Psychology Unit 5
Which of the following is a possible outcome when individuals' implicit and explicit attitudes do not match?
They are unaware they hold an actual bias, such as a bias towards an ethnic minority.
When Milgram conducted his research on obeying authorities, what did he find?
With each increment of shock voltage, fewer participants obeyed, but about 65% still administered 450 volts (the highest level).
Factor analysis allowed personality theorists to:
analyze the correlations among traits and identify the most important ones
The area of social psychological that focuses on how people think about others and about the social world is called social __________.
cognition
Asch's study on conformity, where participants had to make line-judgments, can be best explained by what concept?
normative influence
Upon entering an electronics store specializing in high-end TVs, a salesperson greets Madelyn and offers her coffee and biscotti. The salesperson is using the ___________ technique to begin persuading Madelyn to purchase an expensive TV.
reciprocity
Which trick to persuasion can be loosely summarized by the saying, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours?"
reciprocity
The process by which we look to other people to get information about how to feel in specific situations is called social ________.
referencing
Personality traits are defined as:
relatively enduring dispositions in behavior that characterize individuals across varying types of situations
Uncritical trust in authority can lead to significant problems for several reasons. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
Authority figures quite often have hidden agendas that must be protected against.
Hans Eysenck suggested that two traits are the most important traits of the Five-Factor Model. More recently, Jeffrey Gray has suggested that these two traits are important because they are related to fundamental reward and avoidance systems in the brain. Which two traits of the Five-Factor Model are Eysenck and Gray referring to, and how do they map onto the reward and avoidance systems?
Extroverts approach rewards while Neurotic individuals avoid punishment.
Stanley Milgram's studies on obedience (1963, 1965, 1974) and more recent replications have shown that:
Female participants obediently shocked the experimental victim at a rate similar to males in the Milgram and other studies.
Which of the following is an example of the planning fallacy?
Gerard believes he can complete a term paper within a one-week time frame. He is surprised when he cannot complete the project as quickly as he anticipated.
What event in history directly inspired Milgram to conduct his obedience research?
German citizens' willingness to go along with Nazi leaders during the Holocaust
__________ influence refers to conformity that results from a desire to act in a manner that is clearly socially approved such as speaking softly in libraries.
Informational
Mood-congruent memory is occurring in which of the following scenarios?
John is currently sad and can more easily recall a time when he got in trouble for a late assignment.
In Asch's classic study of conformity, what were research participants asked to do?
Judge the sizes of lines that were on a card held a few feet away from them.
Based on your understanding of the research of Solomon Asch, you know that of all of the following choices, the person most likely to demonstrate conformity would be:
Mika, a 23-year old Japanese woman
Which researcher produced the famous studies of obedience that involved deceiving participants into believing that they were delivering electric shocks to a helpless victim?
Milgram
___________is the desire to make significant accomplishments by mastering skills or meeting high standards.
Need for achievement
Under which of the following circumstances would you expect a person to demonstrate the highest level of conformity in Solomon Asch's research protocol?
Orlando has to give his choice out loud.
Which of the following statements is true of Asch's research on conformity in groups?
Participants conformed with the group norm on about a one-third of the total trials.
People are usually motivated in some way when making social judgments and decisions. What often occurs as a result of having directional goals?
People may be skeptical about evidence that goes against their directional goal.
What is a potential positive outcome of the planning fallacy?
People might attempt projects that otherwise might have been avoided had the amount of effort or time needed been understood.
Which of the following is the most accurate statement about affective forecasting?
People tend to be accurate with predicting whether event will result in positive or negative feelings but inaccurate regarding the strength or duration of these emotions.
Walter Mischel (1968, 2009) pointed out this apparent fact about the predictability of individuals' behavior through personality tests:
People's behavior varies greatly situation by situation, but tests can reveal their average behavior across many situations.
__________ is the process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.
Persuasion
Physically attractive people experience many benefits in life. Particularly, more physically attractive people have an easier time persuading others. Which characteristic is an example of why this occurs?
Physically attractive people are perceived as having higher moral character.
A large hotel chain--Warwick's--has realized that if their guests will reuse their towels and bedding for at least two days, then the hotel can save substantially on utlity expenses. How can they best encourage guests to do this?
Put a note on the bed indicating that most of their guests reuse linens, and asking this guest to do the same.
Walking down the street, Areanna is approached by a police officer. The police officer encourages Areanna to be a Good Samaritan and put money in a parking meter that's about to expire on a stranger's car. What factors might lead Areanna to obey this police officer's order and help pay for the parking meter?
She views the police officer as an authority figure.
Which researcher is well-known for having conducted a study of conformity that involved having participants express a judgment of the sizes of lines?
Solomon Asch
What are characteristics of the dimension added by the HEXACO model to the Five-Factor Model?
The honesty-humility dimension was added to describe people who are sincere, fair, and modest, not manipulative, narcissistic, or self-centered.
Ethical concerns have been raised about Stanley Milgram's obedience research. Specifically, some have suggested that the project caused too much distress in the participants, distress that could not be justified. If you were asked your opinion of this issue, which of the following would be a legitimate response?
The majority of participants reported that they were pleased to have participated in the research, so it does not seem to have been damaging to most of those who were involved.
In Stanley Milgram's research examining obedience, the participant was able to discontinue the experiment only after what took place?
The participant stated that he/she did not want to continue participating 4 consecutive times.
Which of the following is an example of manipulating the trustworthiness of a speaker?
The speaker presents his/her message as educational or objective information.
Why do some salespeople try to start a new interaction by asking for something small from a potential customer (e.g., "Just answer one quick question")?
They know getting small acts of cooperation may lead to larger actions in the same direction.
What was one correct outcome of Asch's classic research on conformity in groups?
Three-quarters of the participants conformed to the incorrect group norm at least one time.
Walter Mischel was an important figure in the "person-situation debate" amongst psychologists. What was Mischel's side of the argument?
Traits are an illusion. People may not be consistent across situations and thus it would be fruitful to study the distinct reactions in specific situations.
How is it that schemas help people save time as they have new experiences or encounter new people or objects on a daily basis?
We compare new experiences to previously stored schemas and this allows us to put forth less effort to assess those new encounters.
Kelly is at a college party and notices everyone is drinking. She concludes that the majority of students on campus must also drink alcohol frequently. What would we call Kelly's perception of what most people are doing?
a descriptive norm
What is a heuristic?
a mental shortcut that enables a person to make decisions and solve problems quickly and efficiently
The durability bias occurs when a person overestimates how long their feelings might last. This bias is a type of:
affective forecasting
Dianne has a reputation for being a difficult person. She is suspicious of others, unhelpful, and not very compassionate. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Dianne likely score low in?
agreeableness
Karl scored high in _________ according to a Big 5 personality test. This isn't surprising because he's pretty easy-going and tends to be caring, trusting and thoughtful of others, dedicated to his friends and family.
agreeableness
A(n) __________ is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a target with a degree of favor or disfavor.
attitude
Which three factors influence how trustworthy we perceive a speaker to be when they are trying to persuade us?
authority, honest, likability
The ________ heuristic is one in which the frequency or likelihood of an event is evaluated based on how easily examples come to mind.
availability
Which heuristic would you likely use if you were asked, "are there more words in the English language that start with the letter "k" or that have "k" as the third letter in the word?"
availability heuristic
The ________ route to persuasion employs direct, relevant, and logical messages to convince a listener to make a specific change.
central
While reading a magazine Juan notices an advertisement for tennis shoes. Juan is very interested in reading about the materials the shoes are made out of and logically concludes the tennis shoes would be a good purchase. Juan was likely in which persuasion route?
central
If you are be interviewed by a potential employer, it's quite likely that you'll start to act similarly to the person interviewing you in some ways. Which concept describes/explains your behavior?
chameleon effect
What's the clearest definition of conformity?
changing one's attitude or behavior to match a perceived social norm
Personality refers to ______.
characteristic ways that people differ from one another.
In a nearly 100-year-old study (Hartshorne et al., 1928) on children's behavior, the researchers found that they could change children's honesty levels by putting them in different situations. From this study, some have concluded that
children's ethical behavior depends on the situation
The need for ________ refers to the desire to come to a decision that will resolve and conclude an issue.
closure
The ________ functions of emotions refers to the roles that emotions play within each of us individually. They can include physical changes in our bodies or psychological changes in our minds.
intrapersonal
Shania notices that all of her high school friends have started wearing glitter eye shadow to school. She doesn't really like the look but she wants to fit in with the crowd, so she starts wearing it too. Shania has engaged in __________.
conformity
Claire has been given the opportunity to hang out with friends at a great party, but it's the night before a big exam. If Claire decides to stay in and study instead because the course is important for her, which personality trait would she likely be strong in?
conscientiousness
What are the three criteria that characterize personality traits?
consistency, stability, and individual differences
It's unlikely that you meet a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. Because personality traits reflect ____________, we can't generally say that you just have a particular trait or not.
continuous distributions
John is a Canadian having dinner with his friends from China. He openly shows both his enthusiasm and his anger about various topics as they speak. John notices that his friends smile and nod but that they do not display strong emotions. This is an example of ________.
cultural influence on emotion norms
The perception of what most people do in a given situation is called a(n) __________ norm.
descriptive
David is happy and optimistic. He enjoys being around other people and participating in extreme sports like skydiving and bungee jumping. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score high in?
extraversion
Cultural ________ rules are norms regarding the management and modification of emotional expressions based on cultural standards.
display
In a popular movie about the Mafia, the head of the family chastises one of his sons, Sonny, for letting other people know what he was thinking and feeling. "Never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking," the Mafia boos says to Sonny. From an emotions perspective, the father is speaking about _________.
display rules
Oscar would like to go to a movie without supervision. To try and get what he wants, he starts by asking his mom if he can go on a trip to the Rollercoaster Park with just his friends. When his mom says no, like he predicted, he goes on to ask if he can at least go to the movies by himself. Oscar's strategy in asking to go to the movies is an example of what persuasion trick?
door-in-the-face
"Oh I know that I'll just be sad forever," Monique cries, after her first boyfriend broke up with her. "I'm never going to love again. My life is RUINED!" Given that she is unlikely to be sad forever, Monique is demonstrating the __________ bias.
durability
When you drink spoiled milk or put a rancid piece of cheese in your mouth, you may spit it out before you have any cognitive awareness of why you are feeling disgusted. From an evolutionary perspective, this demonstrates which concept?
emotions help us act with minimally conscious awareness
Which of the following is an implicit attitude task: the task presents images of faces of men and women and then measures the time it takes the research participant to label the photo as good or bad?
evaluative priming task
Which of the following is not a part of the proposed "triad of trustworthiness?"
expertise
Calvin is interested in measuring his school's willingness to do volunteer work around the community. He sends out a self-report survey that asks students to directly fill out their _________ attitudes on the topic.
explicit
Clint is a very confident person who tends to take charge when he has been assigned to a group task. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Clint likely score high in?
extraversion
Researchers had an infant crawl toward their mother across a table, and then the mother was instructed to make a face expressing a specific emotion. The response of the infants demonstrated an awareness of the mothers' emotions. Which emotional expression led to the child refusing to crawl to her in all instances?
fear
For persuasion tactics to be most effective, people need to
feel that their freedom to make a choice is not threatened
The peripheral route to persuasion takes advantage "trigger features" that activate sequential behavior in animals and humans. What is this sequence of behavior called?
fixed action patterns (FAPs)
Rajiv has recently become a new member of a club at his college, so it's pretty likely that Rajiv is going to:
form the impressions he makes of these club members after only one meeting
What do we call the "shortcuts" that we naturally use to help us make our social world simpler?
heuristics
Sasha is taking her family to Disney World. She predicts that she will feel immense happiness seeing her young daughter, Emerald, meet all the princesses at the theme park. However, when her daughter Emerald meets the first princess, Sasha does not feel as happy as she thought she would. Sasha's experience is an example of what concept?
impact bias
The Implicit Association Task (IAT) used in research, which records participants' reaction times to categorizing objects, is measuring what type of attitude?
implicit attitude
Knowing Paige is extremely high in Extraversion does not help predict her scores on Neuroticism. This is because scores within the Five-Factor Model are mostly ___________, where two traits are separate from one another. Thus, in the Five-Factor Model, you need five scores to describe most of an individual's personality.
independent
Nora has decided to visit the new community recreation center for a swim. As she enters the change room she notices both of the two other people present put their shoes into a locker. Before she walks out to the pool she does the same. What concept helps explain her actions?
informational influence
Exposing participants to weak arguments before presenting them with strong persuasive messages helps participants resist persuasion. What is this effect called?
inoculation
Marlon has found that when he gets sad, his girlfriend becomes particularly nurturing and tries to take care of him. While he does not particularly want to feel these emotions, the response it draws from his girlfriend demonstrates the ________ function of emotions.
interpersonal
The effects that one's emotions have on other people refer to the _________ functions of emotions.
interpersonal
When Christa gets angry, she gets motivated to become productive so that whatever is making her angry can be overcome. She also notices that whenever she is angry she gets very warm and starts to perspire excessively. These psychological and physical changes demonstrate the ________ functions of an emotion.
intrapersonal
One challenge to the trait approach to personality is that traits may not be as stable across situations as we think they are. An explanation for this instability is that personality:
is shaped by the situations that we are exposed to
Dr. Zelbing and her graduate assistant want to compile a list of personality traits using the approach advocated by Allport and Odbert. In order to do this, they get two copies of the unabridged dictionary of the English language, use it to look for words that are related to personality traits. When they are done several weeks later, they have a list of several thousand words that they will reduce based on duplicate terminology. Dr. Zelbing advocates for a(n) __________ to the study of personality.
lexical hypothesis
Gordon Allport and his colleagues' approach to personality led to the development of the five-factor model. Their approach, called the __________________, theorized that all important personality characteristics should be reflected in the language that we use to describe other people
lexical hypothesis
The fact that you now smell milk before drinking it after accidentally drinking a cup of spoiled milk several months ago demonstrates how emotions can
motivate future behaviors.
Susan's doctor recently told her that she could be at risk for a heart attack if she didn't start taking better care of herself and eating better. She is wondering if maybe the tests could've been wrong--she tends to want to see herself in a positive light and just doesn't like to hear news like this. What would we call Susan's lack of certainty about her test results?
motivated skepticism
Clara is extremely hungry after having a 3 hour meeting. She wants food as quickly as possible but is unsure of where to eat. Because of her motivation to eat, she makes a quick decision to eat at the coffee shop a few buildings away. Her motivation to make a quick decision is an example of what concept?
need for closure
Kyle has a reputation for being very calm during an emergency. He copes very well with stress and is able to think clearly and make effective decisions. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score low in?
neuroticism
Conformity that results from a concern about what others think of us is called __________ influence.
normative
Hammond has just started working at a new job stacking items at the supermarket. He notices that most of his colleagues do stretching exercises before they begin their shift. Hammond assumes that this is a workplace regulation and also begins to do the stretching exercises. Which of the following concepts explains Hammond's behavior?
normative influence
Research on social pressure and conformity suggests which of the following factors can help individuals resist conformity in a group?
observing just one person disagreeing with the majority
Hammond likes his daily routine that involves eating the same breakfast while reading the newspaper, and taking the same route to work. Every year he vacations at his favorite beach resort. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score low in?
openness
Wayne likes to travel to learn about new cultures. Whenever he returns from a trip he brings home a piece of art from that culture to add to his collection. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score high in?
openness
One of the candidates, Mr. Wilson, during a presidential debate continually steers the conversation toward some hot-button problems people care about and sympathetically smiles as he reassures voters that if he's elected he'll take good care of them. In the meantime, he avoids answering questions that deal with issues of substance. Which persuasion route is Mr. Wilson using to get votes?
peripheral
The ________ route to persuasion relies on superficial cues that have little to do with logic. It requires a target who is not thinking carefully about what you are saying.
peripheral
Social psychologists are often interested in the phenomena of _________, in which one person influences the thoughts or actions of another.
persuasion
When people are asked to rate one of their own personality traits, they tend to:
rate themselves higher on the trait compared to others
Javari is teaching a psychology class and tells his students, "Kenna is 31, single, outspoken, and bright. She majored in philosophy in college. As a student, Kenna was deeply concerned with discrimination and other social issues." When Javari asked his class if it was more likely that Kenna was A) a bank teller or B) a bank teller AND a feminist, most people in his class chose option B. Javari explained that their answer was incorrect because their _____________ heuristic led them astray.
representativeness
The ________ heuristic is one in which the likelihood of an object belonging to a category is evaluated based on the extent to which the object appears similar to one's mental conceptualization of the category.
representativeness
Which of the following is one of the physical responses that are immediately inspired by an emotional experience?
shutting down of unneeded digestive processes
When she notices that her girlfriend, Ellana, seems particularly quiet, Bess starts gently asking her what is wrong. After a while Ellana shares that she is having some problems in their relationship and this leads to a very constructive conversation about how things can be improved. This demonstrates the way that emotions can have ________ that elicits actions from others.
signal value
Ben is playing basketball with his friends one day when he notices everyone else has name brand shoes. He is uncertain how the quality of his shoes compares to his friends but because of __________ he feels pressure to conform and ends up buying name brand shoes for himself by the following week.
social proof
Young Lilah is taken to a family dinner and she meets an uncle who she has never met before. As he reaches to her for a hug, Lilah looks to her mother with an uncertain look on her face. As she sees her mother nodding and smiling, Lilah looks back to the uncle and gives him a warm hug. Lilah has used ________ to determine how to act in this situation.
social referencing
Researchers pointed out to participants how gullible they were in being influenced by advertisements. As a result the participants were less affected by ads. What is technique effect called?
stinging
Elsa purchased concert tickets about two months ago. Today is the concert but it's raining out, meaning Elsa would have to purchase an umbrella and rain boots if she still wants to go. Why is Elsa still likely to be persuaded to attend the concert?
sunk costs
Which of the following factors does NOT influence conformity?
the age of the group
When small children get frustrated at school they sometimes cry. A teacher might say, "calm down" or "use your words to tell how you feel." This process of learning appropriate emotional behavior would be an example of _______.
the social or cultural function of emotion
As you consider how emotions function at the level of culture, which of the following flows naturally and immediately from the fact that societies are complex?
there is a need for social order
The HEXACO model proposes:
there is a sixth dimension to the Five-Factor model
Our emotions are influenced, in part, by our cultures. Culture provides information about which emotions it is ideal to have. How do people learn these cultural messages?
they are taught to us by our caregivers and through books, movies, advertisements and other cultural products.
Emotions serve a cultural function. One such function is
to guide how people ought to feel in various situations
Specific, sometimes minute, aspects of a situation that activate fixed action patterns are called __________ features.
trigger
In perhaps the most famous study ever conducted in social psychology, approximately ______ of men studied were willing to administer a lethal shock of electricity to a helpless victim when they were ordered to do so by a person who appeared to be in a position of authority.
two-thirds
Yolanda is hosting a jewelry party during which her friends will come to her home and (hopefully) buy jewelry that she recommends. In this situation, there are many different ways in which perceptions of trustworthiness are being manipulated. Which of the following best describes why Yolanda might be successful in selling jewelry?
word of mouth