Image theory

"To begin, image theory assumes that decision makers use three different schematic knowledge structures to organize their thinking about decisions. These structures are called images, in deference to Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960), whose work inspired image theory. The first of the three is the value image, the constituents of which are the decision maker's principles. These are the imperatives for his or her behavior or the behavior of the organization of which he or she is a member and serve as rigid criteria for the rightness or wrongness of any particular decision about a goal or plan. Principles serve to internally generate candidate goals and plans for possible adoption, and they guide decisions about externally generated candidate goals and plans."

"Briefly stated, image theory assumes that people "adopt and implement plans to reach goals in order to satisfy principles" (Mitchell & Beach, 1990, p. 16)"

"Images are defined to be information structures, with different kind of images representing different kind of information about what the actor is doing, why and how, and what kind of progress is being made."

"Image theory is an attempt to describe decision making as it actually occurs... The theory recognises that decisions occur in steps such as screening out unacceptable options followed by choosing the best option from the survivors... The interesting point being that screening focuses on what is wrong with options and choosing focuses on what is right, which are two quite different activities. Once adoption choices have been made, decision makers routinely revisit the progress of the implementations of their decisions to test if they remain compatible with the achievement of their goal. Image theory has been adapted to describe both individual decision making and organisational decision making."

"Within image theory (e.g., Beach, 1990; Mitchell & Beach, 1990), it is suggested that important components of decision-making processes are the different “images” that a person may use to evaluate choice options. Images may represent a person's principles, goals, or plans. Decision options may then match or not match these images and be adopted, rejected, considered further, depending on circumstances."