Social Psychology: Chapter 3

controlled processing

"Explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious. Also known as System 2.

automatic processing

"implicit" thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to "intuition", also known as system 1

In the context of fundamental attribution error, observers tend to attribute a person's behavior to ______ with the passage of time: A. the situation B. his or her traits C. internal beliefs and preconceptions D. his or her dispositions

A

Sharon typically watches televised news stations that support her existing political beliefs. She is less inclined to watch the news on other stations, as it may disprove her preconceptions. Sharon's approach illustrates the: A. confirmation bias B. misinformation effect C. base rate fallacy D. i-knew-it-all-along phenomenon

A

We tend to underestimate the situational determinants of others' behavior but not our own because we observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves. This is known as the: A. actor-observer phenomenon B. camera perspective bias C. false uniqueness effect D. self-awareness phenomenon

A

You have a tendency to assume someone is still a good friend even after a person acts otherwise. The tendency is known as the: A. belief perseverance bias B. belief continuity phenomenon C. correspondence bias D. belief disconfirmation bias

A

availability heuristic

A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

Although you earned 100 on your physics exam, you have subsequently been unable to earn a perfect score again. Your experience may be understood in terms of: A. the illusory correlation B. regression toward the average C. the representative heuristic D. counterfactual thinking

B

Because you see Fred gardening, you decide that he loves working in the yard. You see Fred this way owing to: A. halo effects B. the fundamental attribution error C. the false consensus effect D. assumed-similarity

B

Jumping out of your seat as a result of an unexpected scene in a movie is what type of thinking? A. controlled processing B. automatic processing C. external processing D. internal processing

B

On the first day of class, we see a middle-aged man at the front of the room, talking to a younger man. If we assume the older man is the professor and the younger man is the student, we are relying on: A. overconfidence bias B. representative heuristic C. belief perseverance D. misinformation effect.

B

Tim works as a software engineer in a multinational company. He finds that the company is training employees to develop their leadership skills. Tim, who values self-development, thinks this is a good opportunity to improve his skills. In this context of perceiving and interpreting events, which of the following statements is true? A. Tim's beliefs do not influence how he sees new information B. Tim's beliefs influence how he sees new information C. Tim's beliefs are unrelated to how he sees new information D. Tim's beliefs are changed with the new information

B

You are consistently late to your social psychology class, because the athletic training class you have immediately before it is on the other side of campus. You are concerned that your professor does not think you are a serious student because of your chronic tardiness. If this were true, what type of attribution would your professor be making about your behavior? A. motivational B. dispositional C. situational D. external

B

Your best friend is a master chess player and has won numerous awards. When you play chess with her, you notice that she seems to be aware of strategies almost immediately after you move. Her awareness of strategies reflect what type of thinking? A. controlled processing B. automatic processing C. internal processing D. intentional processing

B

After telling Steve that you believe Brenda is very gossipy Steve labels you as a gossip. This is an example of A. the actor-observer difference. B. the fundamental attribution error. C. spontaneous trait transference. D. belief perseverance.

C

Counterfactual thinking is more likely when: A. we are not expecting a favorable outcome B. we are surprised by favorable results C. we can easily picture an alternative outcome D. the event is significant

C

To retrieve a memory of where your date told you she wanted to go for dinner tomorrow, you need to activate one of the strands that leads to this memory, such as thinking about what types of food she does and does not like. This process is known as: A. belief perseverance B. reconstruction C. priming D. induction

C

You believe that although you have studied for a test, you will do poorly on it. As a consequence on this belief, you get low grades. This is an example of: A. self-confirming validity B. a belief confirmation. C. self-fulfilling prophecy D. behavioral perseverance

C

You did not study for your psychology exam. However, you imagine yourself earning a better grade than the one you actually earned. This is an example of: A. implicit thinking B. explicit thinking C. counterfactual thinking D. self-fulfilling prophecy

C

Your boss is always cranky. You assume this is because he has not had a raise in 10 years. What type of attribution are you making to explain his behavior? A. motivational B. dispositional C. situational D. common sense

C

You attend a part where you do not know any but expect that people will be friendly. You meet people warmly and in a sociable manner. Your actions, in turn, lead to other people being friendly to you. This situation can best be described as: A. the illusory correlation B. the representative heuristic C. the availability heuristic D. behavioral confirmation

D

You used to envy your brother because he was always so self-assured when talking to others. Yet the older you become, the more you realize that your brother is more often convinced of things rather than accurate about things. This can be explained by: A. perseverance B. fundamental attribution error C. correspondence bias D. overconfidence phenomenon

D

Your summer vacation was perhaps not an overwhelmingly positive event, but during the final week of August, you remember it as being a fantastic time. This is an example of: A. perseverance bias B. fundamental attribution error C. correspondence bias D. rosy retrospection

D

attribution theory

The theory of how people explain others' behavior—for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations.

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports one's preconceptions

heuristic

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

behavioral confirmation

a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

spontaneous trait inference

an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone's behavior

situational attribution

attributing behavior to the environment

dispostional attribution

attributing behavior to the person's disposition and traits

counterfactual thinking

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn't

misinformation effect

incorporating "misinformation" into one's memory of the event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it

misattribution

mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

belief perseverance

persistence of one's initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

system 2

the deliberate, controlled, conscious, and slower way of thinking

system 1

the intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking

embodied cognition

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments

regression toward the average

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one's average

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs

representativeness heuristic

the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member