Psych 240 questions and answers to the tests
The automatic system in the duplex mind is BEST characterized as
a team of little robots doing lots of simple jobs to make your life easier.
Frances has just scheduled an appointment with a personal trainer. She hasn't been to the gym in years and doesn't know her fitness level. She wants to get a thorough assessment of her strengths and weaknesses before committing to a specific workout regiment. Frances is apparently driven by a strong ____.
appraisal motive
As a result of random assignment, the experimental and control groups of an experiment...
are likely to be about the same in every way.
I have formed a positive attitude toward snow. When I was a kid, I learned to associate snow with positive events & emotions (happiness from no school, playing, holidays, etc.). This process of forming attitudes by associating things with emotions is called:
classical conditioning
According to self-awareness theory, if you were taking this exam in front of a mirror, you would...
compare yourself to your personal standards for ethical behavior and be less likely to cheat.
During election season, candidates often hold debates where they provide frustratingly ambiguous responses about issues and shamelessly promote themselves as the more qualified candidate. Regardless of what actually happens, viewers have strong expectancies and often perceive that "their" candidate won the debate. This is most consistent with:
confirmation bias
If the Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres ever win a championship, there is likely to be a huge celebration in downtown Buffalo (meanwhile, I will dance in my living room). Oftentimes these celebrations turn destructive (cars are overturned, fires are lit, etc.) because people "lose themselves" in the crowd. This would be an example of:
deindividuation.
An American soldier is captured and tortured by enemy forces. The enemy then releases a videotape of the soldier proclaiming a deep hatred for America. According to the _____, people are unlikely to infer that this soldier has actually become a traitor.
discounting principle
Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the phenomenon of social loafing?
exerting minimal effort on a group task
Which of the following best describes outgroup homogeneity?
"I get Japanese and Chinese students confused with each other. I feel bad saying this, but they really do look and act alike."
Which of the following best describes a distress-maintaining attribution style in response to a romantic partner's positive behavior (e.g., making you dinner)?
"Someone probably made this for you, because you would never do something like this for me."
Which of the following situations best represents stereotype threat?
A 65 year-old non-traditional student is so afraid that he is "too old" for college that he ends up doing quite poorly in his classes.
"What is beautiful is good" effect
Assumption that physically attractive people will be superior to others on many other traits. Attractive people are less lonely, have better social skills. Interpersonal contact and communication are rewarded. No difference in IQ, self-esteem, mental heatlh.
Superordinate goals combine multiple identities and can only be accomplished through cooperation. Importantly, this process...
facilitates the formation of a common ingroup identity.
A high school teenager gets caught stealing from a department store. Although he feels bad, he tries to make himself feel better by telling himself, "I'm sure a lot of other people do things like this all the time." This is an example of:
false consensus
According to some researchers, we are happiest when we are actively engaged in something that we enjoy and is challenging. This unique state of happiness is called _____.
flow
Bill thinks that if only he could find a wonderful romantic partner, his entire life would be ideal. He thinks primarily about all of the great times he will have but never considers the difficulties that are bound to arise in any relationship. Thus, Bill is most likely engaging in:
focalism
Applied researchers may be BEST described as social scientists who:
focus on concrete problems—such as how to boost literacy rates or how to increase water conservation
In attempt to deal with the challenges of the "shelter-at-home" period during COVID-19, we've tried to get our kids to focus on all the fun stuff they're still able to do (e.g., play in the yard, read, watch movies) instead of all the fun stuff that they are no longer able to do (e.g., play sports, have sleepovers). This is an example of:
gain vs. loss framing
Guilt vs. shame
Guilt: an unpleasant moral emotion associated with a specific instance in which one has acted badly or wrongly. Example: Focuses narrowly on the action, "I did a bad thing". Constructive. Shame: a moral emotion that, like guilt, involves feeling bad but, unlike guilt, spreads to the whole person. Example: " I am a bad person". Destructive.
Jealousy vs. Envy, Schadenfreude
Jealousy: Hostility toward a rival of one's affection. Example: Friendship, romantic. Usually involves three people. Envy: Resentment over the superiority of another. Example: Achievements, possessions, usually involves two people. Schadenfreude: Enjoyment of the suffering and misfortunes of others
Motivation & personal relevance, Ability & need for cognition
Motivation and personal relevance: Does the audience care enough to think? Is the issue personally relevant to them? Ability and need for cognition: Does the audience have time, energy, and capacity to think?
Which of the following best represents the ego-defense function of attitudes?
My attitudes about fairness are that people generally get what they deserve, and because I am a good person, I can feel safe that only good things will happen to me.
Normative influence: Asch line study, public compliance, injunctive norms
Normative influence: Going along with the crowd in order to be liked and accepted. Asch line study: A conformity experiment. Showed his subjects a picture of a verticle line followed by three lines of different lengths, one of which was obviously the same length as the first one. He then asked subjects to identify which line was the same length as the first line. Went along with group even if they were wrong. People wanted to be accepted by the group which was more important than being correct. Public compliance: Outwardly going along with the group but maintaining a private, inner belief that the group is probably wrong. Injunctive norms: What others should or shouldn't be doing. Normative Influence
Obedience& Milgram studies
Obedience: Following orders from an authority figure. Milgram studies: He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.
Which of the following statements best represents a hypothesis?
People randomly assigned to memorize anger-related words will be more likely to interrupt a conversation than people who memorize neutral words.
What three concepts represent the ABCs of intergroup relations (Affect, Behavior, Cognition)?
Prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes
ABCs of intergroup relations: prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes
Prejudice: A negative feeling toward an individual based solely on his or her membership in a particular group. discrimination: Unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or categories to which they belong. stereotypes: Beliefs that associate groups of people with certain traits.
Social facilitation= arousal+ dominant response
Proposition that the presence of others increases the dominant response tendency.
Unrealistic optimism vs. depressive realism
Unrealistic: People tend to expect more positive events for themselves than others. Associated with better health. Depressive: Mildly depressed people have more accurate self-judgements and predictions.
According to the augmentation principle, which of the following behaviors is most likely to be attributed to the internal personality of the person engaging in the behavior?
Wearing shorts and a hawaiian shirt to a formal wedding.
A researcher is attempting to use a measure of attitudes to predict the likelihood that college students will donate blood during the campus blood drive. According to the compatibility principle, which of the following survey questions is most likely to predict behavior
What is your attitude toward donating blood on campus?
According to the investment model, how committed people are to their relationships is influenced by each of the following factors except:
how extrinsically motivated they are
According to the investment model, each of the following is an important contributor to relationship satisfaction except:
how invested people feel in the relationship
I am conducting an experiment to see whether receiving negative feedback increases eating behavior. After writing an essay, half of the participants are given positive feedback ("You're so smart!"), and half are given negative feedback ("You're so stupid!"). Afterwards, participants are placed in a room with a large container of cookies and their eating behavior is measured. In this study, an operational definition for the dependent variable might be ____.
how many ounces of cookies participants ate
After discussing how fascinating your social psychology class is with a classmate, you realize that your conversation about the most recent lecture included several embarrassing mistakes. Naturally, you pride yourself on being a good and attentive student, therefore, the next time you interact with this student, you are likely to bend over backwards to demonstrate your true self (i.e., someone who knows a lot about social psychology). This is an example of...
self-verification
Attitude formation via classical & operant conditioning
operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning): a type of learning in which people are more likely to repeat behaviors that have been rewarded and less likely to repeat behaviors that have been punished (EX : if parents and a teacher praise a child for doing well on math problems, then the child may develop a more positive attitude toward math) classical conditioning: a type of learning in which, through repeated pairings, a neutral stimulus comes to evoke a conditioned response (EX : How train your dog to come eat dinner when you ring a bell)
When Jack & Jill first met, their relationship was based on feelings of romance, excitement and intense desire (after all, they literally fell in love). After a while, however, they settled into routines that accomplished interdependent goals that maintained the strength of the relationship. These differences within the same relationship are best described as:
passionate and companionate love
According to the matching phenomenon...
people usually develop and maintain relationships with people of a similar level of physical attractiveness.
Tina has just finished watching a movie in which a husband is verbally and physically abusive toward his wife. Afterwards, she meets up with her new boyfriend Ike for dinner. According to research on schemas, Tina is likely to:
perceive seemingly innocent comments and behaviors as negative.
Fred and Ed are twins with slightly different self-regulation goals. Fred is more motivated by the positive outcomes of a healthy lifestyle (strength, stamina, mental health) whereas Ed is motivated to avoid the negative outcomes of an unhealthy lifestyle (weight gain, high blood pressure, lack of energy). The differences in their approaches represents the basic tenets of:
regulatory focus theory
Attributions: relationship enhancing vs. distress maintaining patterns
relationship-enhancing style of attribution: Tendency of happy couples to attribute their partner's good acts to internal factors and bad acts to external factors. distress-maintaining style of attribution: Tendency of unhappy couples to attribute their partner's good acts to external and bad acts to internal factors.
Heuristics: Representative, Availability,
representative heuristic: Judge frequency or likelihood of the event by the extent it resembles to typical case. They ignore other factors that help shape the events ex: tod playing baseball as a kid, either a truck driver or a ivy league star most people would say ivy but truck drivers are actually more common people ignore that part. availability heuristic: The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. (EX : People overestimate the frequency of dramatic deaths (e.g., dying in an airplane crash) and underestimate the frequency of less dramatic deaths (e.g., dying from lung cancer))
You've just heard some juicy gossip about some former classmates from high school. These students were known as arrogant bullies who frequently targeted younger and vulnerable kids, but because they were from wealthy families they never seemed to get in trouble. However, they recently got caught up in a college cheating scandal and have been expelled from school and publicly disgraced. The smug feeling of satisfaction you experience after hearing this is known as:
schadenfreude
Imagine that you're finally about to start a 20-page paper at about 5 p.m. on the night before the paper is due. At around 6 p.m., your roommate asks for a favor that will likely take several hours. You agree even though you know it will negatively affect the quality of the paper you'll write when you're done. Later, when someone asks you about your paper grade, you say, "I got a D because I was helping my roommate all night instead of writing." This scenario exemplifies a strategic process called:
self-handicapping.
Although I generally liked my college roommate quite a bit (we were both in each other's weddings), he had several annoying little habits that would start off as only mildly irritating, but by the end of the year I was ready to kill him over these little things. This is an example of:
social allergy effect
Economists are concerned because many people do not invest in retirement plans even though they can currently 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
Last year I completed a questionnaire that measured my attitudes toward riding WTA busses. Although my score on the survey may not predict whether I will ride the bus on any given day, my score should predict how often I ride the bus on average across the entire year. This is an example of:
the aggregation principle
When asked to estimate how many students attend the "University of Europe" most students would have no idea (because it doesn't exist). However, students from UW (which has 47,000 students) are probably more likely to provide a larger estimate than students from WWU (which has 16,000 students). This would be an example of:
the anchoring and adjustment heuristic
Imagine a new couple go to an amusement park and ride several roller coasters. That evening, on the way home they get into an argument. According to excitation transfer ...
the arousal from the roller coaster may intensify their emotions during the argument.
Because such emotional events are easily recalled from memory (due to constant news coverage), people often overestimate the crime rate and underestimate the danger of driving cars compared to flying. This is often due to errors using:
the availability heuristic
Social loafing, how to decrease it
the finding that people reduce effort when working in a group, compared to when working alone. Decrease: When the contributions of individual group members are identifies, so that everyone (or at least the leader) knows who did what.
Leonard Nemoy (who played Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series/movies) titled his autobiography, "I Am NOT Spock." People often mistakenly believe that actors are similar to the characters they play on television programs or in films. This tendency is best explained by
the fundamental attribution error
When students arrive at class late or leave class early, many professors assume such students are lazy and irresponsible. The professors often underestimate situational factors that may impact the students' behavior. These professors are demonstrating...
the fundamental attribution error.
According to social facilitation, when performing in front of a crowd, people tend to perform:
their dominant response.
People with very high self-esteem may be prone to violence toward others if:
their self-esteem is fragile and subsequently challenged.
Unlike applied research, the goal of basic research is:
to test specific hypotheses and further our understanding and knowledge.
In general, most people feel like good things (e.g., having a fulfilling career) are more likely to happen to them than others but bad things (e.g., getting cancer) are more likely to happen to other people. This way of thinking is associated with mental health benefits and is called:
unrealistic optimism
Bystander helping: 5 steps involved when people help: pluralistic ignorance, diffusion of responsibility
1. notice that something is happening. 2. Interpret event as an emergency. 3. Take responsibility for providing help. 4. Decide how to help. 5. Provide help. diffusion of responsibility: The reduction in feeling responsible that occurs when others are present. Also known as bystander effect. Ex: you're driving down the road and notice that there is a small fire on the side of the road. You might think to yourself that it seems dangerous. However, you notice there are dozens or hundreds of others drivers who have seen and will see the fire. Surely somebody will call the fire department, right? Maybe somebody already has. So you decide not to report the fire and drive on. pluralistic ignorance: Looking to others for cues about how to behave, while they are looking to you; collective misinterpretation.
Which of the following is NOT an explanation for why social facilitation occurs?
A crowd is disinhibiting and makes us do things we wouldn't normally do.
Based on reactance theory, which of the following people are you likely to find most attractive?
A person you like but who is in a committed relationship.
cultures of honor
A society that places high value on individual respect, strength, and virtue, and accepts and justifies violent action in response to threats to on's honor.
Which of the following situations best represents feelings of guilt?
A teenager feels bad after playfully throwing a snowball at a friend but accidentally hitting her in the eye.
When do Attitudes predict behavior(A-B problem)? Aggregation principle, Compatibility principle
A-B Problem: the problem of inconsistency between attitudes (A) and behaviors (B) (EX : female sexuality is more open than male sexuality to influence from social, cultural, and situational factors. If that is correct, then women should show lower attitude-behavior consistency than men because women's sexual responses depend much more on the immediate situation and various other social influences) Aggregation principle: Attitudes predict behavior better when behaviors are average across many situations. Example: religious attitudes and actual attendance. Compatibility principle: Attitudes predict behavior better when measures match the specificity of the behavior. Example: Attitudes toward exercise.
The basic "elements" of social psychology can be represented by the triad of letters ABC which represent what people feel, do, and think, or:
Affect, Behavior, Cognition
Affective forecasting, Impact bias, Immune neglect, focalism
Affective Forecasting: the ability to predict one's emotional reactions to future events. Example: How do you think you would feel, and how long would this emotional state last? Focalism: When forecasting, we focus solely on one event and neglect other influences. Example: Positive events don't solve all our problems; plastic surgery, lottery, having kids. Immune Neglect: We underestimate our capacity to cope with adversity. Example: Negative events seem worse than they will be; Disaster, unemployment, disability. Impact Bias: misestimating the intensity and duration of highly emotional events
Which of the following situations best depicts the illusion of transparency?
After a boring conversation with your grandmother, you become concerned that your complete disinterest in her needlework was offensively obvious.
Which of the following situations best represents feelings of shame?
After cheating on her long-distance boyfriend, a woman feels so unworthy that she could never look him in the eye again.
Which of the following is an example of CORFing (i.e., cutting off reflected failures)?
After his team loses a big game, an upset sports fan remarks, "They played terrible!" and takes off the team's jersey that he was wearing.
Which of the following situations is the best example of reactance theory?
After your annoying roommate tells you that you're absolutely not allowed to have any of her "forbidden cake," you invite 3 of your friend to help eat it all.
Actors and observers often engage in different patters of attributions because... You Answered
All of the above.
Which of the following statements about affective forecasting is true? Correct!
Although people are accurate in predicting which emotions they will feel, they are inaccurate in predicting the intensity of those emotions.
Altruistic helping: empathy-altruism hypothesis, empathic concern
Altruistic helping: unselfish behavior that benefits others without regard to personal consequences. Empathy-altruism hypothesis: Taking the perspective of others in need elects empathic concern (sympathy, compassion) which increases likelihood of helping. Empathic concern: refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of someone in need. These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion, soft-heartedness, and the like
Anger: Catharsis theory
Anger: an emotional response to a real or imagined threat or provocation. Example: Motivates people to approach rather than avoid things. Example: interpersonal; provocation or stressors; frustration, physical pain, exposure to violent media, or discomfort caused by heat, crowding, noise, or foul odors. Catharsis Theory: the proposition that expressing negative emotions produces a healthy release of those emotions and is therefore good for the psyche. Example: Verbal expression or aggressive, violent action.
According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, attitudes toward using condoms are only one contributing factor for predicting people's actual behavior. Each of the following is another factor except:
Arousal: Will my automatic physiological reactions override my deliberative choices?
Which of the following situations best represents the black sheep effect?
As a cyclist, I dislike fellow cyclists who don't follow rules more than car drivers who don't follow the rules.
Discounting vs. augmentation principles
Augmentation: We should give more weight to a cause when behavior occurs in the presence of inhibitory factors. Discounting: We should give less weight to any one cause when multiple causes are plausible.
Research suggests that digitally created composite pictures that average many faces together are rated as more attractive than any one picture. Why?
Averaged faces become more symmetrical, which may be an evolutionary cue for health.
Michael Bolton (not the singer, it's just a coincidence) truly believes he is not prejudiced. In fact, his best friend is Indian. While stuck in traffic, he even blasts hardcore gangster rap. However, when an innocent looking Black man approaches, he quickly locks his door. He rationalizes this to himself saying that he would have done it even if the guy wasn't Black (though that's probably not true). This situation is most consistent with...
Aversive racism
Self-handicapping
Avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.
Basking in Reflected Glory, Cutting Off Reflected Failure
BIRG: Associating with positive events or people (sports teams, hometown heroes). CORF: Distancing from negative events or people.
Consistency: Balance theory, Cognitive dissonance theory
Balance theory: We prefer balance in our thoughts, behaviors and social relationships. Balances when (person) (Other) (X) =+ Unbalanced relationships= discomfort. Example: Person A and Person B connected, and those both connect to X. Balanced if all is positive feelings towards it or all negative. or positive and two negatives. Cognitive dissonance theory: the theory that inconsistencies produce psychological discomfort, leading people to rationalize their behavior or change their attitudes (EX : explaining something away, when roommate tries to justify her excessive drinking)
Optimal Distinctiveness
Balancing needs for similarity and needs for uniqueness.
Which of the following example is most consistent with the concept of goal shielding?
Because you are committed to doing well in this class, you were able to block out distracting goals (e.g., texting friends) while studying for this exam.
Which of the following statements about ambivalent sexism is false?
Benevolent sexism is based on values related to Individualism.
Central/Systematic vs. Peripheral/Heuristic routes
Central/ systematic: the route of persuasion that involves careful and thoughtful consideration of the content of the message (conscious processing). Slower, more deliberate process. Longer lasting attitude/behavior change. Persuasion based on the strength of arguments. Peripheral/heuristic routes: the route to persuasion that involves some simple cue, such as attractiveness of the source (automatic processing). Persuasion based on minor cues and heuristics. Faster, more automatic process. Temporary and superficial attitude/behavior change.
Imagine that your roommate walks in and catches you making out with your romantic partner's best friend. Your roommate threatens to expose the affair unless you complete all assignments for the two classes that you both are taking together. This best describes which type of power?
Coercive power
According to the contact hypothesis, which of the following is not one of the necessary ingredients for improving intergoup relationships?
Cognitive dissonance
Individualism & Independent self-construalvs. Collectivism and interdependent self-construal
Collectivism: Refers to a culture as a whole. Self construal: Refers to the individuals view of the self which may differ from that culture. Independent: View that an individual is a unique entity with an individuated repertoire of feelings, cognitions, and motivations. Interdependent: People who strive to fit in with others, act in proper manner, value community, and emphasize relational connections.
Which of the following is least predictive of to whom we become attracted?
Complementarity
Source variables: Credibility, Likability:
Credibility: expertise: Education or Experience Credibility: trustworthiness: whether a source will honestly tell you what he or she knows. Is the source honest? Likability attractiveness: More attractive people are more effective at persuading people. Called the Halo Affect. Likability ingratiation: attempts to influence another person by becoming more likable to their target. Likability similarity: Similarity between sources is more like the people. Similar source more persuasive than dissimilar source.
Duplex mind: Characteristics of deliberate vs. automatic systems, Conscious override
Deliberate:reflective responses that people think more carefully about (EX : instead of responding to Alice's question right away, June took some time to think about her genuine opinion) Automatic: very fast evaluative, "gut level" responses that people don't think a great deal about (EX : When someone says "How are you?", my automatic response is usually "good" or "tired" even though I may not be)
Assuming that each of the following athletes are equally skilled, according to the Yerkes-Dodson law, which is likely to perform best on an upcoming performance?
Devon, who is moderately nervous and excited.
Imagine that you're trying to decide which of two pairs of sandals you should buy. According to cognitive dissonance theory, which of the following is the most likely reaction after making your decision?
Discomfort over having made the wrong decision, then convincing yourself that you did in fact make the right decision.
_____ has been described as our "behavioral immune system" because it promotes hand-washing, avoidance of sex with risky partners, and other health-promoting behaviors.
Disgust
Which of the following beliefs/practices is not universally accepted across almost all cultures in the world?
Distrust authority figures
A social psychologist and a sociologist walk into a bar and start talking over a few drinks. It turns out that they're both very interested in issues related to the prevalence of violence and aggression in the United States. Which of the following research questions is most liked to apply to the social psychologist?
Does being in front of attractive others influence how a person responds to an ambiguously sarcastic insult?
Which of the following is NOT an example of a social comparison attempt at self-enhancement?
During an especially depressed mood, Jerry feels worse after reading a Superman comic book.
Egoistic helping: negative state relief model, experienced distress
Egoistic helping: Selfish motivation where the ultimate goal of helping is to increase one's own welfare. Helping to gain rewards and avoid punishments. (Benefits to others are a means of obtaining goal.) negative state relief model: Seeing others suffer makes us feel bad (Experienced distress). We help others to stop feeling bad (Actual benefits for others are means to an end). experienced distress: describe unpleasant feelings or emotions that impact your level of functioning. In other words, it is psychological discomfort that interferes with your activities of daily living
Freedom to Change: Entity vs. incremental theorists
Entity Theorists: People who believe a trait (intelligence) is innate and unchangeable (fixed mindset). Less effort, attribute failure to personal factors. Incremental theorists: People who believe a trait is malleable and can be improved and expanded with effort (growth mindset). Work harder, get better results, attribute failure to situational factors.
Evolutionary theory: long-term vs. short-term partner preferences, critiques
Evolutionary Theory: Theory of sexuality asserting that the sex drive has been shaped by natural selection and that its forms thus tend to be innate. long term partner preferences: Women should prefer older and successful men. Signs of resources and commitment. Men should prefer younger and attractive women, signs of health and fertility. Body shape/weight may also be perceived as health and fertility. Cross-culturally, attractiveness of heavier women is correlated with reliability of food supply (less reliable food=heavier woman attractive). short term strategies: Men should prefer short-term partners over long-term partners. Men should prefer sex sooner in a relationship than women.
Internal vs. External motivation to respond without prejudice
External: low-prejudice attitudes and beliefs when speaking. But when anonymous, they are more prejudiced. Internal: low-prejudice attitudes and beliefs regardless of how or to whom they provide their answers.
Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias), actor-observer bias
Fundamental attribution error (FAE): the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition (internal), down playing situational causes. actor-observer bias: actor own behavior to the situation is the one doing the behavior external. Observer is watching the behavior internal.
Techniques of Social Influence: foot-in-the-door, door in face
Foot in the door: Gradual escalation of commitment. influence technique based on commitment, in which one starts with a small request in order to gain eventual compliance with a larger request. Door in face: Influence technique based on reciprocity, in which one starts with an inflated request and then retreats to a smaller request that appears to be a concession. Ex: Would you like to join our marathon to raise money for cancer research? No I am not a runner. Well in that case would you be willing to sponsor a runner for 1$ a mile?
According to sociometer theory, which of the following situations is most likely to correspond with the largest increase in self esteem?
Having your friends organize and throw a surprise birthday party for you.
As a child, Brendan was a participant in an experiment using the strange situation test and he was labeled as having a preoccupied (or anxious ambivalent) attachment. According to attachment theory, which of the following scenarios best describes how this attachment style would influence his adult relationships?
He was very "clingy" in relationships and would often come on too strong and then be paranoid that his partner would leave him.
Imagine that a child really enjoys organizing and cleaning her room and spends some time each week making sure it's tidy. Her parents notice such good behavior and decide to reward her by giving her a weekly allowance for cleaning her room. According to the overjustification effect, what is most likely to happen?
Her interest and enjoyment in cleaning her room will decrease.
Which of the following statements about heuristics is false?
Heuristics are cognitively taxing and require considerable cognitive effort.
A social psychologist wants to study how people initiate and engage in flirting behavior. Male and female participants are asked to sit across from each other in a lab room and instructed to flirt. After some initial discomfort, the vast majority of participants take the study very seriously and their behavior reflects genuine attempts at flirting behavior. This study is
High in experimental realism
Message variables: fear (when effective?)
How the message is communicated. Fear (when effective?): If: Audience feels vulnerable. Fear isn't extreme (causes defensiveness). Message proposes an attainable solution.
Which of the following statements best reflects external motivation to respond without prejudice?
I really want to tell this funny racist joke right now, but these people will probably get mad and offended so I won't.
I have a positive attitude toward Star Wars, but my friend Ricardo has a negative attitude. Based on this, which of the following is most consistent with attitude polarization?
If we were to think about these attitudes more, we would each become more extreme in our attitudes (mine would become more positive and Ricardo's would become more negative).
According to research on differences between entity and incremental theorists and imagining future situations, which of the following types of mental simulation would have been most likely to help you get a good grade on this exam?
Imagining the process of studying and effort you'll have to put in to prepare for the exam.
Which of the following scenarios best describes the hindsight bias?
Immediately after an exam, a student opens her notes to look up the answer to a question she had trouble with. Upon finding out that she indicated the wrong answer on the exam, she exclaims in frustration, "I knew that was the right answer! Why didn't I change it?!"
Independent variable vs. Dependent Variable, Operational definitions, Random assignment
Independent: The variable the researcher changes. Dependent: Variable affected by change in independent variable. Operational definitions: Concrete and precise ways of manipulating and measuring variables. Random Assignment: Causal inferences can be made. If conditions are equal at the start, any differences at the end MUST be caused by the independent variable. W/out random, groups may already be different compromising the validity of the research.
Imagine that you're interviewing for a prestigious, well-paying job that you really want. There are a number of self-presentation styles you could use to try to obtain the job. Match the self-presentation style below with the example provided.:"Wow, I can't believe you've accomplished so much so early in your career! If I'm hired, I'll model my work ethic after you, because you obviously have the right stuff."
Ingratiation
Attraction: Ingratiation, self-monitoring, similarity& matching hypothesis
Ingratiation: What people actively do to try to make someone like them. Self-Monitoring: The ability to change one's behavior for different situations. similarity and matching hypothesis: The proposition that people tend to pair up with others who are equally attractive. Romantic and friendship relationships.
Attributions: internal vs. external; stable vs. unstable
Internal Attribution: the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality. (effort) (EX : if someone is tired, they may behave lazy) external attribution: attributing the cause of a person's behavior to an external event or situation in the environment (luck) (EX : your favorite team winning the game because you wore your lucky jersey) External stable: Difficulty of task success= task was easy failure= task was hard External unstable: involves with luck success/failure = luck, little credit or blame to the person Internal stable: Success reflects on intelligence or talent: failed bc lack of relevant ability, (permanent) (EX : I didnt win the swimming contest because I cant swim) Internal unstable: Effort, can change. Success= work hard. Failure=low effort
Internal causes of aggression: excitation transfer, Hostile attribution bias, Relational aggression
Internal causes of aggression: include anything the individual brings to the situation that increases the probability of aggression. excitation transfer: purports the idea that residual excitement from one stimulus can amplify the excitatory response created by another stimulus even if those two stimuli are cognitively interpreted as different emotions. Hostile attribution bias: The tendency to perceive ambiguous actions by others as aggressive Relational aggression: (Also called social aggression) behavior that involves intentionally harming another person's social relationships, feelings of acceptance, or inclusion within a group
Internal validityvs. External validity(Mundane realism vs. Experimental realism)
Internal: The degree to which the IV really caused the effects in the DV. External: How much does the effects of the study generalize to other people and situations.
Imagine that you're interviewing for a prestigious, well-paying job that you really want. There are a number of self-presentation styles you could use to try to obtain the job. Match the self-presentation style below with the example provided:"Listen. Here's the deal, I've done some online snooping and I know that you're using company funds for vacations while you have an extra-marital affair with a co-worker. If you don't give me this job, I'll expose you to the CEO."
Intimidation
Self-perception theory: Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation & the over justification effect
Intrinsic: The act of doing something without any obvious external rewards. Extrinsic: Our tendency to engage in activities in order to gain some type of known, external reward. It is important to note that these rewards can be either tangible or psychological in nature. Money and trophies are two common types of tangible rewards.
Investment model: satisfaction, investments, & comparison level for alternatives predict commitment
Investment model: Theory that uses three factors- satisfaction, alternatives, and investments- to explain why people stay with their long-term relationship partners. Satisfaction, investments, and comparison level for alternatives predict commitment: If you are satisfied with the relationship, don't see appealing alternatives, and have invested a great deal in the relationship, you will almost certainly remain committed to wit.
Research on brainstorming (i.e., when people list any and all ideas while in a group) suggests:
It is significantly less productive than when people generate ideas individually.
Which of the following is NOT one of the explanations given for why we are prone to make internal attributions of others' behaviors?
It takes time and effort to make internal attributions.
Researchers conducting a study at their home on Halloween night recorded whether each trick-or-treater arrived alone or in a group. The researchers also randomly asked some kids to provide their names and addresses before going inside leaving them alone with a bowl of candy with a sign "Please take ONE piece of candy.". Based on this study and what you know about factors that influence deindividuation, what is the most likely outcome of their experiment?
Kids who were in a large group were most likely to take more than one candy, especially when they weren't asked to identify themselves.
Which of the following is not an evolutionarily adaptive mating strategy for men?
Men should rate female promiscuity as undesirable in a short-term partner.
Which of the following research procedures is highest in mundane realism?
Participants watch a popular sit-com on a flatscreen TV while relaxing on a couch with a bowl of popcorn, and the amount of popcorn consumed is measured.
A University of Washington social psychologist (Anthony Greenwald) has suggested that our self-knowledge can be considered a "totalitarian ego" to describe our tendency to engage in self-deception strategies. What does that mean?
People construe current situations and past experiences in a way that fits their positive beliefs about the self
According to research related comparing perceptions and reality of the "What is beautiful is good" stereotype, which of the following statements is false?
Physically attractive people have a higher IQ than less attractive people.
Which of the following statements about automatic shooter bias in perception of weapons is false?
Police officers did not demonstrate the same misperception biases as college students.
making choices: Reactance theory, applied to romantic attraction
Reactance Theory: When our personal freedoms and choices are limited or threatened, we're motivated to reclaim and reassert them. secret love is appealing.
Defining aggression: Reactive/hostile vs. proactive/instrumental, displaced
Reactive/hostile: "hot", impulsive, angry behavior motivated by a desire to harm someone Proactive/instrumental: "cold", premeditated, calculated harmful behavior that is a means to some practical or material end
Rejection: social pain -physical pain link
Rejection sensitivity :A tendency to expect rejection from others and to become hypersensitive to possible rejection. Social pain-physical pain link: causes "social pain" like physical pain. Can be alleviated with physical pain relief medicine.
Which of the following strategies would be most effective in decreasing social loafing within a group?
Remind each individual that their contribution is essential for the group's success.
Roles & norms, black sheep effect
Roles: Shared expectations for individuals' behavior within the group. Facilitates division of labor, personal identities. Norms: shared expectations for group members' behavior. Regulate the group, violator's punished. Black sheep: Unattractive/deviant in group members are evaluated more negatively than deviant out group members
Social comparison theory: Upward, downward, temporal, genius comparisons
SCT: We strive to evaluate ourselves. When objective measure are unavailable, we compare ourselves to others, especially similar others. Upward: Can be used for motivation when within reach. Downward: Comparing to others who are worse off. Temporal: Comparing present self with past self. Genius Comparison: When outperformed, we exaggerate the victor's abilities.
Imagine that you need to have all four impacted wisdom teeth removed. You are absolutely terrified of dentists, needles, anesthesia, and fluorescent lighting. While sitting anxiously in the waiting room, with whom of the following are you most likely to want to talk?
Someone about to have the same procedure as you and is just as anxious as you are.
Sociometer theory
Self-essteem monitors social affiliations and approval of others (evolutionary adaptive.) Social exclusion reduces self-esteem (ostracism as punishment). Social inclusion increases self-esteem. (even if relationships are superficial, people with low self-esteem can benefit from "celebrity attachments").
According to evolutionary theorists, why are males so disturbed by their female partner's sexual infidelity?
Sexual infidelity raises questions about paternity uncertainty.
Informational influence: Sherif autokinetic effect study, private acceptance, descriptive norms
Sherif autokinetic effect study: Illusion, caused by very slight movements of the eye, that a stationary point of light in a dark room is moving. He used this to study the formation of group norms Private acceptance: A genuine inner belief that others are right. Descriptive norms: What others are doing in a situation. Informational influence
Which of the following statements regarding the contributions of Behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis to social psychology is TRUE? Correct!
Similar to the behaviorist approach, social psychologists focus on experimentation and objective measurement.
According to the facial-feedback hypothesis, if you want people to be happy, you should tell them...
Smile!
Which of the following behaviors is least consistent with having an entity theory?
Spending more time working toward improving one's abilities.
Spotlight effect & illusion of transparency, Dunning Kruger effect
Spotlight: Believing that others are paying more attention to us than they really are. When people "are" paying attention, we have an illusion of transparency; belief that others can readily see our internal emotions. Dunning Kruger effect: Those with poorest actual abilities are especially likely to overestimate their perceived abilities. Academic ability, social skills.
Impact of prejudice on targets: Stereotype threat
Stereotype Threat: The fear that one might confirm the stereotypes that others hold.
Which of the following examples is MOST consistent with broaden-and-build theory?
Students taking a fun and enjoyable class are more likely to be creative and feel similar to other students in the class.
Suppose that the correlation between alcohol consumption and college grades was positive. This would imply:
Students who drink more alcohol get better grades than students who drink less alcohol.
When college students are in a very positive mood (e.g., a warm sunny Friday during spring quarter), according to the "affect as information" hypothesis, which of the following is most likely to occur?
Students will be more likely to think that they love college and that their life is pretty good.
Evolutionary psychology: Social brain theory
Suggests brain capacity has evolved to reflect the importance of social interactions. Species with bigger brains (relative to body weight) have larger and more complex social networks.
Imagine that you're interviewing for a prestigious, well-paying job that you really want. There are a number of self-presentation styles you could use to try to obtain the job. Match the self-presentation style below with the example provided.: "Please, pretty please, give me this job! I'm so desperate. I'll be evicted from my apartment and be homeless unless I get this job!"
Supplication
Natural selection is best summed up by the phrase:
The best genes will survive to subsequent generations.
If an experiment has high internal validity, which of the following is true?
The conclusions of the study can be accurately attributed to what the experimenter manipulated.
Based on research on cultural influences in attributions, which of the following statements is INACCURATE?
The fundamental attribution error is more common within collectivist cultures than individualist cultures.
Imagine that you've just been dumped by your significant other of 3 years. You feel upset and go to your friends for support but they tell you to go away because they're tired of hanging out with you. Which of the following responses to such social rejection is least likely to happen?
The inconsistency between your feelings and your behaviors may create cognitive dissonance.
What is the main advantage of an experiment over a correlational study?
The researcher is better able to draw conclusions about cause and effect.
A psychologist wants to study whether exposure to science fiction movies increases people's belief in extraterrestrial life. Participants are brought to her lab and half of participants in her study are randomly assigned to watch Star Wars and the other half watch The Lion King. Afterwards, all participants complete a survey measuring their belief in aliens and scores between the two groups are compared. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
The survey on belief in aliens is the dependent variable.
Which of the following situations is most consistent with realistic conflict theory?
The varsity soccer and lacrosse teams are competing for a limited amount of school funding.
What do prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination all have in common?
They are all based on group membership.
The Jets and Sharks are rival gangs on the West Side of Bellingham. They're always fighting. Well, sometimes they dance together, but they always glare angrily at each other when they do. Anyway, they hate each other. Which of the following strategies is most likely to create a common ingroup identity?
They could join forces and fight gangs from Lynden.
According to research on relationship attributions, if your romantic partner engages in some negative behavior (e.g., forgets your birthday), which of the following reactions would be a relationship enhancing attribution for the behavior?
They've been really busy and stressed out lately, so it makes sense that they forgot my birthday this one time.
Imagine that I asked you to try to memorize the following words: moon, waves, current, ocean, rip. While rehearsing these words over and over in your head, I try to distract you by asking you what is your favorite brand of laundry detergent. According to how priming works, you should be especially likely to say:
Tide
Self-deception strategies(the Totalitarian Self): Self-serving bias
Totalitarian self: We engage in self-deception strategies to maintain/increase self-esteem. Self-serving bias: We take credit for success but deny blame for failure (students, athletes, politicians).
Which of the following pairs of people are most likely to be involved in a communal relationship?
Two best friends since childhood who live apart, but would drop everything if the other person needed them.
Which of the following is an example of BIRGing (i.e., basking in reflected glory)?
When discussing his hometown, a professor brags about its many accomplishments (e.g., the kazoo was invented in Buffalo).
Which of the following situations best describes the Zeigarnik effect?
While at the grocery store trying to accomplish a very specific goal (buy ingredients for dinner), you are interrupted by a casual acquaintance who talks your ear off, meanwhile all you can think about is how much you need ricotta cheese!
In one experiment, White participants who interviewed a Black confederate acted cold and distant (sat farther away, made more speech errors, ended the interview sooner) than participants who interviewed an identically-trained White confederate. How did the results of their follow-up study demonstrate the dangers of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
White participants treated in a cold manner similar to the Study Black confederate reciprocated those behaviors and were rated as less competent.
Which of the following statements is least consistent with benevolent sexism?
Women are incompetent teases who use their sexuality to control men.
From an evolutionary perspective, which of the following factors is least likely to play a role in determining different mating strategies for men and women?
Women are more concerned about paternity uncertainty than men.
Which of the following is not an evolutionarily adaptive mating strategy for women?
Women should be more jealous and distressed by a partner's sexual infidelity than his emotional infidelity.
Which of the following statements regarding research on stereotypes and women in the work force is false?
Women who are assertive and promote themselves are rated as less competent than men.
Imagine that you've just won the lottery and are about to purchase a brand new car. Because the dealer knows you're rich, he is eager to show you a huge variety and you end up looking at 37 different vehicles. Given research related to decision paralysis, which of the following outcomes is most likely?
You may end up being less satisfied with your eventual choice than if you had only been shown a few different options.
According to balance theory, which of the following situations is likely to lead to the strongest feelings of discomfort?
You strongly oppose the current president. Your friends back home strongly support the current president. You like and feel close to your friends back home.
On the way home from class one day, you run into a man who claims to be from outer space. After some persuasive arguments, you decide to join his cult. The leader soon demands that everyone get rid of all worldly possessions to prepare for the coming of the "mothership" which will save the "true believers" from the impending destruction of the Earth. You are convinced that this cult is the real deal so you follow along and get rid of every single thing you own. On the day the mothership is supposed to arrive, nothing happens. According to cognitive dissonance theory, how are you likely to react?
Your faith in the cult and leader becomes even stronger.
Charlie Brown is a loveable but pathetic comic figure who has never experienced much success in life. His baseball team sucks, he can't get up the nerve to talk to the little red-haired girl, and his own dog makes fun of him. The counselor he sees for five cents a visit has told him he's mildly depressed. According to the concept of depressive realism, compared to his more optimistic friends, Charlie Brown is likely to:
accurately estimate the likelihood of positive and negative events.
In the individualistic USA, distinctiveness and personal achievement are perceived as important, and people often strive for emotional experiences consistent with these principles (e.g., feeling proud of personal accomplishments, taking high-arousal risks to be unique). This perspective is consistent with:
affect valuation theory
All of the following relationships are consistent with equity theory EXCEPT:
all of the above are consistent.
Some theorists have argued that questionable government decisions that led to events like Challenger shuttle explosion were due to groupthink, which occurs when...
an excessive tendency for consensus leads to suppression of disagreement.
Research showing that Whites are less likely to help stranded motorists in need if the person in need is Black and there are many others available (therefore people justify their inaction by saying that they thought someone else would offer help) provides support for the idea of ______.
aversive racism
Research on the so-called "hedonic treadmill" would predict that people who have received life sentences to prison would ____.
be initially devastated by their sentencing, but return to nearly pre-prison levels of happiness within a few years
Many people believe that you can get sick (e.g., catch a cold, pneumonia) simply by being outside in cold, wet weather for long periods of time. They have cultivated this beliefs over years of parental warnings and media messages. In reality, besides hypothermia, it is pretty much impossible to get sick from cold weather alone (germs cause disease not weather!), yet people continue to hold on to these ideas. This is an example of:
belief perseverance
There is a student in one of your classes whom you've heard is quite a jerk. (It turns out, he's actually a nice guy, but you've been misinformed.) Whenever you see him you act quite cold to him. Quite naturally, he reflects your negative behavior and acts rather cold to you. You think to yourself, "I knew it. What a jerk." This is an example of the:
confirmation bias
Confirmation bias, theory/belief perseverance,
confirmation bias: Tendency to notice and search for info that confirms ones beliefs and to ignore info that disconfirms ones beliefs. (EX : if you believe in bigfoot, you may look online for bigfoot sighting photographs) Theory (Belief) Perseverance: Proposes that once the mind draws a conclusion, it tends to stick with that conclusion unless there is a overwhelming evidence to change it. (EX : I've decided to get a tattoo, and there is no reason why i shouldn't)
Imagine that as you're walking across campus, you suddenly realize that the jeans you're wearing are the same ones you wore last week when you accidentally sat on a chocolate cupcake. According to the spotlight effect...
considerably fewer people than you think will actually notice your jeans.
Contact hypothesis: equal status, social/institutional support, acquaintance potential, cooperation
contact: The idea that regular interaction between members of different groups reduces prejudice, providing that it occurs under favorable conditions. Contact should improve intergroup attitudes. Equal: SES, competence, roles. Social/institutional support: Laws, authority figures, social norms. Acquaintance potential: Quality and quantity contact leads to individuation, "real" friendships. Cooperation: Working together towards common "superordinate" goal
Some friends recently approached you about investing heavily in a new internet start-up company to compete with eBay called Auctions Hit (www.auctionshit.com). You politely decline, but when the company takes off and they make a 1,000% profit, you kick yourself and think, "If only I had gone in with them, I'd be rich." This is an example of:
counterfactual thinking
Andre really believes in himself and doesn't suffer much in the way of social anxiety. Yet he has a hard time trusting his girlfriend (even though she has given him no reason for this). His girlfriend feels frustrated with the relationship, because Andre seems so aloof and far away. Andre probably has a ____ attachment.
dismissing avoidance
Several mountain climbers were trapped on Mount Everest during a blinding snowstorm. Many climbers died on the mountain. However, one climber made it all the way back to base camp. Unfortunately, though, he collapsed and died mere yards away from the safety of his tent. Because this climber came so close to saving himself, people's reactions to this climber's death are especially likely to be influenced by:
emotional amplification
Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Her sister Shelly and Shelley's boyfriend Shawn also sell shells. Sally spites Shelly because her shell sales are so superior. However, Shelly seethes (i.e., gets very angry) when she sees Sally smiling at Shawn. Based on this information, it seems that Sally feels:
envy
Which concept best explains why situations involving unrequited love (when someone likes/love you, but you don't like/love them) feel so uncomfortable and burdensome to the person who is liked/loved?
equity theory
Among car accidents involving teen drivers, the fatality rate when other teens are riding along is twice as high as when teens are driving alone. It's possible that when thinking about risky decisions (we can definitely make it across those tracks before the train comes), teens make more extreme decisions as a group compared to when alone. This would be most consistent with:
group polarization
Deindividuation: group size, accountability, attention
group size: More deindividduation in larger groups accountability: Anonymity decreases personal accountability. Attention: Shift in focus away from self-awareness. Alcohol decreases self-awareness
The human brain evolved to be larger than other animals' brains because it allowed humans to:
have rich and complex interpersonal relationships.
All of the following are known to positively associated with happiness except:
having children
Chris is very good at recognizing their own emotions (e.g., when they're sad or angry) as well as the emotions of others. They enjoy considering how their emotions change and influence their thoughts and behaviors. Consequently, Chris is generally pretty accurate in their affective forecasting. Chris appears to be:
high in emotional intelligence
After releasing the ball down the lane, many bowlers will lean slightly to one side or the other in an attempt to persuade the ball to move to the same side. This is an example of:
illusions of control
Research has found that when White participants were exposed very briefly (30 milliseconds) to pictures of faces of Black people, they responded with:
increased activation in the amygdala.
Imagine that you're backpacking through Southeast Asia when all of a sudden in a remote village, you randomly meet another WWU student (that you don't know) also backpacking. Even though you know nothing else about this person, you will automatically like them and be more likely to help them compared to someone with whom you don't have a shared identity. This best describes:
ingroup favoritism
The comparison between the automatic versus deliberate systems can BEST be thought of as:
intuition versus reasoning.
According to the Schacter-Singer's theory of emotions, when people feel some physiological arousal but don't know where it's coming from, they will...
look to their social environments for interpretation & labeling.
My freshman year in college, as part of the school's soccer team I had to endure various "initiation rituals." Most were relatively mild (e.g., wearing a U-shaped bike lock around my neck while chained to a teammate at a party). According to cognitive dissonance theory, my allegiance to and investment in the team would have been highest if:
the initiation ritual was even more severe and involved a lot of effort and embarrassment
Back when people had to rely on listening to the radio to hear new music, DJs were instructed to play certain songs repeatedly over the course of a day and week. Record companies knew that the more frequently listeners heard a song, the more people would start to enjoy it (regardless of the song's actual quality). This is consistent with:
the mere exposure effect
When asked months in advance, I often find myself agreeing to participate in various tasks (e.g., a school fundraiser for my kids) because I think it's important to help. However, as the moment of truth gets closer, there are so many other things that I need to do that I hadn't considered months ago. This situation represents:
the planning fallacy
Imagine you're playing roulette at a casino in Las Vegas (Vegas baby! Vegas!). You've been betting on colors (whether the ball will land on a black vs. red space) and notice that there's been a string of 10 reds in a row. You're tempted to bet on black because you think it's "due" (i.e., it hasn't landed on black in a while). But you realize that would be a gambler's fallacy. Just because this sequence isn't typical of randomness, the actual likelihood of red vs. black remains about 50-50 on every play. Fortunately, you are keenly aware of:
the representative heuristic.
If a study has high external validity...
the results can be generalized to different people and situations.
Joe Cool thinks that he can do no wrong. Anything bad that happens to him is not his fault but due to something beyond his control. At the same time however, when something good happens to him, he says it's because he's such a great person. This type of thinking is an example of:
the self-serving bias.
Counterfactual thinking: Upward & downward counterfactuals, emotional amplification
upward counterfactuals: Imagining alternatives that are better than actuality. (EX : "If I started studying three days ago, instead of last night, I could have done better on my test.") downward counterfactuals: Imagining alternatives that are worse than actuality. (EX : "f I had been driving faster, I might now be dead.") emotional amplification: Emotional reactions to events are intensified when counterfactuals are easily imagined. (EX : if you could have died you may be more thrilled to be alive than ever)