social psych Test 1

Suppose a researcher found a very strong, positive correlation between how much television a child watches and their levels of aggression. Which of the following conclusions is MOST accurate?

Given that this investigation represents a correlational study, it is impossible to determine the nature of causality.

________ involves using praise of important others as a way to encourage them to like us and approve of us.

Ingratiation

Implicit personality theories about first-born children include which of the following traits?

Intelligent, responsible, stable, unemotional

Katherine and Amy are members of the same sorority at college and are members of the school's swim team. They have been trying to master a difficult dive from the high board at the college's swimming pool. Amy is showing faster improvement in the dive than Katherine is. If they compare their performance as individuals, the self-evaluation maintenance model suggests that ________.

Katherine should dislike Amy more

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.

A researcher worked with members of a political action committee (PAC) to survey potential voters by telephone before an election. PAC members conducted the poll themselves while the researcher tabulated the results. The poll asked which candidate people plan to vote for in the upcoming election. Which of the following may present problems for the accuracy of the results?

One question was "Do you plan to vote for Candidate A or Candidate B?" The survey was scheduled to coincide with a large rally for one candidate. The sample of potential voters was taken from telephone directories only. Correct All of these may present problems for the accuracy of the results.

Shortly before being interviewed for a job she really wants, Meredith finds that the Human Resources Director was involved in a minor traffic accident during lunch. Should Meredith be concerned that the traffic accident may have a negative influence on the outcomes of the job interview?

Yes - research indicates that even experienced interviewers are influenced by their current moods.

A researcher thinks that a person's mood has an effect on how helpful that person is likely to be. To test this, the researcher has some research participants come to the laboratory where they are first given a difficult test and then either heavily praised or strongly criticized for their test performance. Afterwards, participants are asked to help the researcher's assistant move some heavy boxes into another room. The researcher makes careful note of how many and which participants help with moving the boxes. In this example, the hypothesis is ________.

a person's mood has an effect on how helpful that person is likely to be

A multicultural perspective is recognized as increasingly important to research in social psychology because ________.

a variety of cultural factors such as race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability help determine self-identity

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

Mary sees Greta trip while walking down an outside flight of steps, and thinks to herself, "What a clumsy person!" Five minutes later, though, Mary trips on the same flight of steps, and says to an onlooker, "It's very icy today!" This is an illustration of the ________.

actor-observer effect

A motivational model for the self-serving bias suggests that we attribute success to internal factors because we ________.

are boosting our self-esteem

The process by which individuals seek to understand why others behave as they do is known as ________.

attribution

Research evidence tends to indicate that social perception ________.

can be quite accurate, despite attributional errors

The personal-social identity continuum recognizes that we ________.

can see ourselves differently, depending on circumstances

Ben is overjoyed by the fact that he received a scholarship to go to law school. As a result of his general positive and happy mood he would be MOST likely to show ________.

ch 2

The fact that experienced courtroom judges allowed judgments from either journalists, or even random sources, to significantly influence their opinions can be explained by ________.

ch 2 - pg 38?

Prior to Taylor and Brown's (1988) important article, it had always been assumed that ________ is a cornerstone of good mental health.

ch 4 - pg 130?

Radha is from India and is Jana's friend. In making a judgment about Radha's reason for being late for coffee, Jana may infer that Radha was late because she had a confusing day, or Jana may decide that Radha doesn't really have much respect for her schedule. This is best explained as an example of a ________.

cognitive process

We might think that waiters who all flirt with a particular customer do so because the customer welcomes the attention if we notice that the waiters do not also flirt with other customers while we eat. This best represents the concept of ________.

consensus

The relatively effortful and conscious processing of social information is known as ________.

controlled processing

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 fifteen 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

Bob tends to wait until the "last minute" to buy Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, this year, by the time he tried to purchase a gift for his wife, the store had closed. He convinced himself that everything in the store was overpriced anyway, so he decided to make a gift for his wife himself. Arguably, Bob is using a type of ________ in order to convince himself that he "never had a chance" to purchase the gift

counterfactual thinking

Affect includes ________.

current emotions and mood

The relationship between how accurate first impressions are and how confident people are in their impressions of others is _________.

curvilinear

Nonverbal cues are often deemed to be irrepressible because they are ________.

difficult to control

The storing of information in memory involves the process known as ________.

encoding

The basic goal of any theory is ________.

explanation

The extent to which experimental results can be generalized to real-life situations is a question of an experiment's ________.

external validity

People from cultures with strong beliefs in causal complexity are more likely to attribute important events to _____.

fate

Participants in one study wore digital audio recorders. Research assistants coded the sounds and compared the coded behaviors to the participants' self-reports of behavior. Friends of the participants also made ratings of behavior frequencies. The findings show that

for some behaviors the participants were more accurate and for other behaviors friends were more accurate.

Individuals who have high self-esteem and could be described as showing instability may exhibit

hostility and defensive responding when their self-esteem is threatened.

Our personal beliefs about the way that certain traits occur together are known as ________.

implicit personality theories

One indication of possible deception occurs when inconsistencies exist between different types of nonverbal cues, such as facial expression and posture. These inconsistencies are known as ________.

interchannel discrepancies

George was listening as a friend described him to someone else on the telephone. His friend's description included "friendly, taller, active" and similar terms. As a result, George is now probably thinking of himself in terms of ________.

intragroup comparisons

Henry feels helpless at his job, feels that he cannot control his workday, and feels that he is useless, worthless, and inept. These characteristics would probably mean that Henry has ________.

low self-esteem

We are likely to attribute another person's behavior to internal causes when consensus is ________, consistency is ________, and distinctiveness is ________.

low, high, low

An example of interchannel discrepancy during deception would be ________.

managing one's facial expressions well while not making much eye contact

Whether we wish it or not, Shakespeare admonishes that we are ________ on a stage, and that we're in the position of ________.

merely players; presenting ourselves to an observing and potentially changing audience

In an experiment, researchers wanted to know whether changing the level of lighting in a factory would have an effect on the productivity of employees. In order to address this question, employees were randomly assigned to three separate identical work areas, but the lighting was set at a different level in each of the work areas. Then employees in all three work groups began to operate machinery that produced small electrical components. The number of components produced by each group was carefully tallied at the end of each 8-hour shift. In this example, the dependent variable is the ________.

number of components produced

Jason has been told that he should make sure to shake hands with the interviewer when he applies for a job, and that this handshake should be firm, vigorous, and last a long time. According to recent research (Chaplin et al., 2000), if Jason follows this advice, the interviewer may think that Jason is ________.

outgoing and willing to try new things

When touching is considered appropriate, it often produces ________ reactions in the person being touched

positive

Some social psychologists use deception in their research in order to ________.

prevent the purpose of the research from having an effect on participants' behavior discourage skepticism on the part of research participants

The limbic region of the brain is most active when

receiving an immediate cash award ($10 cash now).

Differences between shy and non-shy people appeared to be ________ online compared to offline because of the ________ of ________.

reduced; absence; visual and auditory feedback

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

A person's overall attitude towards him- or herself is known as ________.

self-esteem

In meeting a new roommate, David stresses his studious qualities, an aspect of himself he wishes others to agree with, while being willing to underplay other potentially important aspects of himself. David is practicing a ________ approach in presenting himself to others

self-verification

We tend to make ________ attributions for our own behaviors, but ________ attributions for others' behaviors.

situational; dispositional

Recent research (Simon, 2004) has noted that linguistic cues can activate certain types of self-concepts. When other people describe us, nouns tend to activate ________ while adjectives and verbs tend to activate ________.

social identities; personal identities

Chelsea and Anita are both required to give a speech supporting a woman's right to abortion on demand in a public-speaking class. Anita believes that Chelsea gave her speech because she is a strong supporter of the right-to-choose movement. Anita is neutral on the topic and only gave her speech because it was assigned. Anita's belief about Chelsea is probably a result of ________.

the actor-observer effect

The term "cognitive load" refers to ________.

the amount of mental effort we are expending at a given time

The area of the brain that is most clearly involved in automatic evaluations is ________.

the amygdala

Research indicates that people's online identities often reflect ____________.

the ideal self

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

The tendency for people to believe they can accomplish more in a given period of time than they can actually accomplish is known as ________.

the planning fallacy

area of brain involved in controlled processing

the prefrontal cortex

On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists. Suppose, on that day, Pedro said to his friend, "I can't believe it! For a long time I thought there'd be a serious attack on the United States, and it just happened!" The principle of magical thinking that this would illustrate is ________.

the principle that thinking about an event can make it happen

Trista's teacher just returned student essays to the class. Trista's teacher has written several positive comments throughout her paper and given Trista an A+ on the assignment. Trista is likely to believe her grade reflects ________ because of ________.

the true quality of her work; the self-serving bias

Researchers most commonly measure implicit self-esteem by _____.

using the Implicit Associations Test

One evening, after seeing a(n) ________ 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