make decisions, and form beliefs and opinions (collectively, judgement and decision making, abbreviated JDM). This involves evaluating information, weighing evidence, making choices, and coming to conclusions.[3][4] Judgements are often influenced by cognitive biases, heuristics, prior experience, social context, abilities (e.g., numeracy, probabalistic thinking), and psychological traits (e.g., tendency toward analytical reasoning).[5][6] In research, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making is an international academic society dedicated to the topic; they publish the peer-reviewed journal Judgment and Decision Making.
- Informal
- Opinions expressed as facts.
- Informal in psychology
- Used in reference to the quality of cognitive faculties and adjudicational capabilities of particular individuals, typically called wisdom or discernment. Opposite terms include foolishness or indiscretion.
- Formal
- The mental act of affirming or denying one statement or another through comparison. Judgements are communicated to others using agreed-upon terms in the form of words or algebraic symbols[further explanation needed] as meanings to form propositions relating the terms, and whose further asserted meanings "of relation" are interpreted by those trying to understand the judgement.
- Legal
- Used in the context of a legal trial, to refer to a final finding, statement, or ruling, based on a considered weighing of evidence, called "adjudication". Opposites could be suspension or deferment of adjudication. See Judgment (law) for further explanation.
Additionally, judgement can mean personality judgment; a psychological phenomenon in which a person forms specific opinions of other people.[relevant?]
- ^ "judgement". The Website of Prof. Paul Brians. 19 May 2016.
- ^
- "judgment". Cambridge Dictionary. 2013-08-07. Archived from the original on 2009-09-17. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
- "judgement". AskOxford.com: Compact Oxford English Dictionary. 2013-08-13. Archived from the original on November 20, 2005. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
- "judgment". Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.
- ^ Keren, Gideon; Wu, George, eds. (2015). The Wiley Blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-46839-5.
- ^ Sternberg, Robert J.; Sternberg, Karin (2017). Cognitive psychology (Seventh ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-305-64465-6.
- ^ Keren, Gideon; Wu, George, eds. (2015). The Wiley Blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-46839-5.
- ^ Manktelow, Kenneth Ian (2012). Thinking and reasoning: an introduction to the psychology of reason, judgment and decision making (1. publ ed.). London: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-84169-741-3.