SOC 227 Exam 1
facial feedback hypothesis
the idea that facial expressions can influence emotions as well as reflect them
microexpression
A brief and involuntary facial expression that shows a reaction to emotions a person is experiencing.
Which of the following best explains the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
A theory makes predictions about observable events, whereas a hypothesis tests predictions made.
If you would like for your student government to pass a bill putting more lights along major walkways, how could you use ease of retrieval to persuade them?
Ask them to think of 2 instances in which the lack of lighting made them or someone they know feel fearful while walking on campus after dark.
Which process of social cognition refers to the information we notice?
Attention
Bernard watched a brief video of Samantha being interviewed for a job. He reports his impression of Samantha and indicates he is not at all confident in his ratings of her. According to research, how accurate is Bernard's impression?
Bernard is probably not very accurate as he is not very confident about his impression of her.
Which of the following contrasts controlled processing and automatic processing?
Controlled processing is systematic and effortful, whereas automatic processing is fast and relatively effortless.
Jim is 28, single, and a freelance writer who works from his apartment. Throughout high school, college, and graduate school, Jim felt happy and engaged with life, but he has recently felt more and more unhappy and detached. According to social psychology research, what short-term solution should Jim take to improve his happiness?
He should join one or more groups.
example of controlled processing?
Learning to ride a bike
Molly and Emily are members of a girls' basketball team who are responsible for helping to organize fundraising efforts for their team. Molly is extremely motivated to complete this task; in contrast, Emily only shows a mild interest in completing the required task. Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the likelihood that Molly and Emily will complete their tasks?
Molly's motivation will likely cause her to predict that she will finish her task quickly; however, this will have no effect on whether she actually completes her task quicker than Emily.
Which of the following individuals is exhibiting behaviors or thoughts consistent with priming?
Natalie, after finishing a romantic novel, passionately embraces her boyfriend and tells him how much she loves him.
Which of the following categories is one of the five categories mentioned in the text regarding factors affecting social interaction?
Perceptual processes
Greg has just stopped his car to allow a funeral procession to pass by. The cars in the procession all have stickers from his alma mater and are similar to the car he is driving. At this point, he realizes that he too will certainly die at some point. Based on the concept of terror management, which of the following is Greg likely to do next?
Reconfirm his belief in supernatural powers.
Four students are preparing to take a mid-term exam in Political Science. Going in to the exam, who would be most likely to suffer from the overconfidence bias?
Ronald, who is in his first political science course and first semester of college.
Elaine is researching how insults influence activity in certain parts of the brain. To do this, she uses fMRI to view the brain activity of patients who are presented with a variety of subtle and obvious insults spoken by both men and women. Which of the following best describes Elaine's field?
Social neuroscience
Which statement BEST describes the attribution process?
The process by which we seek to understand the causes of the behavior of others and ourselves
actor-observer bias
The tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of internal, personal factors.
Which of the following is a downside of schemas?
They can remain unchanged in the face of contradictory information.
Tracy encounters a member of a certain political group whose views and attributes are inconsistent with her schemas about that group. Due to a strong perseverance effect, what is the MOST likely conclusion that Tracy will make?
Tracy will continue to believe that most members of that group fit her schemas.
Suppose we are trying to discern whether an individual is lying based on his or her verbal and nonverbal information and cues. Which of the following statements BEST describes how well we will be able to judge whether this individual is lying?
We will probably pay more attention to her or his verbal cues and, in doing so, will have difficulty determining any deception.
Matt has never been to a professional baseball game, but he has a strong conviction that he wouldn't enjoy going to one. This prediction is known as a(n)
affective forecast.
One way that schemas influence social thought is by
acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information.
Sue is conducting an experiment in which she is trying to determine the influence of staring at a speaker on how much different speakers stutter. Sue sends people to a speech class with instructions to stare for varied amounts of time at the speaker. The dependent variable is the
amount of stuttering that occurs.
Arlene walks into the room her husband has just painted. She immediately dislikes the color. Arlene has experienced
an automatic evaluative reaction.
On her way to work one morning, Samantha was cut off by a driver who was weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating slower moving cars, racing through yellow lights, and generally driving rather erratically. According to recent research, Samantha should probably ________ because ________.
avoid making eye contact with the driver; the driver might interpret Samantha's eye contact as an act of aggression
Two drivers on a highway are cut off by a third driver. The first driver is startled but shrugs, thinking, "That other driver was careless, but I don't think he noticed me." The second driver is furious, thinking, "That other driver deliberately tried to run me off the road." This scenario MOST clearly illustrates how
cognition influences affect.
If a theory's predictions are not confirmed, then
confidence in the theory is reduced
A theory that is proposed must be
consistent with existing evidence
We might think that a waiter who flirts with a customer does so because he likes to flirt, if we observe this waiter flirting with several different customers while we eat. This best represents the concept of ________.
distinctiveness
Gabriel and Jim were involved in a car accident and they both suffered a broken bone. Gabriel told Jim, "Hey, at least we only broke a few bones—we could've died!" Jim's response to Gabriel was, "Yes, but I'm now thinking about how I can be a better driver so that I never get in an accident again." Gabriel's statement reflects a(n) ________ counterfactual thought and Jim's response reflects a(n) ________ counterfactual thought.
downward; upward
Erin's boyfriend has taken her out to dinner at a very exclusive restaurant. Erin notices that he can't seem to sit still during the meal, and he is constantly rubbing his left knee, scratching an itch, or pulling his earlobe. This type of body language usually indicates
emotional arousal
Recent research suggests that impression management can work against an individual if
impression management techniques are overused or ineffectively used.
Many times, attempts at deception are thwarted because of ________ facial expressions.
irrepressible
One way to manage information overload is to make use of
mental shortcuts, such as heuristics.
Deborah has just spent a great deal of money on a new fur coat. When she showed it to her husband, she asked if he liked it. Without hesitation, her husband responded by saying, "Yes. It is beautiful." Before he spoke, however, a slight frown appeared on his face for less than a second. This might indicate that he is concealing his true feelings from his wife and is known as a
microexpression
When research results are not consistent with a theory, the researcher's next step usually involves
modifying the theory and collecting additional data.
In thinking about a major assignment that is due in one week, Jacey focuses on the tasks to be accomplished and how she thinks she will approach each task. She does not spend much time thinking about how long similar tasks have taken her in the past. As a result, Jacey is likely to underestimate the amount of time needed for the assignment. This is probably because Jacey has
never attempted a similar type of assignment in the past.
Research of adult populations has documented a negative correlation between 1) obesity and 2) participation in physically demanding leisure activities. One possible interpretation of these results is that
obese people tend to exercise less than non-obese people
Carl watches a documentary about a man who survived after being stranded on an island. Not long after, his wife asks him if he wants to go hiking or go to the library. Carl chooses hiking. This is an example of
priming
One reason that social scientists put their faith in the scientific method is that the scientific method
produces more conclusive evidence than other methods
Researchers believe that experiencing strong negative emotions such as fear or anxiety will increase people's need to affiliate. To test this idea, the researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two small groups. Members of Group 1 were left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows. While waiting, the lights went out for a brief period of time and the participants could hear screams from another room. Members of Group 2 were likewise left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows, but the lights were left on and no screams were heard. Researchers observed how frequently members of each group started conversations with other members of their group on non-experiment related topics. Researchers assigned participants to one of the two groups randomly because
random assignment ensures that any changes in the dependent variable are caused only by changes in the independent variable.
Jerome is playing poker with his buddies and is losing badly. It seems that everyone at the table knows when he is bluffing just by watching his eyes. Jerome needs to learn to monitor his ________ and his ________ when he plays poker.
rate of blinking; frequency of eye contact
Heuristics exert a strong influence on our thinking in large measure because they
reduce the mental effort needed to make judgments and decisions.
Bill's wife informs him that they will be attending the opera. Bill has never been to the opera, but he immediately has a mental image of he and his wife sitting in an ornate theater and wearing formal eveningwear. Bill is drawing up a(n)
schema
Mike is applying for a job in advertising. While he is out to dinner with the interviewer, Mike pulls out and lights an expensive cigar and offers one to the interviewer. Mike is using what tactic to increase his chances of getting the job?
self enhancement
People use a number of different techniques to try and manage the impression they make on others. These techniques generally fall into one of two broad categories: ________ and ________.
self-enhancement; other-enhancement
Suppose smoking and drinking alcohol are found to be correlated at +.65. We can conclude that
smoking is probably related to drinking.
Jonathan continues to buy Orange computers even though his colleagues and friends have informed him that there are newer, better, and cheaper types of computers on the market. Which heuristic is affecting Jonathan?
status quo
During finals week, Jonah tells his friend that he'll be able to write four term papers over the next few days. Jonah is shocked and upset when he is barely able to complete two of these four papers. Jonah's behavior is consistent with
the planning fallacy.
attribution
the process of explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others
impression formation
the process through which we form impressions of others
social perception
the processes through which people interpret information about others, draw inferences about them, and develop mental representations of them
Early research conducted by Solomon Asch suggests the presence of central traits, which are
traits that strongly color the way we interpret other aspects of another person.
Norman chronically buys and sells things on eBay. He is used to establishing an anchor in negotiating his way toward some endpoint, a sales price, an agreement about delivery time, shipping costs, etc. The anchor for him is almost always a way of dealing with
uncertainty
One evening, after seeing a ________ at the Cineplex, you are on your way home. You drive into a store parking lot, where another driver grabs a parking place you had spotted and were waiting for. You perceive the behavior as very ________.
violent movie; aggressive
Suppose a company asked its workers "Now that you have received a raise, how satisfied are you with your job?" and found out that 87% indicated they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied." A major concern of this study would likely be the
way the question was asked.
The fact that we can make judgments and evaluations about different aspects of the world in either a controlled, reflective way or an automatic way suggests
we have two systems for evaluating the social world which may be located in different areas of the brain.
People often forecast that they will feel ________ when reading about a large-scale tragedy compared to a smaller tragedy. However, findings indicate that people who actually read about such tragedies ________.
worse; feel the same regardless of the size of the tragedy
fundamental attribution error
tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on other people's behavior
Which core value for social psychologists requires a commitment to gathering and evaluating information about the world in as careful, precise, and error-free a manner as possible?
Accuracy
LaShawna meets another girl at a party who is not from LaShawna's ethnic group, and whom LaShawna judges, based on her stereotype of that group, is probably shallow and a gossip. The best description of LaShawna's judgment is that she is engaged in
a social cognitive process.
Andrew saw a TV commercial for a new video game that he had been wanting. The game was on sale for 50% off, but the store was set to close in two hours. Andrew was 15 minutes late getting to the store and missed the sale. To ease his distress about missing the sale, Andrew reasoned that he never really had a chance to get to the store before it closed because traffic was too heavy, even though he could have taken a different, quicker route. This is an example of
counterfactual thinking.
Impression Mangement
creating a positive image of oneself to influence the perceptions of others
A researcher wants to know whether writing an essay on a controversial topic will have an effect on the attitudes held by people. First, she administers an attitude survey that covers a number of topics, including electronic voting machines. She then randomly assigns subjects to write an essay either supporting or opposing electronic voting machines. One week later, she administers the same attitude survey and compares those responses to the responses from the first time the survey was administered. In this experiment, the independent variable (IV) is the
essay
Which of the following effects describe how moods strongly determine which information in a given situation is noticed and entered into one's memory?
mood congruence effect
"Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses" refers to the ________ bias.
optimistic
Mr. Nguyen, a 53-year-old accountant, has just been rejected for a job at a small bank that he believes he was qualified for. He later hears from a friend that the hiring manager was biased against older job applicants. Mr. Nguyen's self-esteem is likely to
remain unchanged because he can make an external attribution as to the cause of his rejection.
Suppose you are telling your friend about a woman you just met. You tell your friend that this person seemed very compassionate and was interested in helping others; however, you couldn't recall whether she said she was a nurse or a businesswoman. On the basis of the ________ heuristic, your friend would probably think that she is a ________.
representativeness; nurse
correspondence bias
tendency to explain others' actions as stemming from dispositions, even in the presence of clear situational causes
Blair watches the newscast each evening, with its usual diet of fires and other accidents. She often eats at Herby's Fried Snacks, a restaurant located in a brick building, despite the fact that her eating there has resulted in bad indigestion several times. She avoids the well-respected Korean restaurant because the Korean restaurant is in a wooden building. Blair's eating habits are probably being guided by
the availability heuristic.
consensus
the extent to which other people react to given a stimulus or event in the same manner as the person we are evaluating. The higher the proportion of the people who react in the same way, the higher the consensus
consistency
the extent to which the person in questions reacts to the stimulus or event in the same way on other occasions over time
distinctiveness
the extent to which the person reacts in the same manner to other, different stimuli or events
action identification
the level of interpretation we place on an action; low-level interpretations focus on the action itself, while higher-level interpretations focus on its ultimate goals
The moon is full, and Cristinel has been behaving wildly. Although sober, he's been alternately barking like a dog at strangers on the street and/or asking them, "aren't ya' just happy now?" According to your text, Cristinel's behavior could be due to
the moon as an environmental influence.
actor-observer effect
the overall tendency to attribute our own behavior to external sources but to attribute the behavior of others to internal sources
Amanda has lost some money she needs for next semester's tuition. While betting on red, the roulette wheel has come up with five blacks in a row. To try to get her money back, Amanda is now doubling up her bet each time on red, believing that red will come up soon. She bases her belief on the (roughly) 50/50 odds of red and black occurring over a large number of spins of the wheel. Amanda's strategy appears to be based on
the representativeness heuristic.
self serving bias
the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors
Although Sarah could afford any car she wants, she drives an aging Volkswagen. Sam, Sarah's friend, thinks that this choice says something about Sarah's personality. Sam clearly agrees with
the theory of correspondent inference.
The evolutionary perspective on social behavior suggests that
we inherit tendencies to behave in certain ways.
Which of the following is a benefit of automatic processing?
It allows us to deal with problems when our attention is directed elsewhere.
When I consider the extent to which this person reacts in the same way to this same stimulus on other occasions, I am basing my attribution on
consistency
Jordan recently won third place in his city's creative writing contest, even though he hasn't written creatively in years and he submitted a story he wrote years ago. He thinks to himself, "If only I had been working on my writing this whole time, I might have won first place." This is an example of ________ thinking.
counterfactual
Sasha is a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology. She is researching the role that a good sense of humor plays in securing a mate and is planning on honing this research into a dissertation that focuses on humor's influence on reproductive success. Sasha is engaged in the study of
evolutionary psychology.
During an interview, Jackie took longer to reply to certain questions and the pitch of her voice rose considerably; these aspects of her ________ gave away that that she was lying.
linguistic style
Karen has always felt that if she looks at the back of a person's head, she can cause that person to turn around and look at her. This is an example of ________ thinking.
magical
Based on his estimate of how long it would take him to complete his midterm essay, Armando told his instructor he would turn in the paper on Tuesday, but he was late turning it in, causing his instructor to deduct a letter grade from the paper. Next time Armando makes such a promise based on a plan, he will likely
make the same planning error and be late again.
An example of interchannel discrepancy during deception would be
managing one's facial expressions well while not making much eye contact.
A researcher is interested in the relationship between courtship behaviors and physical characteristics of people. If the researcher should establish that there is a correlation of +.37 between physical attractiveness and dating frequency, we can conclude that
more attractive people date more often than less attractive people.
Eric is a social psychologist who is respected in his field. However, his colleagues are often apprehensive of challenging Eric's strongly held ideas, even when they know that Eric's ideas are laden with errors, because Eric has been known to get upset when he has to question his assumptions. Eric struggles with maintaining the core value of
open-mindedness.
Social psychologists focus their attention mainly on individuals because
our actions are performed by and thoughts occur in the minds of individuals.
Researchers believe that experiencing strong negative emotions such as fear or anxiety will increase people's need to affiliate. To test this idea, the researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two small groups. Members of Group 1 were left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows. While waiting, the lights went out for a brief period of time and the participants could hear screams from another room. Members of Group 2 were likewise left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows, but the lights were left on and no screams were heard. Researchers observed how frequently members of each group started conversations with other members of their group on non-experiment related topics. In this experiment, the hypothesis is that
strong negative emotions will increase people's need to affiliate with others.
Research has shown a positive correlation between 1) socio-economic status of the family of origin and 2) college graduation rates. Based on this information, we can conclude that
students born into wealthier families are more likely to complete college than students born into poorer families.
In order to determine whether people have a strong or weak preference for the color of their cookware, a company wants to collect information from many of its past customers. If the number of past customers is very large, the company may want to consider using ________ methods.
survey
Professor Garcia is studying how cancer patients are coping with their illness by giving them one of the following sets of instructions: they are to keep a daily diary and write about anything, keep a daily diary and write about how they are trying to cope with their illness, or not told to keep any diary whatsoever. After following this protocol for a month, Professor Garcia then measures the cancer patients' self-reported level of depression. The independent variable in this hypothetical study is ________ and the dependent variable is ________.
the type of diary kept, if any; the self-reported level of depression
Kim knows she needs to go take summer courses, but worries about leaving her new boyfriend for three months. She wonders, will "absence make the heart go stronger" be true, or is "out of sight, out of mind" more applicable? This is an example of
the unscientific nature of conventional wisdom.
Frameworks for explaining various events or processes are known as
theories
correspondence interference
theory describing how we use others behavior as a basis for inferring their stable dispositions
Imagine that you see a friend arguing with a sales clerk in a store. You have never seen your friend argue with anyone in public before. Therefore, you think that the clerk did something to cause the argument. The theory that most directly explains how you reached this conclusion is the
theory of correspondent inference.
Researchers were recently surprised to learn that the correlation between the type of clothing people wear when they are not at work and the type of jobs they hold is approximately zero. Based on this, we can conclude that
there is no relationship between the types of clothing worn in non-work settings and the type of work that people do.
