Social Psychology - TESU - Module 1

When touching is considered appropriate, it often produces_____ reactions in the person being touched.

positive

_____is the area of psychology that studies the interplay between brain events and thought, emotion, and behavior

social neuroscience

Social psychology embraces_____ as core scientific values.

accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness

Based on research regarding the preference for a good sense of humor in a romantic partner, which of the following is true?

a good sense of humor may signal availability or interest in the other

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

Sue is conducing an experiment in which she is trying to determine how staring at a speaker influences how much the speaker stutters. 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

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_____.

avoid making eye contact with the driver because the driver might interpret Samantha's eye contact as an act of aggression

The focus of social psychology is on the_____.

behavior and thoughts of individuals.

Research evidence tends to indicate that social perception_____.

can be quite accurate despite attributional errors

The ways we think about other people and the things we remember about them may have an effect on our behavior. These thoughts and memories are examples of_____ processes.

cognitive

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

Social psychologists seek to find basic principles that will explain social behavior. However, _____ differences and a(n)_____social world both make the process difficult.

cultural; rapidly changing

In one study, participants were presented with words that were either consistent or inconsistent with their strongly held values. Participants showed quite strong reactions to the value-inconsistent words. This suggests that we process information we _____.

disagree with quickly

The fundamental attribution error refers to our tendency to overestimate the role of_____.

dispositions in causing others' behavior

The extent to which a person's reaction to a particular event differs from his or her reaction to other similar events is an indication of_____.

distincitveness

Much research on implicit processes has demonstrated that people often_____.

do not know why they think or behave as they do

Random assignment of research participants to experimental conditions means that_____.

each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each experimental condition

At an exclusive restaurant, Erin notices that her boyfriend cannot sit still during their meal. He is constantly rubbing his left knee, scratching an itch, or pulling his earlobe. This type of body language usually indicates_____.

emotional arousal

In addition to social cognition and behavioral approaches, research on_____ has helped social psychologists develop a greater understanding of how people comply with requests.

emotions

Despite some variation, universal mating preferences seem to exist for certain physical features. This fact suggests that these attractiveness features are influenced by_____.

evolutionary factors

The branch of psychology that seeks to examine the potential role of genetic factors in different aspects of human behavior is known as

evolutionary psychology

Suppose a researcher found a very strong positive correlation between how much television children watch and their level 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.

One study found that people tend to feel_____ after meeting someone new and engaging in impression management.

happier

Our personal beliefs about the way that certain traits occur together are known as_____ theories.

implicit personality

The evolutionary perspective on social psychology suggests that we_____.

inherit tendencies to behave in certain ways

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

intelligent, responsible, stable, unemotional

People who suffer from depression tend to attribute their failures to_____causes and their successes to_____causes.

lasting internal; temporary external

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 _____.

level of lighting

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, three groups of employees were placed in separate work areas and the level of lighting was systematically varied for one group as the employees operated machinery that produced small electrical components. The number of components produced was carefully tallied at the end of each 8-hour shift. In this example, the independent variable is _____.

level of lighting

Jackie took longer to reply to certain questions, and the pitch of her voice rose considerably. These aspects of her_____ gave away that she was lying.

linguistic style

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

look to boost our self-esteem

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 like 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

There are two important ethical issues involved in the use of deception in research: one is that participants may be harmed by the deception; the other is that _____.

participants may resent being deceived

The process in which we seek to know and understand others is called social _____, and it frequently makes use of_____.

perception; nonverbal communication

The process in which we seek to know and understand others is called social_____ and it frequently makes use of_____.

perception; nonverbal communication

Some social psychologists use deception in their research in order to_____.

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

One reason that social scientists put their faith in the scientific method is that the scientific method_____.

produces more conclusive evidence than other methods do

A company asks its workers, "Now that you have received a raise, how satisfied are you with your job?" 87% of the workers indicated they are "very satisfied" or "satisfied." A major concern of this study would be the way in which the ______.

question was asked

A company asks its workers, "Now that you have received a raise, how satisfied are you with your job?" 87% of the workers indicated they were "very satisified" or "satisfied". A major concern of this study would be the way in which the ______.

question was asked

The people who complete a survey must be representative of the population about which conclusions are to be drawn. This is known as the issue of_____.

sampling

The attribution process is the process by which we_____.

seek to understand the causes of the behavior of others and ourselves

We tend to perceive our own behavior as stemming largely from_____ factors, we tend to perceive the behavior of others as stemming largely from_____factors.

situational; dispositional

Suppose that smoking and drinking were found to be correlated at +.65. We could conclude that_____.

smoking is probably related to drinking

Members of a collectivistic cultures are more likely to recognize more of the situational determinants of behavior than members of individualistic cultures are. As a result, members of collectivistic societies are_____ the fundamental attribution error.

somewhat less likely to make

Which of the following is not an example of a basic channel of nonverbal communication?

speech

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

Which of the following is not true of using surveys to collect information?

surveys can be used to determine causal relationships between variables

Abbie noticed that Kayla spends time talking to almost everyone she meets at work and believes that this is because Kayla is a friendly, outgoing person. In fact, Kayla is rather shy and withdrawn most of the time, but her job at a local bank requires that she talk with most of the bank's customers periodically. Abbie's perception of Kayla is mistaken because of _____.

the correspondence bias

Certain facial expressions are recognized as representing_____ underlying emotions in_____different cultures.

the same basic; many

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 ______.

theory of correspondent inference

Researchers found 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 clothing worn in non-work settings and the work people do.

As a scientific discipline, social psychology seeks a(n)_____.

understanding of the nature and causes of social behavior

Kim wants to spend a semester studying abroad, but she worries about leaving her new boyfriend for such a long period of time. Would "absence makes the heart grow fonder" or "out of sight, out of mind" be more applicable. This is an example of the _____.

unscientific nature of conventional wisdom

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 are more likely to pay more attention to the individual's verbal cues and therefore will have difficulty determining any deception

Which of the following study questions could NOT be explored using experimentation due to ethical issues?

How do individuals cope when their spouse dies?

Jeremy has always been a very eloquent speaker and speechwriter. For his college oratory class, Jeremy was recently required to write and deliver a speech in support of capital punishment. Although Jeremy is strongly opposed to the death penalty, he wrote and delivered a very powerful speech in support of the death penalty. As a result, his professor and several students now believe Jeremy actually supports the death penalty. Why might this be the case?

The professor and students implicitly believe that only someone who really holds a particular opinion can persuasively write or speak about it

Miller and Maner (2010) had men smell t-shirts worn by women and found that men_____.

experienced an increase in their testosterone level after smelling shirts worn by ovulating women

Even though there is no single best method of research, the _____ method is generally preferred by social psychologists.

experimental

Researchers who systematically change one variable in order to determine the effect this has on another variable are using_____.

experimental methods

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

external validity

Recent research on implicit processes demonstrates that such processes are_____.

influential in our social behavior and thought

Based on his estimate of how long it would take him to complete his midterm essay, Armando told his instructor that he would turn in the paper on Tuesday, but 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 as he did the first time