Mgt291 chapter 4 Understanding Social Perception and Managing Diversity

Ethnocentrism: A. manifests itself in the belief that differences are viewed as weaknesses. B. represents the feeling that one's cultural rules and norms are more appropriate than the rules and norms of another culture. C. is associated with the lack of opportunities for diverse employees to get the type of work assignments that qualify them for senior management positions. D. leads to subtle resistance that shows up in the form of complaints and negative attitudes. E. states that women and people of color are excluded from organizational networks.

B. represents the feeling that one's cultural rules and norms are more appropriate than the rules and norms of another culture. The ethnocentrism barrier represents the feeling that one's cultural rules and norms are superior or more appropriate than the rules and norms of another culture.

_____ entails enabling people to perform up to their maximum potential. A. Affirmative action B. Central tendency C. Managing diversity D. Glass ceiling E. Perception

C . Managing diversity

The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them with characteristics of recently observed people or objects is called: A. leniency. B. central tendency. C. contrast effect. D. recency effect. E. halo.

C. Contrast effect

_____ is the cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings. A. Personality B. Attitude C. Perception D. Ethics E. Diversity

C. Perception

_____ focuses on achieving equality of opportunity in an organization. A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effect D. Affirmative action E. The fundamental attribution error

D. Affirmative Action Affirmative action is an outgrowth of equal employment opportunity (EEO) legislation. The goal of this legislation is to outlaw discrimination and to encourage organizations to proactively prevent discrimination.

Stage 3 of the social information processing model is: A. selective attention/comprehension. B. encoding. C. simplification. D. storage and retention. E. retrieval and response.

D. storage and retention.--

Attribution theory is based on the premise that: A. people judge events on the basis of the recent information received by them. B. we create cognitive categories for each piece of information. C. events are stored in the form of pictures in our memory. D. people tend to avoid extreme judgments while rating someone's performance. E. people attempt to infer causes for observed behavior.

E. people attempt to infer causes for observed behavior. Attribution theory is based on the premise that people attempt to infer causes for observed behavior.

Accordingly to psychologist Harold Kelley, unstable performance of a given task over time means low consistency.

True

Affirmative action focuses on achieving equality of opportunity in organizations and is legally mandated in the United States by the Equal Opportunity laws.

True

Employees' evaluations of leader effectiveness are influenced strongly by their schemata of good and poor leaders.

True

Ethnocentrism is the feeling that one's cultural roles and norms are superior.

True

Managers tend to disproportionately attribute behaviors to internal causes.

True

List the common barriers to implementing successful diversity programs.

• Inaccurate stereotype and prejudice • Ethnocentrism • Poor career planning • An unsupportive and hostile environment for diverse employees • Lack of political savvy on the part of the diverse employees • Difficulty in balancing career and family issues • Fears of reverse discrimination • Diversity is not seen as an organizational priority • The need to revamp the organization's performance appraisal and reward system • Resistance to change

_____ are suspected or inferred causes of behavior. A. Causal attributions B. Encoding events C. Personalities D. Semantics E. Schemata

A. Causal attributions Formally defined, causal attributions are suspected or inferred causes of behavior.

Which of the following dimensions of behavior is determined by comparing a person's behavior on one task with his/her behavior on other tasks? A. Distinctiveness B. Consensus C. Accuracy D. Consistency E. Fairness

A. Distinctiveness

An organization that deals with diversity by forcing diverse people to fit in is using the suppression option.

False An organization that deals with diversity by forcing diverse people to fit in is using the assimilation option.

Diversity is primarily an issue of race, age, and gender.

False Diversity pertains to everybody. It is not an issue of age, race, or gender.

It is important to remember that in attribution theory, consensus relates to other tasks, consistency relates to other people, and distinctiveness relates to time.

False It is important to remember that consensus relates to other people, distinctiveness relates to other tasks, and consistency relates to time.

Research suggests that the first step an organization should take to overcome obstacles to diversity is to engage in training all employees, including managers.

False Research suggests that organizations should take two key steps to overcome obstacles to diversity. First, leaders are encouraged to explain to their employees why the organization values diversity. Second, it is important for managers to challenge stereotypical expectations that people have about others.

"Encoding and simplification" is the first stage of the social information processing model.

False The basic social information processing model shows that encoding and simplification occurs in the second stage of the social information processing model.

In the social information processing model, a person "retrieves" social information before retaining it.

False The basic social information processing model shows that retention occurs in the third step of the social information processing mode, whereas, the fourth step includes retrieval and response.

Perception is at the center of the diversity wheel because it represents the stable set of characteristics that is responsible for a person's identity.

False The four-layer diversity model shows that personality is at the center of the diversity wheel. Personality is at the center because it represents a stable set of characteristics that is responsible for a person's identity.

Religion is one of the primary dimensions of diversity.

False The four-layer diversity model shows that personality is at the center of the diversity wheel. The next layer of diversity consists of a set of internal dimensions that are referred to as the primary dimensions of diversity. It includes race, age, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and ethnicity.

According to research on performance appraisal, managers should use more subjectively-based measures of performance because objective measures are prone to bias and inaccuracy.

False The importance of using objective rather than subjective measures of employee performance was highlighted in a meta-analysis involving 50 studies. The researchers concluded that objective and subjective measures of performance are not interchangeable. Managers are thus advised to use more objectively based measures of performance as much as possible because subjective indicators are prone to bias and inaccuracy.

In the "tolerate" option for dealing with diversity, minority employees are often put on special projects or into independent entities.

False Toleration entails acknowledging differences but not valuing or accepting them. It represents a live-and-let-live approach that superficially allows organizations to give lip service to the issue of managing diversity.

When an object stands out from its context, it is salient

True

Whenever Molly heard the song "Summer Of '69," it brought back memories of her first date with her husband when they had been to 'The Soul Café,' with the song playing in the background. Which of the following compartments of the long-term memory is this information most likely to be stored in? A. Event memory B. Semantic memory C. Explicit memory D. Person memory E. External memory

A. Event Memory Event memory is composed of categories containing information about both specific and general events. These memories describe appropriate sequences of events in well-known situations, such as going to a restaurant, going on a job interview, going to a food store, or going to a movie.

From 2000 to 2050, one of the following groups will account for the greatest net percentage increase in new workers in the U.S. Which one? A. Hispanics B. African-Americans C. Asian-Americans D. Native Americans E. Caucasians

A. Hispanics Asians and Hispanics are expected to have the largest growth in population between 2000 and 2050. The Asian population will triple to 33 million by 2050, and Hispanics will increase their ranks by 118% to 102.6 million. Hispanics will account for 25% of the population in 2050.

_____ refers to a personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion. A. Leniency B. Central tendency C. Contrast effect D. Recency effect E. Halo

A. Leniency

Which of the following exists at the core of diversity? A. Personality B. Perception C. Attitude D. Internal dimensions E. External dimensions

A. Personality The four-layer diversity model shows that personality is at the center of the diversity wheel.

A(n) _____ represents a person's mental picture of an event or object. A. schema B. cognitive category C. stereotype D. semantic E. attribution

A. Schema According to social information processing theory, a schema represents a person's mental picture or summary of a particular event or type of stimulus.

Chelsea has $11,000 for investment. She talks to friends and neighbors to find out what they have invested in (stocks or bonds and which stocks). She also interviews four different investment advisors at local brokerage companies to understand what they recommend. Chelsea can be described as being in which stage of the social information processing model? A. Selective attention/comprehension B. Encoding C. Simplification D. Storage and Retention E. Retrieval and Response

A. Selective attention/comprehension People are constantly bombarded by physical and social stimuli in the environment. Because they do not have the mental capacity to fully comprehend all this information, they selectively perceive subsets of environmental stimuli. The basic social information processing model shows that these salient pieces of information thus are perceived, and you then progress to the second stage of information processing.

Which of the following represents the first stage of the social information processing model? A. Selective attention/comprehension B. Encoding C. Simplification D. Storage and retention E. Retrieval and response

A. Selective attention/comprehension----- The basic social information processing model illustrates four stages. Three of the stages in this model—selective attention/comprehension, encoding and simplification, and storage and retention—describe how specific social information is observed and stored in memory.

Hannah always had the tendency to take the credit when she met the deadline for her work. However, when she failed to do so, she blamed the level of difficulty of the project or other external factors. Hannah is a victim of which of the following attributional tendencies? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency error C. Contrast effects D. Fundamental attribution bias E. Halo error

A. Self-serving bias The self-serving bias represents one's tendency to take more personal responsibility for success than for failure.

Stereotyping is a four-stage process. It begins by: A. categorizing people into groups according to various criteria, such as gender, age, race, and occupation. B. inferring that all people within a particular category possess the same traits or characteristics. C. forming expectation of others and interpreting their behavior according to the stereotypes. D. maintaining the stereotypes by overestimating the frequency of stereotypic behaviors exhibited by others. E. maintaining the stereotypes by differentiating minority individuals from oneself.

A. categorizing people into groups according to various criteria, such as gender, age, race, and occupation.

Long-term memory is made up of three compartments. They are: A. events, semantic materials, and people. B. encoding, decoding, and processing. C. individual, group, and organization. D. storage, retention, and response. E. perception, personality, and attitude.

A. events, semantic materials, and people.

There is high consensus when: A. one acts like the rest of the group. B. a person performs differently from the group's other members. C. there is a huge difference between the ways a person has performed two different tasks. D. a person's performance is stable across different tasks. E. a person has performed a certain task the same way, time after time. There is high consensus when one acts like the rest of the group.

A. one acts like the rest of the group.

The _____ represents one's tendency to take more personal responsibility for success than for failure. A. self-serving bias B. glass ceiling C. contrast effect D. fundamental attribution bias E. recency effect

A. self-serving bias

If an organization approaches diversity by acknowledging differences but not accepting them, it is using the "_____" option to manage diversity. A. tolerate B. suppress C. deny D. isolate E. assimilate

A. tolerate Toleration entails acknowledging differences but not valuing or accepting them. It represents a live-and-let-live approach that superficially allows organizations to give lip service to the issue of managing diversity.

According to research, what are the behaviors that good leaders exhibit?

According to research, good leaders were perceived to exhibit the following behaviors: • assigning specific tasks to group members; • telling others that they had done well; • setting specific goals for the group; • letting other group members make decisions; • trying to get the group to work as a team; and • maintaining definite standards of performance.

_____ is the process of becoming consciously aware of something or someone. A. Personality B. Attention C. Attitude D. Simplification E. Retrieval

B. Attention

If a student rates all her professors' average on all dimensions of performance regardless of their actual performance, she is committing which of the following perceptual errors? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effect D. Recency effect E. Halo

B. Central Tendency Central tendency is the tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral.

Which of the following dimensions of behavior involves a comparison of an individual's behavior with that of his/her peers? A. Distinctiveness B. Consensus C. Accuracy D. Consistency E. Fairness

B. Consensus

_____ is the process through which raw information is translated into mental representations. A. Perception B. Encoding C. Retention D. Selective attention E. Stereotyping

B. Encoding Observed information is not stored in memory in its original form. Encoding is required; raw information is interpreted or translated into mental representations.

Brittani believes that she has always performed at her best at World Class Computers. She has also received the best performance ratings from her manager year on year. However, she has not been promoted for the last six years in spite of many of her male counterparts being promoted. Brittani's case is an example of the: A. self-serving bias. B. glass ceiling. C. contrast effect. D. fundamental attribution bias. E. recency effect.

B. Glass ceiling The term glass ceiling was coined in 1986. It was used to represent an absolute barrier or solid roadblock that prevented women from advancing to higher level positions.

The personal characteristics that are believed to affect behavior are: A. schematics. B. internal factors. C. perceptions. D. external factors. E. semantics.

B. Internal Factors

____ belongs to the external dimensions part of the diversity wheel. A. Union affiliation B. Religion C. Sexual orientation D. Ethnicity E. Seniority

B. Religion The four-layer diversity model shows that religion is a component of the external dimension in the diversity wheel.

Which of the following would help reduce the perceptual bias that occurs during the hiring process? A. Training interviewers to use the central tendency effect. B. Using structured interviews. C. Relying on evaluations from not more than two interviewers. D. Creating benchmarks for performance appraisal. E. Using subjective indicators to measure performance.

B. Using Structured interviews Bias can be reduced by using structured as opposed to unstructured interviews, and by relying on evaluations from multiple interviewers rather than just one or two people.

A _____ is a number of objects that are considered equivalent. A. schema B. category C. stereotype D. central tendency E. semantic

B. category "By category we mean a number of objects that are considered equivalent. Categories are generally designated by names, e.g., dog, animal."

Kelley hypothesized that people make causal attributions after gathering information about three dimensions of: A. consensus, distinctiveness, and efficiency. B. consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. C. perception, distinctiveness, and consistency. D. consensus, perception, and consistency. E. consensus, distinctiveness, and variability.

B. consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. Kelley hypothesized that people make causal attributions after gathering information about three dimensions of behavior: consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

If Julie acts like the rest of her group at work, then she seems to be demonstrating: A. low consensus. B. high distinctiveness. C. high consensus. D. low consistency. E. high consistency.

C. High Consensus Consensus involves a comparison of an individual's behavior with that of his/her peers. There is high consensus when one acts like the rest of the group.

_____ is a component of the external dimension in the diversity wheel. A. Age B. Ethnicity C. Marital status D. Sexual orientation E. Gender

C. Marital Status The four-layer diversity model shows that marital status is a component of the external dimension in the diversity wheel.

Something is _____ when it stands out from its context. A. schema B. cognitive C. salient D. self-serving E. encoded

C. Salient Something is salient when it stands out from its context

The _____ memory serves as a mental dictionary of concepts. A. explicit B. event C. semantic D. person E. external

C. Semantic

_____ memory refers to general knowledge about the world. A. Event B. Conceptual C. Semantic D. Person E. Stereotypic

C. Semantic Semantic Memory refers to general knowledge about the world

A(n) _____ is an individual's set of beliefs about the characteristics or attributes of a group. A. schema B. cognitive category C. stereotype D. attribution E. semantic

C. Stereotype

It is important to remember that _____ relates to other people, _____ relates to other tasks, and _____ relates to time. A. consensus; consistency; distinctiveness B. distinctiveness; consistency; consensus C. consensus; distinctiveness; consistency D. consistency; consensus; distinctiveness E. consistency; distinctiveness; consensus

C. consensus; distinctiveness; consistency It is important to remember that consensus relates to other people, distinctiveness relates to other tasks, and consistency relates to time.

The _____ reflects one's tendency to attribute another person's behavior to his/her personal characteristics, as opposed to situational factors. A. central tendency effect B. self-serving bias C. fundamental attribution bias D. recency effect E. leniency effect

C. fundamental attribution bias The fundamental attribution bias reflects one's tendency to attribute another person's behavior to his/her personal characteristics, as opposed to situational factors. This bias causes perceivers to ignore important environmental forces that often significantly affect behavior.

Fritz Heider, the founder of attribution theory, proposed that behavior can be attributed to: A. internal factors or external factors within the environment. B. strengths or weaknesses of a person. C. internal factors within a person or to external factors within the environment. D. semantic memory or event memory of a person. E. internal factors or external factors within the person.

C. internal factors within a person or to external factors within the environment. Fritz Heider, the founder of attribution theory, proposed that behavior can be attributed either to internal factors within a person (such as ability) or to external factors within the environment (such as a difficult task).

Internal attributions tend to be made when the observed behavior is characterized by: A. low consensus, high distinctiveness, and high consistency. B. high consensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency. C. low consensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency. D. high consensus, high distinctiveness, and low consistency. E. high consensus, low distinctiveness, and low consistency.

C. low consensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency. Internal attributions (personal factors) tend to be made when observed behavior is characterized by low consensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency.

_____ is determined by judging if the individual's performance on a given task is steady over time. A. Consensus B. Distinctiveness C. Schemata D. Consistency E. Semantics

D. Consistency Consistency is determined by judging if the individual's performance on a given task is consistent over time.

Ben, a store manager at the Grocers' Store, tends to make more internal denunciations about worker accidents than do his workers. Ben is engaging in which of the following? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency error C. Contrast effects D. Fundamental attribution bias E. Halo error

D. Fundamental attribution bias

_____ means the individual has performed the task in question in a significantly different manner than he/she has performed other tasks. A. Low consensus B. High consensus C. Low distinctiveness D. High distinctiveness E. High consistency

D. High Distinctiveness

Kathy hates to say anything negative about anybody. She always evaluates everybody in an extremely positive fashion. Kathy seems to be exhibiting which of the following perceptual errors? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effects D. Leniency E. Halo

D. Leniency Leniency is a personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion.

ISTA Airlines has had the worst record of flight arrivals. It is always late. However, because of the on-time or early arrival of all flights of ISTA Airlines in the last two weeks of November, Igor, the airline analyst at CBA Investments, rated the airline very favorably on arrival times in the annual report that he publishes every December. Igor seems to be exhibiting which of the following perceptual errors? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effect D. Recency effect E. Halo

D. Recency effect Recency effect is the tendency to remember recent information. If the recent information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively.

The _____ bias suggests that employees will attribute their success to internal factors and their failures to uncontrollable external factors. A. fundamental attribution B. central tendency C. leniency D. self-serving E. recency

D. Self-serving The self-serving bias suggests employees will attribute their success to internal factors (high ability or hard work) and their failures to uncontrollable external factors (tough job, bad luck, unproductive co-workers, or an unsympathetic boss).

_____ represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people. A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effects D. Fundamental attribution bias E. Diversity

E. Diversity Diversity represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people.

Cedrick, a production manager at Even Manufacturing, evaluated Daisy's overall performance very high, on every performance attribute. Cedrick's rationale was that Daisy is the first to show up every day and therefore she is extremely hard-working. Cedrick is said to be exhibiting which of the following perceptual errors? A. Self-serving bias B. Central tendency C. Contrast effects D. Recency effects E. Halo

E. Halo In case of a halo, a rater forms an overall impression about an object and then uses that impression to bias ratings about the object.

If Nicole does things differently from the rest of her group, then she seems to be demonstrating: A. low distinctiveness. B. high consistency. C. low consistency. D. high consensus. E. low consensus.

E. Low consensus

_____ means that a person performs a certain task the same way, time after time. A. High consensus B. Low consensus C. High distinctiveness D. High consistency E. Low consistency

E. Low consistency High consistency implies that a person performs a certain task the same way, time after time.

Unstable performance of a given task over time would mean: A. high consensus. B. low consensus. C. low distinctiveness. D. high consistency. E. low consistency.

E. low consistency. Unstable performance of a given task over time would mean low consistency.

Alexandria has had stable performance and high quality on all her tasks. Her performance indicates she is exhibiting: A. low consensus. B. high distinctiveness. C. high consensus. D. low consistency. E. low distinctiveness.

E. low distinctiveness. Low distinctiveness means stable performance or quality from one task to another.

The final Stage of the social information processing model is? A. selective attention/comprehension. B. encoding. C. simplification. D. storage and retention. E. retrieval and response.

E. retrieval and response. The fourth and final stage, retrieval and response, involves turning mental representations into real world judgments and decisions.

According to psychologist Harold Kelley, a person is exhibiting high distinctiveness when he acts like the rest of the group.

False

A stereotype is a mental picture of an event or object

False A stereotype is an individual's set of beliefs about the characteristics or attributes of a group.

Unfortunately, stereotypes are always negative.

False Stereotypes are not always negative. For example, the belief that engineers are good at math is certainly part of a stereotype.

The first stage of the social information processing model describes how specific information is observed and stored in the memory, and the last three stages involve turning mental representation into real-world judgments and decisions.

False The basic social information processing model illustrates four stages. Three of the stages in this model—selective attention/comprehension, encoding and simplification, and storage and retention—describe how specific social information is observed and stored in memory. The fourth stage, retrieval and response, involves turning mental representations into real world judgments and decisions.

The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people average or neutral is the perceptual error called leniency.

False The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral is known as central tendency.

List diversity expert R Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.'s generic action options to manage diversity.

R Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. identified eight generic action options that can be used to address any type of diversity issue. They are: • Include/Exclude • Deny • Assimilate • Suppress • Isolate • Tolerate • Build relationships • Foster mutual adaptation

Explain the stages in the process of stereotyping.

Stereotyping is a four-step process. It begins by categorizing people into groups according to various criteria, such as gender, age, race, and occupation. Next, we infer that all people within a particular category possess the same traits or characteristics. Then, we form expectations of others and interpret their behavior according to our stereotypes. Finally, stereotypes are maintained by (1) overestimating the frequency of stereotypic behaviors exhibited by others, (2) incorrectly explaining expected and unexpected behaviors, and (3) differentiating minority individuals from oneself.

When a manager makes a hiring decision using sexist schemata, but does so unconsciously, it is still illegal.

True

In the U.S., even though people of color earn less than whites, Asians had the highest median income.

True

Negativity bias can lead to both psychological and physical problems.

True

One's needs and goals often dictate which stimuli are salient.

True

Research reveals that individuals can be trained to be more accurate raters of performance.

True

Semantic memory refers to a person's general knowledge about the world.

True

Stereotyping begins by categorizing people into groups according to various criteria.

True

Stereotyping helps in organizing and simplifying social information.

True

Stereotyping is viewed as a less effortful strategy of information processing.

True