Exam 1

After reading Chapter 2 (Methodology), what would you say to a president who proudly takes credit for the following events happening during his term: lowering the deficit, reducing crime, and increasing literacy?

"Correlation does not mean causation."

If your professor asks you to list ten ways to improve the course and you cannot do it, how will that affect your course ratings overall?

...

Applying the lessons learned from Rosenthal and Jacobson, if you wanted your child to succeed, what would be the best nickname for him?

Champ

According to the authors of your text, people raised in which of the following countries would be most likely to have a holistic thinking style?

China

Christopher is considering breaking up with his high-school sweetheart. He spends many hours weighing the benefits and drawbacks, he asks his friends for advice, and he thinks about it further before coming to his decision. In this case Christopher is using

Controlled thinking

Which of the following is the best illustration of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Emily always wanted to be a physician when she grew up and is now finishing medical school.

Why is a scientific approach preferable to reliance on folk wisdom and common sense?

Folk wisdom and common sense are filled with contradictions.

The whole is different from the sum of its parts. This statement reflects a tenet of ________ psychology.

Gestalt

Complete the analogy: analytic thinking style: ___________ :: holistic thinking style: _____________.

Great Britain; Italy

If all humans have access to the same cognitive tools, what is the role of culture?

It help make accurate decisions

Institutional review boards (IRBs) must be composed of certain types of people. If the IRB at Claudius University already consists of a scientist and a nonscientist, which of the following people would also need to be on the IRB at Claudius University?

Mr. Allen, a physician in the town near Claudius University

according to the authors of your test, when faced with a puzzling social quesion, it may be tempting to ask people why they behaved as they did. Why is this not always the best way to understand social behavior?

People would not necessarily know why they behaved as they did.

________ refers to the way people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions about themselves and others.

Social cognition

In many respects, reality television shows are similar to observational research in social psychology. In what crucial respect are reality TV shows most different from observational research?

The observations were not conducted in a systematic, scientific manner

You have just arrived for your first year of college, but your roommate, Leah, is nowhere to be found. Your next-door neighbor, Tim, tells you that he's met Leah, and that she's really shy and introverted. If you wanted to counteract the self-fulfilling prophecy, what might you do when you meet Leah?

Try to get her to talk about fun activities she did in high school.

Isaac is on an interview for a job for which he is well qualified. However, he is worried that some of the people may have negative schemas about his ethnicity and that they may shape his behavior on the interview with self-fulfilling prophecies. Of the people he meets with (listed below), who is the least likely to use self-fulfilling prophecies?

Tyler, who is paying close attention to Isaac, and wants to make an accurate judgment of him

Why do we use schemas?

Without schemas, the world would seem inexplicable and confusing.

Imagine it is the end of a long day and you are hot and ready to head home. If the research on the connection between physical sensations and the judgments they affect is correct which of the following about social influence is most likely to occur?

You will not be influenced because you feel too negatively.

Which of the following best defines the term "sample"?

a group of people who are representative of the population as a whole

Assume that instead of conducting experiments, Latané and Darley had used a correlational method to study the relationship between the number of bystanders who witness an emergency and how quickly a victim receives help. Assume that the correlational data were compatible with results from experiments: the more bystanders, the more time it took bystanders to help. What type of correlation is this between time and number of bystanders?

a positive correlation

Tiffany has a hard time trusting other people her age because she believes they are irresponsible. Accordingly, when she makes dinner plans with one friend, she also makes backup plans with someone else, and she goes to one or the other. Her friends soon in turn begin to "blow off" their arrangements since it is not clear whether or not Tiffany will show up. Tiffany has created

a self-fulfilling prophecy

Warren believes that Tom is an outgoing, gregarious person. "Whom did you hang out with this weekend?" Warren asks Tom. "Tell me about all of the fun things that you have planned for the summer," Warren continues. Although Tom is usually rather quiet and reserved, he responds to Warren in an outgoing, friendly manner. This is an example of

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Based on information from your text about cultural differences in thinking, complete the analogy: Western: _________:: Eastern: __________.

analytic; holistic

Several studies conducted by Nisbett and his colleagues involved showing participants two similar pictures and asking them to find the differences between them. Nisbett and colleagues found that Western participants had a more __________ thinking style, and East participants had a more ___________ thinking style.

analytic; holistic

In order for priming to work successfully, thoughts need to be both

applicable and accessible.

Most initial impressions of a novel situation are made using

automatic thinking

87. Karen is so used to driving to her boyfriend's house that when she is taking her little brother to softball practice early one morning, before she is fully awake, she finds herself driving to her boyfriend's house instead. This is an example of

automatic thinking.

Complete the following analogy. Nonconscious thinking: _______ :: conscious thinking: ________.

automatic; controlled

Social psychologists have identified two motives that are of primary importance in explaining our thoughts and behaviors. According to your textbook authors, these are the need to ________ and the need to ________.

be as accurate as possible; feel good about ourselves

In a controlled experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) informed grade school teachers that some of their students (called "bloomers") would show great academic improvement in the upcoming year. In reality, the "bloomers" were chosen randomly by the researchers, and were no smarter than any of the other students. Which of the following best describes the results of this study? At the end of the year,

bloomers improved more on an IQ test than did non-bloomers

The major difference between experiments and other research methods is that experiments involve

both internal and external validity

Which of the following pairs of variables are most likely to be negatively correlated?

calories consumed; weight loss

Based on the information in this chapter, when we meet someone new, we are likely to

categorize this person based on our schemas and other people we know.

Ava is at a party, deep in conversation with her friends. Suddenly, she hears her name mentioned in another conversation and her attention turns to monitor that conversation. Clearly, Ava had been unconsciously monitoring the other conversations. Such experiences demonstrate the

cocktail party effect

Which of the following is not an example of automatic thinking?

conducting a search on the Internet

Social psychologists use the term ________ to describe the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret their social worlds.

construal

The "father" of modern experimental social psychology, Kurt Lewin, pointed out the importance of understanding how people ________ their social environments.

construe

A researcher is interested in the relationship between the number of a person's past sexual partners and the person's decision to have an HIV test. To determine this, the researcher should use the ________ method.

correlational

A researcher wants to see if there is a relationship between a person's birth order and his or her leadership ability. The best method for answering this question would be

correlational

Are people who are better educated more or less prejudiced than people who have less education? This question is most appropriately answered by using

correlational research

In explaining why so many people watching on the Internet failed to come to the aid of Abraham Biggs, who committed suicide, a behaviorist would most likely address the

danger or inconvenience that faced anyone who intervened.

Dr. Winstell is interested in studying prejudice, and devises a study in which Caucasian participants are led to believe that they are chatting electronically with an African-American participant. In reality, the participants are responding to another Caucasian participant, and she discloses this information to all participants at the end of the study. Dr. Winstell has used ________ in her study.

deception

Recall that Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) informed grade-school teachers that some of their students (called "bloomers") would show great academic improvement in the upcoming year. Also recall that students labeled "bloomers" actually showed greater increases on IQ tests compared to students who were not labeled "bloomers." These differences occurred because the teachers.

decided to devote their attention to the students with the most promise.

The variable a researcher measures to see if it is affected in the experiment is called the

dependent variable.

The social cognition approach compares people to amateur

detectives

Recall that Harold Kelley (1950) told some college students that their guest instructor was a warm person, and others that he was a cold person. Students who were told that the guest instructor was a warm person evaluated him more positively and participated more in class discussion than did students who were told that he was cold. These results support the idea that schemas are

different, depending on the information to which we are exposed.

When social psychologists do research, they seek to answer questions with experimentation and measurement. By doing so, they are asking _______ questions.

empirical

Using random selection is a way to ensure that

every participant in a sample has an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment.

Which research method allows the researcher to focus on causality?

experimental methods

Our use of mental shortcuts usually leads to

good decisions in a reasonable amount of time.

Several studies conducted by Nisbett and his colleagues suggest that people who grow up in East Asian cultures think more ___________ than people who grew up in Western cultures.

holistically

The term "self-fulfilling prophecy" refers to the tendency to

inadvertently elicit the very behaviors we expect from others.

When a person agrees to participate in an experiment in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which has been provided prior to their participation, the participant has provided

informed consent.

Korsakov's syndrome is a neurological disorder that makes sufferers unable to form new memories. The world is disorienting and incoherent to patients with this disorder, so they often confabulate and invent fictions to make the world less scary and confusing. A social psychologist might say that these patients

invent schemas where none exist.

Marco is an athlete and plays three different types of sports. When he sees Emma in a track suit, he assumes that she is an athlete as well. The reason this happens is that Marco's schema is

is primed by the representativeness heuristic.

Jordan's lover of four years just left him. He is hurt, angry, and confused, and says to himself, "He never did understand my need for independence." This explanation for the break-up best reflects which human motive?

justifying our suffering

Spinoza (1663) proposed the idea that when you love someone whom you used to hate, you

love him or her more strongly than if hatred had not preceded the love

The way that automatic and controlled thinking tend to work together can be best compared to a

modern jet system that can fly on automatic pilot but also has a manual override.

Social psychological research has convincingly demonstrated that the ________ the initiation to join a group, the ________ the initiates like the group.

more severe; more

Recall that Latané and Darley observed the number of participants in each experimental condition who left their cubicles to help the alleged victim of a seizure. The ________ was the independent variable in their experiment.

number of other participants present

Researchers Miyamoto, Nisbett, and Masuda compared photographs of city scenes in the U.S. and Japan. They found that on average, city scenes in Japan contained more

objects and information.

Professor Swenson is interested in university students' reactions to the death of a popular rock star. For two weeks, Professor Swenson spends one hour a day in a popular cafeteria, inconspicuously listening to students, joining in their conversations when the topic of the dead rock star comes up, and recording what the students have to say. Professor Swenson is conducting ________ research.

observational

Which of the following is not a typical example of the kind of knowledge that is contained in a schema? Your knowledge

of the first date when you spilled red punch all over your partner.

A researcher discovers a strong positive correlation between ice cream sales and the incidence of violent crimes. Based on this, we can conclude that

on a day when ice cream sales are high, there are likely to be more violent crimes.

Research demonstrated that physical sensation can activate metaphors that influence our judgments about unrelated topics. If you wanted students to take your petition seriously, you should present the information about it

on a heavy tablet

When researchers say that there is a relationship between two variables, this means

one is causing the other.

We can form impressions of people we interact with rather quickly and effortlessly. We do this by engaging in an automatic analysis of our environments, based on.

our past experiences and knowledge of the world.

according to the authors of your text, in the social cognition approach a major hallmark of being human is

perception of reality

Watson, the computer, won his game of Jeopardy against two very skilled opponents. However, he would not do very well at

poker

Before Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine to prevent polio, people noticed a correlation between outside temperature and the incidence of polio: The warmer the temperature over the course of the year, the more outbreaks of polio. This relationship is an example of a(n) ________ correlation.

positive

One strength of observational research methods is that they can be useful for describing behavior. However, these methods do not allow researchers to ________ human behavior.

predict and explain

Alice goes to see a rerun of Jaws (a movie about a vicious shark) a few days before she takes off to Florida on spring break. On break, she finds that she is now too nervous to spend much time actually in the water, since she is convinced that anything she sees in the water is a shark. Her heightened sensitivity is due to

priming

Observational research allows a researcher to

provide a description of a phenomenon.

According to the authors of your text, when people use automatic thinking, they tend to size up new situations

quickly and accurately

A researcher is designing an experiment, and ensures that each participant is equally likely to be in one condition as another. He does not assign them based on any characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, or personality. This researcher is ________ participants.

randomly selecting

Behaviorists believe that all learning is a result of

reinforcement and punishment

Complete the analogy: correlation: __________:: experiment: __________.

relate; cause

Complete the analogy: hindsight bias: _________:: hypothesis: _________.

retrospection; prediction

In trying to make sense of the mass suicide in Jonestown, a behaviorist would probably examine the

rewards and punishments that Jim Jones used to influence his followers.

The fact that students "instantly" know the difference between a classroom and a party is an example of a(n)

schema

According to the authors of your text, people are likely to quickly categorize people they have just met. This is due to people's reliance on

schemas

When Matilda met Joe, she instantly categorized him as a nerd because of his appearance and intense interest in technology and mathematics. Matilda's categorization is an example of her use of

schemas

When you meet your new roommate for the first time, he is wearing glasses, listening to classical music, and reading a copy of the New Yorker Review of Books. You think, "Well, maybe rooming with an intellectual this year will be good for me." You instantly categorized your roommate as an intellectual on the basis of your

schemas

Isabella goes to a fortune teller who tells her, "You are the type of person who is very outgoing and sociable, yet at times you enjoy being alone." Isabella thinks this captures her personality amazingly well, because she finds many instances in her memories of such behaviors. Isabella has just fallen prey to the

self-fulfilling prophecy

Jane analyzed the results of her study and found that the probability of getting such findings by chance was less than 1 in 100. Jane can say that her results are statistically

significant

In general, when people first encounter a novel situation, they tend to

size up the situation quickly and effortlessly and, for the most part, correctly

When most Americans walk into a fast food restaurant chain, they know they should walk up to the counter to order, pay, and pick up their food, rather than sit down and wait to be served. This knowledge of how to act in such a situation is called a

stereotype

Research in which a representative sample of people are asked questions about their attitudes or behavior is called

survey research.

Whereas observational research is designed to ________ behavior, correlational research is designed to ________.

systematically describe; assess relations between variables

Julia reads a research study which shows that when children have a mother who talks about emotions with them, the children tend to be more empathetic. Julia scoffs, "This is obvious; I could have told you that!" Julia's reaction to the study is an example of

the hindsight bias.

According to the definition of social psychology presented in your text, social psychology is the study of how ________ affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of humans.

the presence of real or imagined others

"People literally create their own realities" is the basic idea behind ________.

the self-fulfilling prophecy

Which of the following is the best definition of the fundamental attribution to error

the tendency to underestimate the power of social influence

Social cognition is the study of how people

think about themselves and the social world.

In their experiment, why did Bibb Latané and John Darley (1968) expose all participants to the same audiotaped seizure? They wanted

to be able to assign participants at random.

A goal of ethnography that makes it different from other methods of testing theories is that in ethnography, the researcher

tries to understand the group or culture without imposing his or her own ideas on it.

How do social psychologists differ from those who rely on common sense or folk wisdom in answering questions about human nature? Social psychologists

use science to test hypotheses about the social world.

Automatic thinking tends to be all of the following except

voluntary

Recall that Kelley (1950) told some students that a guest instructor was a warm person and others that a guest instructor was a cold person. When the instructor behaved in an arrogant way, he was rated as immodest, no matter what students were told about him at the outset. These findings suggest that

when behaviors are clear, we rely less on our schemas.

If two variables have no correlation with one another, this means that

you cannot predict one from the other.