The purpose of this study was to investigate how mental health professionals perceive information in a budget reduction task and the influence of their perceptions on subsequent decision behavior. It was hypothesized that place of employment, level of employment, and the value placed upon information about a problem situation might all have an effect on choice behavior. Subjects (n = 95) were selected from Florida community mental health centers and State mental health hospitals. These mental health professionals were further classified into administrative, supervisory and direct service level positions. An instrument to measure the dependent variable, decision-behavior, was developed and pilot tested before being administered to the subjects. The instrument was a budget-reduction simulation task which presented a set of structured information that was conceptualized as falling into two information domains: rational-quantitative information and social-political information. Principal component analysis supported the existence of these information domains but indicated rational-quantitative information actually represented three underlying patterns of relationships: budget information, decision action plan information and agency descriptive/evaluative information. Place and level of employment were not found to account for a significant amount of the variance in decision-making behavior. The value placed upon the information presented in the budget reduction simulation did account for a significant amount of the variance in decision-making behavior (F(4, 90) = 2.67, p (LESSTHEQ) .04). It was also found that for community mental health staff, the higher the value placed on the budget information the greater the cut in the hospital budget; whereas, for hospital staff the higher the value placed on the budget information the lesser cut from the hospital budget. / This finding appears to indicate that as information becomes more neutral, it is easier for an individual to selectively attend or perceive information in a way consistent with his or her needs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-09, Section: A, page: 2891. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74921 |
| Contributors | COTTER, LEO PATRICK., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 120 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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