Exam 1 Questions (CH. 1-3 LT & Quizzes)

Which aspect of social cognition involves consciously focusing on aspects of the environment? A) Attention B) Interpretation C) Judgment D) Memory

A) Attention

Which type of nonverbal communication is relatively universal? A) Facial expressions such as smiles and frowns B) Verbal expressions of joy and sadness C) Eye contact and staring D) Gestures such as thumbs up or the OK sign

A) Facial expressions such as smiles and frowns

Which of the following is not a focus of social psychology? A) How groups function B) What causes individual behavior C) How social environments influence thoughts D) How emotions influence social life

A) How groups function

In the study by Proudfoot, Kay, and Koval (2015) on implicit attitudes about gender, the researchers found that when participants were told an architectural design was by a female, they judged it to be ________ creative compared to when they were told the same design was by a male A) Less B) More C) Equally D) Very

A) Less

Which of the following categories is NOT one of the categories mentioned in the textbook regarding factors affecting social interaction? A) Perceptual processes B) Cognitive processes C) Environmental variables D) Biological factors

A) Perceptual processes

Believing we can get more accomplished in a certain period of time than we actually can is called the ___________ A) Planning fallacy B) Counterfactual thinking C) Magical thinking D) Overconfidence

A) Planning fallacy

Tom just found out that he got a promotion. Rachel just found out that she lost her job. They're both talking to their friend Ben, who tells them a far-fetched story about what he did the night before. Who is most likely to detect that Ben is lying? A) Rachel B) Ben C) Both D) Neither

A) Rachel

Which statement BEST describes the attribution process? A) The process by which we seek to understand the causes of the behavior of others and ourselves. B) The process by which we focus attention inward for reflection. C) The process by which we combine information about others into unified impressions of them. D The process by which we seek to understand our own feelings, traits, and motives.

A) The process by which we seek to understand the causes of the behavior of others and ourselves

Which of the following terms refers to a framework that explains certain events or processes? A) Theory B) Hypothesis C) Deception D) Meta-analysis

A) Theory

Because of the self-serving bias, we tend to attribute our successes to ______________ causes and our failures to ________________ causes. A) internal; external B) external; internal C) controllable; uncontrollable D) uncontrollable; controllable

A) internal; external

Social psychologists focus their attention mainly on individuals because ___________ A) our actions are performed by and thoughts occur in the minds of individuals B) the behavior of groups is too difficult to study in laboratory conditions C) cultural differences have a strong effect on the behavior of groups but only a weak effect on individuals D) some individuals are more strongly affected by society than are others

A) our actions are performed by and thoughts occur in the minds of individuals

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 ________ A) worse; feel the same regardless of the size of the tragedy B) more overwhelmed; felt worse about the smaller tragedy C) less concerned; feel the same regardless of the size of the tragedy D) helpless; felt more empathy for the smaller tragedy's victims

A) worse; feel the same regardless of the size of the tragedy

Which process of social cognition refers to the information we notice? A) Encoding B) Attention C) Retrieval D) Cognitive load

B) Attention

Your friend is talking about how murders are very common because he's been seeing reports of them all over the news lately. This is an example of the ___________ heuristic A) Representativeness B) Availability C) Anchoring and adjustment D) Status quo

B) Availability

Luis hears some gossip that his new neighbor slit a man's throat. He now has a negative impression of the neighbor. What would change Luis's impression of his neighbor to become more positive? A) Finding out the neighbor is very sorry for what he did B) Finding out the neighbor slit the man's throat to perform a tracheotomy because the man couldn't breathe C) Finding out the neighbor is very warm and friendly D) Finding out the man whose throat he slit survived

B) Finding out the neighbor slit the man's throat to perform a tracheotomy because the man couldn't breathe

Harry was 1 point away from getting an A in his transfiguration class. Ron was 5 points away from getting an A in the class. Which person is probably more upset with their grade? A) Ron B) Harry C) Both are equally upset D) Neither are upset

B) Harry

What types of information are we most likely to notice? A) Information that is inconsistent with our schemas B) Information that is consistent with our schemas C) Information that we encode D) Information that we retrieve

B) Information that is consistent with our schemas

What is the name of the committee that ensures that research is being conducted ethically? A) Institutional Board of Review B) Institutional Review Board C) Institutional Ethics Committee D) Institutional Committee on Ethics

B) Institutional Review Board

Josh is having a difficult day. His female friend Maria and male friend Matt both pat him on the arm. His friend Toby smiles at him. Which behavior makes Josh feel more secure? A) Matt patting his arm B) Maria patting his arm C) Toby smiling at him D) Both B and C

B) Maria patting his arm

Controlled processing occurs mostly in the __________________, whereas automatic processing occurs mostly in the __________________ A) Limbic system; prefrontal cortex areas B) Prefrontal cortex areas; limbic system C) Temporal lobe; parietal lobe D) Parietal lobe; temporal lobe

B) Prefrontal cortex areas; limbic system

Which of the following dimensions of causal attribution is used to evaluate if behavior is likely to change? A) Internal-external dimension B) Stable-unstable dimension C) Controllable-uncontrollable dimension D) Distinct-indistinct dimension

B) Stable-unstable dimension

The two-factor theory of emotion proposes that we infer our feelings from _____________ A) Our physiological arousal B) The situations in which we experience these emotions C) Other people's reactions D) Our mood

B) The situations in which we experience these emotions

According to the evolutionary perspective, why do we find people with traits such as symmetrical features and clear skin attractive? A) Their faces are easier to cognitively process. B) The traits are indicators of good health. C) People with these traits tend to be nicer. D) People with these traits tend to be nicer.

B) The traits are indicators of good health

Which of the following is a downside of schemas? A) The can cause us to process social information at a slower rate B) They can remain unchanged in the face of contradictory information C) They are unable to guide our thoughts or actions D) They cause social information to be disorganized in our brain

B) They can remain unchanged in the face of contradictory information

Which of the following is a type of other-enhancement? A) Getting a haircut B) Using flattering language C) Dieting to lose weight D) Wearing a suit and tie

B) Using flattering language

What does research on impression formation suggests about our ability to form impressions of other people? A) We are pretty bad at forming accurate impressions. B) We are pretty good at forming accurate impressions. C) It takes us a long time to form impressions. D) We can never form an accurate impression.

B) We are pretty good at forming accurate impressions.

The two-factor theory of emotion is based on the principle that ____________ A) affect influences cognition B) cognition influences affect C) affect and cognition are independent D) affect and cognition can't be distinguished

B) cognition influences affect

Which of the following statements best describes evolutionary psychology? A) People evolve certain traits because they are beneficial B) Adaptive traits are not selected and are passed along to the next generations C) Certain traits are selected for and are passed along to subsequent generations D) Beneficial variations are selected for and other variations cease to exist

C) Certain traits are selected for and are passed along to subsequent generations

Which of the following best describes the relationship between affect and cognition? A) Affect influences cognition B) Cognition influences affect C) Cognition and affect are unrelated D) Cognition and affect influence each other

C) Cognition and affect influence each other

Tammy is conducting a study on how exercise is related to decreased stress. She predicts that exercise leads to the release of endorphins, which leads to decreased stress. Which of these variables is a mediator? A) Exercise B) Stress C) Endorphins D) None of the above

C) Endorphins

Which of the following emotions is mostly expressed similarly across cultures? A) Sadness B) Fear C) Happiness D) Disgust

C) Happiness

You see a woman wearing a red shirt and khaki pants and assume she is a Target employee. What heuristic did you use? A) Status quo B) Anchoring and adjustment C) Representativeness D) Availability

C) Representativeness

What group of professionals is better at detecting lies than the general population? A) Police officers B) FBI agents C) Secret service agents D) All of the above

C) Secret service agents

Suppose smoking and drinking alcohol are found to be correlated at +.65. We can conclude that ________ A) smoking causes drinking B) drinking causes smoking C) as smoking increases, drinking increases D) as smoking increases, drinking decreases

C) as smoking increases, drinking increases

Mood congruence effects occur during _______________, whereas mood dependent memory effects occur during _______ A) encoding & retrieval; attention B) retrieval; attention & encoding C) attention & encoding; retrieval D) attention; encoding & retrieval

C) attention & encoding; retrieval

Sam is trying to make plans with his friend Nicole, but she keeps canceling on him. He notices that his other friends don't cancel on him, that Nicole cancels plans with him frequently, and that she keeps canceling on her other friends as well. Based on these factors, Sam is likely to make an ____________ attribution that ____________ A) external; Nicole is flaky B) external; he's no fun to hang out with C) internal; Nicole is flaky D) internal; he's no fun to hang out with

C) internal; Nicole is flaky

Controlled processing ___________ and automatic processing ___________. A) is effortless; is effortful B) is intuitive; is logical C) occurs in the prefrontal cortex; occurs in the amygdala D) Both A and C

C) occurs in the prefrontal cortex; occurs in the amygdala

Tara is a cashier at a grocery store, and a customer snaps at her for not bagging quickly enough. Tara is likely going to make a __________ attribution that ____________ A) situational; the woman is having a bad day B) dispositional; the woman is having a bad day C) situational; the woman is rude D) dispositional; the woman is rude

C) situational; the woman is rude

Imagine you need to ask your friend for a favor. According to the research about how moods affect behaviors, when would be the best time to ask her? A) After she found out she failed an exam B) While you're at the gym together C) When you're in a great mood D) After she was just offered her dream job

D) After she was just offered her dream job

What types of schemas drive our thought? A) Schemas that are strong B) Schemas that use metaphors C) Schemas that are primed D) Both A and C

D) Both A and C

Which of the following contrasts controlled processing and automatic processing? A) Controlled processing occurs very quickly, whereas automatic processing occurs at a much slower rate. B) Controlled processing is largely intuitive, whereas automatic processing is largely logical. C) Controlled processing occurs in the amygdala, whereas automatic processing occurs in the prefrontal cortex. D) Controlled processing is systematic and effortful, whereas automatic processing is fast and relatively effortless.

D) Controlled processing is systematic and effortful, whereas automatic processing is fast and relatively effortless.

Which of the following is NOT a necessary component of an experiment? A) Independent variable B) Dependent variable C) Random assignment D) Mediating variable

D) Mediating variable

Michael thinks that working hard is related to gray hair, but only among those who experience high levels of stress. What type of variable is stress? A) Independent B) Dependent C) Mediator D) Moderator

D) Moderator

One way that schemas influence social thought is by ________ A) ensuring that inconsistent information is stored in our memories and retrieved rapidly B) increasing our cognitive load by activating more information from our long-term memory stores C) activating the availability heuristic and enabling automatic priming D) acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information

D) acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information

The fundamental attribution error states that we tend to make _________________ attributions for others' behavior rather than ______________ attributions A) situational; dispositional B) stable; unstable C) unstable; stable D) dispositional; situational

D) dispositional; situational

The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that _________________________ A) our emotions influence our facial expressions B) we get feedback on others' emotions from their faces C) others get feedback on our emotions from our faces D) our facial expressions influence our emotions

D) our facial expressions influence our emotions

One reason that social scientists put their faith in the scientific method is that the scientific method ________ A) produces incontrovertible proof of the accuracy of their theories B) assures acceptance of their conclusions by the general public C) allows scientists to rely on their own intuition D) produces more conclusive evidence than other methods

D) produces more conclusive evidence than other methods