Chapter 4 social psychology

When people are setting goals, the core question is, ____. When people are pursuing goals, the core question is, ____.

Why should I do it?"; "How do I do it?"

Suppose that you are out on a date. Although your date is somewhat entertaining, you keep having intrusive thoughts about the paper that you need to finish writing when you get home. These thoughts are evidence of the ____.

Zeigarnik effect

When people are asked to list their current goals and personal projects, the average list contains ____.

about 15 items

One of the common consequences of reactance is ____.

acting aggressively toward the person who triggered the reactance

When human animals rely on meaning to make their choices, they are able to look at meaning ____.

as multiple ways of understanding a situation

The status quo bias is one form of ____ in decision-making

avoidance

Research shows that when making decisions, MOST people are more interested in ____ as opposed to ____.

avoiding losses; pursuing gains

When experimental manipulations have induced people to reject their free will, they tend to ____.

be more willing to cheat on a test or steal money

Mark is comparing two jobs. One pays $70,000 per year, but will be very stressful. The other pays $60,000, but will be less stressful. According to research presented in your text on Money Matters, Mark will ____.

decide to take the 70,000 job but the $60,000 job would probably make him happier

The so-called "certainty effect" in decision-making refers to tendency for people to give greater weight to ____ than to ____.

definite outcomes; probabilities

William James, the father of American psychology, once wrote: "Thinking is for doing." What did he mean by this?

developed its current cognitive abilities in large part to enable effective decision-making and to facilitate behavior.by this? a. The human brain probably

Ursula believes that traits and abilities as fixed at birth and remain the same no matter what. By contrast, Yuri believes that people develop their traits and abilities across time, and that they can become better and better with practice. Social psychologists would say that Ursula is a(n) ____ while Yuri is a(n) ____.

entity theorist; incremental theorist

Failure will most likely produce learned helplessness for ____.

entity theorists

In social psychology, people who regard traits and abilities as fixed and stable are known as ____, while people who believe that it is possible to change and improve traits and abilities are known as ____.

entity theorists; incremental theorists

Research on entity and incremental theorists has shown that, compared to Japanese athletes, American athletes are more likely to be ____ theorists, and thus more likely to view their athletic skills as ____.

entity; inborn and fixed

According to ____ theory, when it comes to dating and mating members of the opposite sex, men will take advantage of every opportunity to pass along their genes

error management

Recent research has demonstrated that men and women perceive certain behaviors differently: Men are more likely than women to assume that an innocent smile is a sign of flirtation, while women are more likely than men to assume that blatant flirtation is merely a sign of friendliness. These research findings are most consistent with ____.

error management theory

Suppose that Sergej has just asked Georgia whether she would like to study with him for an upcoming English exam. Georgia is struggling in the class, and she knows that Sergej is an excellent English student, so she enthusiastically agrees. Meanwhile, Sergej interprets her enthusiasm as a sign that she might have a crush on him, and he therefore suggests that the two of them grab a bite to eat together before studying; "Georgia is very attractive," he thinks to himself, "so why not?" Georgia, meanwhile, who is completely clueless about what is

error management theory

Research on entity and incremental theorists has shown that they tend to make different kinds of attributions for other people's behaviors. Specifically, compared to entity theorists, incremental theorists tend to make more ____, for example suggesting that others' behaviors are the result of ____.

external attributions; their circumstances

Martina is studying for her calculus exam. She needs to write a paper for another class, too, but while she is studying for her calculus class, her mind shuts off the paper so that she can focus on her math. Martina is experiencing ____.

goal shielding

Personal projects, or personal strivings, are also known as ____.

goals

Among humans, greater freedom is associated with ____.

greater behavioral flexibility

Research indicates that people who believe that they are acting autonomously, based on intrinsic motivations, are ____ compared people who believe that their behavior is guided by external forces and extrinsic motivations.

happier and often perform better

Research on proximal goals, distal goals, and goal hierarchies suggests that MOST people ____.

have goal hierarchies (including proximal goals and distal goals)

Suppose that Peter hates his job as a medical assistant. Research on the panic button effect would suggest that Peter would hate his job less if ____.

he felt that could quit at any time and get a different job

According to self-determination theory, people who act based on _____ are more free than others.

intrinsic motivations

What occurs when a person starts working toward one goal and the mind automatically shuts off other goals from consciousness?

Goal shielding

What theme(s) best explain decision avoidance

The idea that some choices are too difficult and the idea of anticipated regret

How do social psychologists refer to the tendency to take whatever course of action does not require you to do anything (also called the default option)?

The omission bias

When participants in Bazerman et al.'s (1992) study compared two options for resolving a dispute with a neighbor, what did they generally prefer

The option that gave them $600 and the neighbor $800

When participant's in Bazerman et al.'s (1992) study predicted their reaction to only one of two options presented to them for resolving a financial dispute with a neighbor, which option was generally preferred across participants?

The option that paid both their neighbor and themselves $500

What is temporal discounting?

The tendency for people to place greater weight on the present over the future in decision-making

Aimee is moving to a new state and has looked at numerous houses. She is avoiding making a decision on which one to purchase because she knows once she chooses, she may find a better house she would have loved even more. What best explains Aimee's decision avoidance?

Anticipation of regret

Joe has a big Spanish exam coming up next week. Will it help him if he visualizes himself acing the exam? What about if he visualizes himself studying really hard for the exam?

Both of these things will help him—but visualizing himself studying really hard (which will likely lead to him actually studying harder) will help more than visualizing himself acing the exam.

Jacopo long-term goal of becoming a neurologist. At the moment, though, he is only seven years old. He therefore also has several "stepping stone goals" (finishing high school, going to college, going to medical school, etc.). That is, Jacopo has a complete ____.has a

Both parts of the duplex mind play a role in navigating through a hierarchy of goals. The automatic system helps to ____, while the conscious system ____.

What is the most accurate statement regarding how humans differ from other animals in terms of goals?

Humans are able to stop a given activity in order to resume pursuit of a previously pursued goal.

Do goals and plans actually facilitate achievement?

In general, goal-setting and plan-making both facilitate achievement.

76. Does having goals actually help people to achieve things? Does it matter if the goals are broad (e.g., "getting a good education") rather than narrow (e.g., "getting a good grade on a specific assignment")?

In general, people who have goals perform better than people who don't—especially if the goals are narrow

. ____ occurs when people think they will fail so they quit trying to succeed.

Learned helplessness

When you are deciding between two apartments, assuming you can afford both of them and they are both adequate for your needs, what feature should you pay most attention to if you want to maximize your satisfaction with the apartment a year after you have moved in?

Neighborhood quality-choose the most pleasant neighborhood.

According to the text, do most psychologists today believe that people have free will?

Psychologists are currently divided on the issue.

Which of the following statements about free will is BEST supported by your text?

Relative free will is important to social behavior

Maureen thinks that her abilities are fluid and capable of changing and developing over time. She decides to try to learn to garden. Her first year of planting is a complete failure--nearly every plant dies. She only harvests a few tomatoes. Given what you know about Maureen, what can you predict about her interest in gardening?

She will try again the next year and plan to learn from her mistakes.

78. According to the research on goal setting and achievement, if all of the students below had similar track records, which of them should we expect to perform BEST in school in the coming month?

Student C, who states: "I want to get at least an A- on each of my exams and assignments this month."

Do people usually think in optimistic or overly ambitious ways when they are setting goals and/or striving to achieve goals?

They tend to be more or less realistic when goal setting, but optimistic when pursuing goals.

Rachel has taken French for years and is very good at it. Nonetheless, she just enrolled in Intermediate French (which will be easy for her) rather than Advanced French (which will be slightly challenging but not impossible). It is probably safe to assume that Rachel ____.

is an entity theorist

The status quo bias is different from the omission bias in that the former is about making decisions that ____, while the latter is about making decisions that ____.

keep things the same; require little effort

Jonah is in his psychology class and has just gotten his third exam score back. It's an "F" again! He hasn't passed one single exam this semester. He decides to quit studying for that class at all since it hasn't seemed to help much. Jonah is exhibiting ____.

learned helplessness

The experience of learned helplessness is ____.

more likely to occur for an entity theorist than an incremental theorist

When people are making choices between two options that differ both qualitatively and quantitatively, they tend to focus on ____.

quantitative differences primarily

An old advertisement for Dove ice cream bars touted the bars as "sinfully" delicious—so delicious that they should be banned or forbidden. The advertisement, which sought to make the bars seem as attractive to people as possible, was apparently playing on ____.

reactance

Suppose that you went out on two dates with someone from one of your classes. You were not crazy about the person, but you did not dislike the person either. You thought that you would just wait and see how things turned out. Surprisingly, however, the person sent you an e-mail after your second date and wrote: "I just don't think we have good chemistry, but it was nice meeting you! Sayonara!" All of a sudden, the person becomes much more attractive to you. You wonder what you did wrong, and you

reactance

Movies with "R" ratings tend to be more appealing to children and teens than similar movies with "G" or "PG" ratings. This finding is good evidence of ____.

reactance theory

Some research suggests that when parents are extremely strict, their children become especially tempted to engage in deviant behaviors. For example, when parents forbid their teen children from going to parties, the teens report being even more attracted to parties and even more interested in attending. These findings are most consistent with ____.

reactance theory

Research indicates that when people are setting goals, they tend to think in a(n) ____ way, and when they are pursuing or striving for goals, they to think in a(n) ____ way

realistic; optimistic

so-called Zeigarnik The effect helps us to ____.

remember unfinished tasks, and thus to return to complete them

The tendency to give more weight to possible losses than to possible gains when making decisions that require trade-offs is known as ____.

risk aversion

Most research focuses on the ____ step of decision-making, which involves ____.

second; carefully considering a few top options

The idea that at least some of our activities must be motivated by their inner drives and choices, rather than by external factors, reflects ____.

self-determination theory

Suppose that Sergej has just asked Georgia whether she would like to study with him for an upcoming English exam. Georgia is struggling in the class, and she knows that Sergej is an excellent English student, so she enthusiastically agrees and says that she is excited to study with him. According to error management theory, it is likely that Sergej will view Georgia's enthusiasm as a sign that ____.

she has a crush on him

Research suggests that goals are MOST helpful in facilitating achievement when they are ____.

specific and somewhat difficult to achieve

Compared to incremental theorists, entity theorists show a ____.

stronger preference for doing things at which they are good

Error management theory suggests that, when it comes to dating and mating members of the opposite sex, men will be more prone to ____ than women

temporal discounting

Even though she is not in desperate need of boots, Ellen says that she would rather buy a pair of boots today (for $200) rather than wait two weeks, when they will be on sale for half the price. Ellen's decision most likely involves ____.

temporal discounting

Many people do not invest in 401K plans or other retirement plans—even though they are not broke, and could afford to put money aside. One explanation for this is the fact that people tend to engage in ____ when making decisions about how to manage their money.

temporal discounting

People tend to say that they would prefer to have $1000 today rather than $1200 two weeks from now—even though, logically, they would be better off with the $1200 in two weeks. The phenomena underlying this tendency is known as ____.

temporal discounting

The tendency for people to place greater weight on the present over the future in decision-making is known as ____.

temporal discounting

According to error management theory, when it comes to making decisions about dating members of the opposite sex, men will be relatively more prone to ____, while women will be relatively more prone to ____.

temporal discounting; risk aversion

Research suggests that when athletes who are preparing for a big game visualize themselves training really hard for the game, they ____; when they visualize themselves actually winning the game, they ____.

tend to train harder than usual and thus perform better; also tend to perform a little better.

Research findings suggesting that people become less prosocial when induced to reject their belief in free will most likely indicate that ____.

the belief in free will affects people's willingness to behave prosocially

15. As discussed in the text, when purchasing a car, people end up paying a bit more attention than intended to choices such as color and engine size, and a bit less attention than intended on information such as the chances of fatalities should there be an accident with the car. This pattern can be taken as evidence for

the certainty effect

Even though Mildred knows that her relationship with her boyfriend is in trouble, she decides not to do anything about it (i.e., she will simply neglect the relationship and let it slowly fall to pieces). Social psychologists would say that her decision to do nothing most reflects ____.

the omission bias

Much of the time, people are interested in keeping their options open rather than making restrictive, final decisions. Two biases that help them avoid making decisions are ____.

the status quo bias and the omission bias

The so-called Zeigarnik effect refers to the tendency for people ____.

to experience automatic, intrusive thoughts about a goal when pursuit of that goal has been interrupted

Self-determination theory states that people have an innate need ____.

to feel at least some degree of autonomy and internal motivation

The so-called panic button effect refers to the tendency for people ____.

to feel relatively less stress or suffering when they think that they have the option of escaping from a situation (compared to when they think they do not have the option of escaping)

MOST people show a tendency ____ when making decisions that require tradeoffs.

to give more losses to possible gains

The so-called "status quo bias" in decision-making refers to the tendency for people to ____.

want to keep things the way they are instead of changing

Research on positive illusions and goal-setting indicates that ____.

when setting goals, most people set aside positive illusions, and are (at least temporarily) realistic

Research on decision-making indicates that there are two main steps in making choices. They are ____.

whittling the full range of choices down to a limited few and then carefully considering these remaining few options.

One advantage of being an incremental theorist rather than an entity theorist is that ____.

you are more likely to persist in the face of challenges and setbacks

Suppose that an annoying co-worker is always making passes at you and trying to ask you out on dates. Research on the panic button effect suggests that you would be less troubled by this person if ____.

you felt that you could simply tell the person to stop if you wanted to