Social Psychology - Chapter 1, Social Psychology - Chapter 2, Social Psychology - Chapter 4 (QUIZ 1)

Research method focused on prediction:

Correctional

A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another—for example, how well you can predict people's weight from their height

Correlation Coefficient

A theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we note the pattern between when the behav- ior occurs and the presence or ab- sence of possible causal factors

Covariation Model

A description of the purpose of a study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose and is used to maintain psychological realism

Cover story

6. What are display rules?

Culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display

Culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display

Display rules

8. Be able to describe thin-slicing.

Drawing meaningful conclusions about another person's personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior

Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture, usually having direct verbal translations, such as the OK sign.

Emblems

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in, with the assumption that most people would respond the same way in that situation

External attribution

Which of these studies about cults would be suited to a social psychologist?

Factors that influence "normal" people to join a cult

Social psychology had its origins in

Gestalt psychology

Which of the following statements about self-esteem is false?

Most people have very low self-esteem.

In sociology, the level of analysis is:

The group, institution, or society at large

What is the "level of analysis" for a social psychologist?

The individual in the context of a social situation.

Studies designed to solve a particular social problem

applied research

The tendency to stick with an initial judgment even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider

belief perseverance

With the correlational method, two variables are ________________ measured.

systematically

Researchers use archival analyses to______________________.

test psychological hypotheses

Which of the following statements demonstrate(s) a self-fulfilling prophecy?

"That student of mine is unlikely to clear next week's test." "That student of mine is likely to top next week's test."

Who do think would be least likely to help a stranger who drops a bunch of papers all over the ground? Some who is in a (a) good mood (b) neutral mood, or (c) bad mood?

(b) People who are in good moods or bad moods are more likely to help others than people in neutral moods, though for different reasons

Ethnography is the chief method of ______________________, the study of human cultures and societies.

cultural anthropology

The level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data; by showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual

interjudge reliability

A statistical technique that averages the results of two or more studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable

meta-analysis

Aspects of the social situation that may seem minor can overwhelm the differences in people's ________________.

personalities

3. Asch's (1946) research on person perception provided evidence for which of the following conclusions? a. There is a primacy effect in social perception. b. First impressions serve as a filter through which subsequently learned information is interpreted. c. Even when the content of information conveyed about two individuals remains the same, the order in which we learn it can have a powerful effect on our impression. D. All of the above

D. All of the above

The extent to which a particular actor behaves in the same way to- ward different stimuli

Distinctiveness Information

The way in which people commu- nicate, intentionally or uninten- tionally, without words, including via facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, movement, touch, and gaze

Nonverbal communication

The study of groups, organizations, and societies, rather than individuals.

Sociology

4. Which of the following is true of cross-cultural research? a. It is a good way to increase the internal validity of a study. b. A study must be replicated in at least three cultures to be considered valid. c. Because social psychology began as a Western science, most experimenters within it are not overly concerned with generalizing their results to non- Western cultures. d. Its conducted to study the effects of culture on social psychological process.

d. Its conducted to study the effects of culture on social psychological process.

Drawing meaningful conclusions about another person's personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior

Thin-slicing

The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality

internal attribution

Keeping everything but the independent variable the same in an experi- ment is referred to as _______________.

internal validity

The extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life

psychological realism

Repeating a study, often with different subject populations or in different settings

replications

The ability to interpret the six major emotions is _____________—part of being human and not a product of people's particular cultural experiences

cross-cultural

Research conducted with members of different cultures, to see whether the psychological processes of interest are present in both cultures or whether they are specific to the culture in which people were raised

cross-cultural research

1. How do most researchers in social psychology devise new ideas for what to study? a. By drawing on earlier theories b. By drawing on earlier research and refining it c. By basing it on something in their own lives or events they came across in the news d. All of the above

d. All of the above

Studies have found that individuals from Western cultures maintain more ____________ between the six major emotions when applying them to faces, whereas Asian respondents show ___________ in their use of these categories

rigid boundaries; overlap

In short, much of what is said in daily conversations takes place before anyone actually _______ anything at all.

says

Part of the job of the social psychologist is to do the research that specifies the _______________ under which one or another outcome is most likely to take place.

conditions

Most social psychologists gather most of their information about why people act the way they do from sources and methods such as

conducting experiments

The extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

consensus information

The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world

construal

Agreement to participate in an experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which has been explained in advance

informed consent

If we rely on commonsense explanations of one particular tragic event, we don't learn much that helps us ____________________.

understand other, similar ones

Most social psychologists would agree that, to solve a specific social problem, we must:

understand the psychological processes responsible for it.

The task of the psychologist is to try to ____________ and ___________ human behavior.

understand; predict

Thinking about other individuals and their behavior helps us ________ and __________ our social universe.

understand; predict

Which of the following is/are true about the fundamental attribution error?

"My behavior is entirely based on my personality." We tend to explain other people's behavior in terms of their personality traits and to give less importance to the influence of the situation.

Which of the following statements are examples of "Naive Realism"?

"My opinion on global climate change is the most correct." "People who disagree with my opinion about global climate change are biased."

Which of these is an example of "Naive Realism"?

"SupportersofCandidateYdon'tseehimforwhat he really is. Only supporters of Candidate X and I can see what a terrible leader Candidate Y would be."

What effect, if any, does playing violent video games have on how likely people are to act aggressively in everyday life? (a) playing the games increases the likelihood that they will act aggressively; (b) they become less aggressive because the games "get it out of their system"; (c) playing the games has no effect on how aggressive people are.

(a) ( Playing violent video games in- creases the likelihood that people will act aggressively

You ask an acquaintance to do you a favor—for example, to lend you $10—and he or she agrees. As a result of doing you this favor, the person will probably like you (a) more, (b) the same, or (c) less.

(a) More

In the United States, female college students tend not to do as well on math tests as males do. Under which of the following circumstances will women do as well as men: (a) when they are told that there are no gender differences on the test, (b) when they are told that women tend to do better on a difficult math test (because under these circumstances they rise to the challenge), or (c) when they are told that men outperform women under almost all circumstances?

(a) Research has found that when women think there are sex dif- ferences on a test, they do worse, because of the added threat of confirming a stereotype about their gender. When women were told that there were no gender differences in performance on the test, they did as well as men

Repeated exposure to a stimulus—such as a person, a song, or a painting—will make you like it (a) more, (b) the same, or (c) less.

(a) Under most circumstances, repeated exposure increases liking for a stimulus.

When a business or governmental agency is faced with an important choice it is always better to have a group of people make the decision, because "two heads are better than one": (a) true (b) false.

(b) False; groups often make worse decisions than individuals.

Students walking across campus are asked to fill out a questionnaire on which they rate the degree to which student opinion should be considered on a local campus issue. Which group do you think believed that students should be listened to the most? (a) Those given a light clipboard with the questionnaire attached; (b) those given a heavy clipboard with the questionnaire attached; (c) the weight of the clipboard made no difference in people's ratings.

(b) People given the heavy clip- board thought that student opin- ion should be weighed the most

Which statement about the effects of advertising is most true? (a) Subliminal messages implanted in advertisements are more effective than normal, everyday advertising; (b) normal TV ads for painkillers or laundry detergents are more effective than subliminal messages implanted in ads; (c) both types of advertising are equally effective; or (d) neither type of advertising is effective.

(b) There is no evidence that sub- liminal messages in advertising have any effect; considerable evi- dence shows that normal advertis- ing is quite effective

If you give children a reward for doing something they already enjoy doing, they will subsequently like that activity (a) more, (b) the same, or (c) less.

(c) Rewarding people for doing something they enjoy will typically make them like that activity less in the future.

A description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behavior

Attribution theory

Research method focused on causality:

Experimental

What was the main contribution of Gestalt psychol- ogy to social psychology?

It showed that the whole is larger than the sum of its parts.

Research method focused on description:

Observational

Explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true purpose of the study and exactly what transpired

debriefing

For the social psychologist, the level of analysis is:

the individual in the context of a social situation

Continual process of theory refinement:

A theory is developed; specific hypotheses derived from that theory are tested; based on the results obtained, the theory is revised and new hypotheses are formulated.

4. What are the six major emotional expressions? And what are additional ones?

1. anger 2. happiness 3. surprise 4. fear 5. disgust 6. sadness. Additional ones: - contempt - anxiety - shame - determination - envy - embarrassment - pride

We form initial impressions of others based solely on their facial appearance in less than ___________.

100 milliseconds That's less than 1/10 of one second

Facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion

Affect blends

Which of the following statements is true about both social psychology and sociology?

Sociologists focus more on society as a whole while social psychologists focus more on how society influences individuals.

A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment

Behaviorism

A defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to good people

Belief in a just world

The tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to at- tributional biases in their thinking than we are

Bias blind spot

7. There is a negative correlation between following the practices of certain Eastern religions that favor a vegetarian diet and heart attacks. Could people who are at risk of a heart attack reduce their risk by converting to these religions?

Can certain Eastern religious beliefs stave off heart attacks? Not necessar- ily, but switching to a vegetarian diet would drastically reduce most peo- ples' risk of heart attack. There may be other factors that coincide which could explain the relationship, such as stress reduction due to meditation or certain outlooks on life.

The extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stim- ulus is the same across time and circumstances

Consistency information

_________________________ is therefore extremely valuable, because it sharpens theories, either by demonstrating their universality or by leading us to discover additional variables that help us improve our understanding and prediction of human behavior.

Cross-cultural research

3. Be able to describe encoding and decoding.

Darwin's research on facial expressions has had a major impact on the field in many areas. He believed that the primary emotions conveyed by the face are universal: the argument that all humans encode, or express, these emotions in the same way and that all humans can decode, or interpret them, with comparable accuracy. Encode --> To express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling or patting someone on the back Decode --> To interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness

To interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness

Decode

The variable a researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent variable the researcher hypothesizes that the dependent variable will depend on the level of the independent variable

Dependent variable

Questions that their answers can be derived from experimentation or measurement rather than by personal opinion:

Empirical questions

To express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling or patting someone on the back

Encode

The method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one thought to have a causal effect on people's responses)

Experimental Method

The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people

External validity

_________ and ________ are particularly powerful nonverbal cues.

Eye contact; gaze

5. What are affect blends?

Facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion

Gestalt Psychology

First proposed as a theory of how people perceive the physical world, Gestalt psychology holds that we should study the subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds (the gestalt, or whole) rather than the way in which the objective, physical attributes of the object combine. According to Gestalt psychologists, it is impossible to understand how an object is perceived only by studying the building blocks of perception. The whole is different from the sum of its parts. One must focus on the phenomenology of the perceivers—on how an object appears to them—instead of on its objective components.

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people's behavior results from internal, dispositional factors and to un- derestimate the role of situational factors

Fundamental attribution error

A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object

Gestalt Psychology

The emphasis on construal has its roots in an approach called _________________.

Gestalt psychology

The tendency for people to exaggerate, after knowing that something occurred, how much they could have predicted it before it occurred

Hindsight Bias

Suppose an authority figure asks college students to administer near-lethal electric shocks to another student who has not harmed them in any way. What percentage of these students will agree to do it?

In studies conducted by Stanley Milgram (1974), up to 65% of participants administered what they thought were near-lethal shocks to another subject.

________________ study the group or institution; ____________________ study the influence of those groups and institutions on individual behavior.

Sociologists; social psychologists

The variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable

Independent Variable

A group made up of at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one member not affiliated with the institution that reviews all psychological research at that institution and decides whether it meets ethical guidelines; all research must be approved by the IRB before it is conducted

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions

Internal validity

5. A positive correlation was found between people who use one type of web browser over another and being convicted of murder. Could authorities decrease the homicide rate by banning this browser?

It is also possible that this correlation is actually something else: that people who own guns are more likely to use one web browser over another. People who own guns may be more anxious about security and privacy and thus choose a web browser that offers bet- ter privacy. People who own guns are more likely to commit murder due to the availability of a weapon.

9. Parent groups found out that the perpetrators of a school shooting frequently played a certain first-person shooter video game. Should authorities ban these kinds of games to prevent other young people from picking up guns and murdering their peers?

It is possible that playing this game makes people more likely to act aggressively. However, it is also likely that young people who are aggressive are more drawn to violent video games. In addition, it is difficult to pin the blame on one particular game when the shooters were likely exposed to graphic violence in other games as well as from TV and movies.

8. A well-known correlation is that of global warming and pirates. There is a negative correlation between annual average global temperatures and the number of pirates sailing the seas. Could we reverse the effects of climate change by adding more pirates to international waters?

It is very unlikely that one has to do with the other; this may be a simple random convergence in math. Due to sociopolitical factors, the number of pi- rates began to steadily decrease around the time of the Industrial Revolution. The increasing human population and lifestyle changes that followed this same period are thought by most ex- perts to be responsible for the increase in global temperatures.

Generally considered the founding father of modern experimental social psychology.

Kurt Lewin

Which of the following is most true about people with high self-esteem?

Most people interpret events in ways that help to preserve their self-esteem.

Which of the following is true about social cognition?

Most people try to have an accurate view of the world but often do not have enough information to make accurate judgments.

7. What are emblems?

Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture, usually having direct verbal translations, such as the OK sign they are not universal each culture has devised its own emblems, and these are not necessarily understandable to people from other cultures

6. A study found a positive correlation between people who are frequently late and being more creative and successful. Could arriving to work late help our careers rather than hurt them?

Not likely. There is likely a third vari- able at play. A study found that op- timists tend to be more successful in their careers. They also tend to think they have more time left to complete a task (like travel to work) than they really do. Additionally, people with Type B personalities have been shown to be less accurate in assessing time. They also tend be more opti- mistic and to be more creative.

4. A study found that there are more students diagnosed with learning disabilities such as dyslexia in private rather than public schools. Could the teaching methods in private schools be causing students to develop learning disabilities?

Not necessarily. There is likely a third factor involved, which is the presence of a school psychologist, who is more likely to notice and diagnose these learning disabilities. In other words, children in public schools may be equally likely to have a learning disability but less likely to have it identified by school staff.

2. Imagine that a study found a negative correlation in university students' number of Instagram followers and average grades. Could students improve their grades by reducing their Instagram followers or deleting their accounts?

Not necessarily. Though it seems obvious that Instagram distracts them from their studies, there might be other factors involved. For exam- ple, students who spend less time studying may be more interested in spending time on social media. Alternately, those who are good at taking photographs that others ad- mire may have weaker skills in more traditional academic subjects.

For social psychologists, the relationship between the social environment and the individual is a two-way street. What does this mean?

Not only does the situation influence people's behavior; people's behavior also depends on their interpretation, or construal, of their social environment

The technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior

Observational Method

The seeming importance of infor- mation that is the focus of people's attention

Perceptual salience

The question of the individual differences that lead one teenage boy to commit violent acts and his brother to rarely commit them would be most interesting to

Personality Psychologists

The study of the characteristics that make individuals unique and different from one another.

Personality Psychology

When it comes to forming impressions, the first traits we perceive in others influence how we view information that we learn about them later

Primacy effect

3. Posting selfies on Instagram correlates positively with being an extrovert. Can introverts change their personalities by posting more pictures of themselves through their social media accounts?

Probably not—it's just that people who are more extroverted are more likely to post more pictures of themselves than people who are introverted.

10. A study found that people who are more intelligent tend to swear more and have messier and more cluttered desks. Could people increase their intelligence by swearing like a sailor and tidying their workspaces less often?

Probably not—people who are more intelligent tend to have a larger vocabulary. Contrary to popular belief, people who swear more often have a bigger vocabulary than people who purposefully try to limit their swearing. As for the neatness of one's desk, people who are more intelligent may just focus on their work rather than on keeping their space tidy.

People's evaluations of their own self-worth—that is, the extent to which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent

Self-esteem

Explanations for one's successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's failures that blame external, situa- tional factors

Self-serving attributions

How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions

Social Cognition

The study of the psychological processes people have in common that make them susceptible to social influence.

Social Psychology

Social psychology and commonalities with related disciplines:

Social psychology and sociology share an interest in the way the situation and the larger society influence behavior. Social psychology and personality psychology share an interest in the psychology of the individual. But social psychologists work in the overlap between those two disciplines: They emphasize the psychological processes shared by most people around the world that make them susceptible to social influence.

What are the main differences between what social psychologists and personality psychologist examine?

Social psychology examines similarities in the ways that social influences can affect most people, whereas personality psychology examines the differences between individuals.

What two central motives influence the way we construe the world?

The need to maintain reasonably high self-esteem. The need to be accurate in our perceptions and decisions.

Refraining to question the individual themself about why they did something is problematic because justifications might not be ________________.

The reason

1. What is social perception the study of?

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people Social perception is also about explaining why others behave as they do.

2. What is nonverbal communication?

The way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words, including via facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, movement, touch, and gaze

1. A study found that elderly people who were never married or who are widowed who have a pet dog live longer, on an average, than those who do not have a pet dog. In other words, there is a positive correlation between pet ownership and life expectancy. Can pets replace medical interventions such as medicines and surgeries to increase lifespan?

There could be a third factor— increased daily exercise due to walk- ing the dog. While pets may help reduce blood pressure and reduce de- pression and loneliness, other factors such as taking more frequent walks outside might actually be responsible.

T/F: Other people don't even have to be present for us to be influenced: We are governed by the imaginary approval or disapproval of our par- ents, friends, and teachers and by how we expect others to react to us.

True

T/F: We are often influenced merely by the presence of other people, including perfect strangers who are not interacting with us.

True

If a teenage girl is caught shoplifting, what would social psychologists want to study about her?

Whether or not her friends also shoplift and if this influenced her decision to do so

1. What is the goal of cross-cultural research in social psychology? a. To find out which social psychological processes are dictated by culture and which are universal. b. To answer questions like whether violent video games are destroying cultures. c. To rank or compare cultures. d. To find out if all social psychological processes are dictated by culture.

a. To find out which social psychological processes are dictated by culture and which are universal.

2. According to research studies, individuals from which culture maintain more rigid boundaries between the six major emotions when applying them to faces? a. Western b. Indian c. Chinese d. Japanese

a. Western

8. Imagine a researcher is examining the relationship between people who regularly eat a certain kind of food and obesity. Which of the following could be true? a. A positive correlation suggests that people who eat lots of that food are more likely to be obese. b. No correlation suggests that there is no relationship between eating this kind of food and obesity. c. No correlation suggests that people who eat this food are more likely to be overweight but not obese. d. A negative correlation suggests that people who eat this kind of food are less likely than the general population to be obese.

a. A positive correlation suggests that people who eat lots of that food are more likely to be obese. b. No correlation suggests that there is no relationship between eating this kind of food and obesity. d. A negative correlation suggests that people who eat this kind of food are less likely than the general population to be obese.

1. Which kind of study is best suited to ethnography? a. A study of what factors cause Green Peace activists to be committed to their ideals. b. A study to see if violent videogames cause children to act more violently. c. A study to see if people are more likely to litter in a place that has already been littered. d. A study examining people's posts on Twitter to see how moods fluctuate throughout the day.

a. A study of what factors cause Green Peace activists to be committed to their ideals.

1. According to Darwin's research on facial expressions, how do humans encode primary emotions? a. All humans encode primary emotions in the same way. b. Humans make a lot of effort to convey primary emotions. c. Expression of primary emotions is culture specific. d. Humans learn to encode primary emotions through the process of learning.

a. All humans encode primary emotions in the same way.

7. Imagine that you are in Hong Kong reading the morning news and you notice a headline about a double murder that took place overnight. A suspect is in custody. Which of the following headlines is most likely to accompany the story? a. Dispute over Gambling Debt Ends in Murder b. Crazed Murderer Slays Two c. Homicidal Maniac Stalks Innocents d. Bloodthirsty Mobster Takes Revenge

a. Dispute over Gambling Debt Ends in Murder

5. Gestures, such as the "OK" sign, which have well-understood definitions are called emblems. Which of the following is true about emblems? a. Each culture has devised its own emblems. b. Emblems are understandable to people across cultures. c. Emblems do not tell us about the sender's intentions. d. Emblems are interpreted similarly all across the world.

a. Each culture has devised its own emblems.

3. Which of the following is/are true of the post-experimental interview known as debriefing? a. If the participants experienced anything that made them feel uncomfortable, the researchers try to counteract this. b. It is not necessary to debrief participants if they gave their informed consent. c. The researchers inform the participants about the goals and purpose of the research and explain any deception. d. All of the above.

a. If the participants experienced anything that made them feel uncomfortable, the researchers try to counteract this. & c. The researchers inform the participants about the goals and purpose of the research and explain any deception.

3. Individualistic and collectivist cultures have been found to differ in explaining failure. Which of the following is true? a. In individualistic cultures such as in the United States, people have a tendency toward self-serving bias. They tend to explain failure by looking outside of themselves, attributing it to the situation. b. In collectivistic cultures such as the Chinese, people attribute failure to external causes as they want to defend themselves. c. In most collectivistic cultures, it is common to attribute failure to internal as well as external causes. d. In some Asian cultures, such as Korea and Japan, it is common to attribute failure to the situation and other external causes. Self-critical attributions are considered to weaken the interdependence of the group members.

a. In individualistic cultures such as in the United States, people have a tendency toward self-serving bias. They tend to explain failure by looking outside of themselves, attributing it to the situation.

8. Ming is from China; Jason is from the United States. Both participate in an experiment in which they take a test, are given feedback, and are told that they did very well. They are then asked to make attributions for their performance. Based on cross-cultural research on the self-serving bias, you would expect that a. Jason but not Ming will say that he succeeded due to his high ability. b. neither Ming nor Jason will say that they succeeded due to their high ability. c. both Ming and Jason will say that they succeeded due to their high ability. d. Ming but not Jason will say that he succeeded due to his high ability.

a. Jason but not Ming will say that he succeeded due to his high ability.

5. Who of the following individuals is most likely to make a self-serving attribution? a. Rory, a golfer in the very early stages of his career b. Mariano, a baseball player who has won multiple championships in the past c. LeBron, a basketball player who has been playing since he was very young d. Roger, a professional tennis player with over a decade of experience

a. Rory, a golfer in the very early stages of his career

4. What are some of the limits of the observational method? a. Some kinds of behavior happen only rarely or happen mostly in private settings. b. Most participants in experiments refuse to be observed. c. It can only be carried out in the lab. d. It allows us to describe behavior but not to predict or explain it.

a. Some kinds of behavior happen only rarely or happen mostly in private settings. & d. It allows us to describe behavior but not to predict or explain it.

9. An experiment that takes place in a lab is designed to determine if the number of people watching makes one more patient with being asked annoying questions. The experiment uses some deception. Which of the following is/are true? a. The experimenter must obtain informed consent of each participant before the experiment and must debrief them afterwards. b. Because the experiment involves some deception, no consent is necessary, only debriefing. c. During debriefing, the experimenter is not obliged to tell the participants about the real nature of the study lest they should tell participants in the waiting room on their way out. d. During debriefing, the experimenter must tell the participants about the real nature of the study.

a. The experimenter must obtain informed consent of each participant before the experiment and must debrief them afterwards. & d. During debriefing, the experimenter must tell the participants about the real nature of the study.

The technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed

correlational method

4. Belief perseverance can help explain which of the following? a. Why people who watch news programs that refer to climate change as a hoax remain convinced of that conclusion even in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary. b. Why during jury deliberations it is easier to convince fellow jurors to change their votes from guilty to not guilty than it is to change their minds in the opposite direction. c. Why weather forecasters are better at predicting rainfall totals than snowfall totals. d. All of the above.

a. Why people who watch news programs that refer to climate change as a hoax remain convinced of that conclusion even in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary.

8. Social psychologists often do experiments in the laboratory, instead of the field, to a. increase internal validity. b. increase external validity. c. conduct a meta-analysis. d. decrease psychological realism.

a. increase internal validity.

4. A large number of researches have indicated that decoding facial expressions accurately is complicated because: a. one part of people's face registers one emotion while another part registers a different emotion. b. aspects of the same facial expression have similar implications irrespective of the context and other cues. c. display rules are not particular to each culture and do not dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show. d. eye gaze has nothing to do with decoding of facial expressions in case of approach-oriented emotions like anger and avoidance-oriented emotions like fear.

a. one part of people's face registers one emotion while another part registers a different emotion.

To get people to change self-destructive behavior, social psychologists would be likely to

a. persuade them by offering useful information. b. scare the living daylights out of them. c. threaten them with punishment. d. all of the above. e. none of the above. (e) none of the above

Advantages of surveys:

allowing researchers to judge the relationship between variables that are difficult to observe, such as how often people engage in safer sex. capability of sampling representative segments of the population.

A form of the observational method in which the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (e.g., diaries, novels, magazines, and newspapers)

archival analysis

5. Imagine that a researcher finds a negative correlation in adults in the relationship between years of education and denial of global climate change. Which of the following is the most reasonable conclusion one can draw from the study? a. People who are more educated know more scientists and thus are more likely to know someone who has conducted research on this topic. b. Based on how many years of education an adult has completed, you can reasonably predict how likely they are to believe global climate change. c. People who are less educated probably know how to interpret information from scientific studies and the news media. d. People who have less money and less education are not as informed about global issues.

b. Based on how many years of education an adult has completed, you can reasonably predict how likely they are to believe global climate change.

4. Preliminary research on just-world attributions compared cultures with extremes of wealth and poverty and cultures where wealth is more evenly distributed. According to the research, in which cultures are just-world attributions more common? a. Cultures where wealth is evenly distributed. b. Cultures with extremes of wealth and poverty. c. Cultures that are very wealthy and there is no poverty. d. Cultures that are extremely poor.

b. Cultures with extremes of wealth and poverty.

10. It is 10:00 A.M. and Jamie, an American college student, is dragging himself to his next class to turn in a paper for which he pulled an all-nighter. Through a haze of exhaustion, on the way to class he sees a student slip and fall down. How would Jamie be most likely to interpret the cause of the student's behavior? a. Jamie's attribution will most heavily be influenced by his own personality. b. GivenwhatweknowaboutJamie'scurrentcognitive capacity and cultural background, he will likely assume that the student fell because he or she was clumsy. c. Jamie would probably attribute the cause to the situation, such as the fact that it was raining and the

b. GivenwhatweknowaboutJamie'scurrentcognitive capacity and cultural background, he will likely assume that the student fell because he or she was clumsy.

The attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection

evolutionary psychology

4. Which of the following best illustrates the primacy effect in social perception? a. Joseph was introduced to his class as someone who is rigid, jealous, inquisitive, and very brilliant. His classmates formed a very positive impression of him and wanted to make him their friend. b. Mike entered a room filled with lots of people. He was introduced by his best friend as someone who is very brilliant, creative, rigid, and jealous. Everybody in the room formed a very positive impression of him. c. When Chris met Joe for the first time, he found Joe to be very knowledgeable and wise. Later, on other occasions, Chris discovered that Joe was a fake and regarded him as stupid. d. Wendy was smart and assertive during her adolescence and continued to be the same as a grown-up and was appreciated by everybody.

b. Mike entered a room filled with lots of people. He was introduced by his best friend as someone who is very brilliant, creative, rigid, and jealous. Everybody in the room formed a very positive impression of him.

2. Which of the following suggest (s) why social psychologists often come up with new ideas that are based on previous theories and research? a. Previous experts in the field know best. b. They might think that they have a better way of explaining the same behavior. c. Older theories and research can always be refined and improved. d. Newer social psychologists are unoriginal.

b. They might think that they have a better way of explaining the same behavior. & c. Older theories and research can always be refined and improved.

3. Which of the following suggests why social psychologists often come up with theories that are based on phenomena that they or others encounter in real life? a. To give their experiments more realism b. To try and answer why a real-life event occurred c. To get more attention from the media d. None of the above

b. To try and answer why a real-life event occurred

1. Research has indicated that the values inherent in an individualistic culture cause people to develop more of an analytic thinking style that involves a. paying more attention to the context or situation rather than to the properties of the person or object. b. paying more attention to the properties of the person or object rather than to the context or situation. c. paying equal attention to the context or situation as well as to the properties of the object or person. d. paying attention to all the others in the group and judging the person.

b. paying more attention to the properties of the person or object rather than to the context or situation.

2. Ambady and colleagues were able to conclude that the thin-sliced impressions formed by their participants were based on meaningful information because a. their ratings based on 30-second clips were little different than their ratings based on 6-second clips. b. their ratings of the silent video clips corresponded received from their actual students at the end of the semester. c. ratings were similar for silent video clips and for the same video clips when shown with audio. d. while the thin-sliced video clips were brief, it took participants a relatively long amount of time to come up with ratings of the instructors they viewed.

b. their ratings of the silent video clips corresponded received from their actual students at the end of the semester.

1. Kelley assumed that when we are in the process of forming an attribution, a. we do not bother to gather information from any source regarding a person's behavior. b. we try to gather information to understand how a person's behavior changes across time and place. c. we reach a conclusion about causes of people's behavior based on our feelings. d. we do not give importance to change in a person's behavior across time.

b. we try to gather information to understand how a person's behavior changes across time and place.

The trade-off between internal and external validity in conducting research; it is very difficult to do one experiment that is both high in internal validity and generalizable to other situations and people

basic dilemma of the social psychologist

Studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

basic research

1. Why do some social psychology research findings seem like we could have predicted the results? a. Because we are not predicting. These studies are famous and it is likely that we heard about them in the news and then forgot about them. b. Because most people have an advanced understanding of how human societies function, allowing them to predict such findings. c. Because hindsight bias suggests that we tend to exaggerate how easily we could have predicted something. d. Because they tap into the collective unconscious.

c. Because hindsight bias suggests that we tend to exaggerate how easily we could have predicted something.

2. Event-related potentials (ERP) research measuring patterns among individuals from different ethnic backgrounds indicated that a. European American participants paid more attention to the context surrounding the targets rather than the targets while East Asian Americans paid less attention to the context surrounding the targets and paid more attention to the target. b. no significant difference was found between European American participants and East Asian American participants in terms of attention paid to the targets. c. East Asian American participants paid more attention to the context surrounding the targets while European American participants paid more attention to the targets. d. no significant difference was found between European American participants and East Asian American participants in terms of attention paid to the context surrounding the targets.

c. East Asian American participants paid more attention to the context surrounding the targets while European American participants paid more attention to the targets.

2. What can evolutionary psychology help explain? a. Physical changes in a species, such as the long neck of a giraffe, which resulted in a reproductive advantage in a given environment. b. Physical changes in humans, such as why some people grow wisdom teeth and others do not. c. How certain kinds of human behaviors could be partially due to adapting to a particular environment in our ancestors' past. d. How certain kinds of human behaviors could be partially due to adapting to our present environment.

c. How certain kinds of human behaviors could be partially due to adapting to a particular environment in our ancestors' past.

2. Suppose a researcher found a strong negative correlation between college students' grade point average (GPA) and the amount of alcohol they drink. Which of the following is the best conclusion from this study? a. Students with a high GPA study more and thus have less time to drink. b. Drinking a lot interferes with studying. c. If you know how much alcohol a student drinks, you can predict his or her GPA fairly well. d. People who are intelligent get higher grades and drink less.

c. If you know how much alcohol a student drinks, you can predict his or her GPA fairly well.

5. You visited a close friend after a long time and wanted to have a good time together. All of a sudden her brother came out of his room and started yelling at her. You wondered what was wrong with her brother. Is he crazy? Doesn't he know how to behave with people? He seemed like a very impatient and ill- mannered person. You felt very bad for your friend, who started crying. What kind of attribution were you making about your friend's brother? a. External attribution b. Self-serving attribution c. Internal attribution d. Fundamental attribution

c. Internal attribution

6. Suppose a certain student, Jake, falls asleep during every chemistry class. Further suppose that Jake is the only one who falls asleep in this class and he falls asleep in all of his other classes. According to Kelley's covariation theory of attribution, how will people explain his behavior? a. It is due to something unusual about this particular class because his behavior is low in consensus, high in distinctiveness, and high in consistency. b. Chemistry is really a boring class because Jake's behavior is high in consensus, high in distinctiveness, and high in consistency. c. It is due to something unusual about Jake because his behavior is low in consensus, low in distinctiveness, and high in consistency. d. It is due to something peculiar about the circumstances on a particular day because his behavior is high in consensus.

c. It is due to something unusual about Jake because his behavior is low in consensus, low in distinctiveness, and high in consistency.

3. During her three-month visit to the United States, Rose had an opportunity to meet people from diverse cultures. She was very fond of analyzing their facial expressions while meeting them on various occasions. She observed that _____________women often tried to hide a wide smile behind their hands whereas ___________women smiled broadly without hesitation. a. African American; Indian b. Japanese; British c. Japanese; Western d. AfricanAmerican;Australian

c. Japanese; Western

3. Which of the following would be the best way to improve the external validity of an experiment about whether or not people are more likely to help a disabled person open a door when they are in a good mood? a. Make sure the experiment uses the observational method. b. Make sure it uses the correlational method to measure if mood correlates with helping behavior. c. Make the experiment as realistic as possible and conduct it in a real-life setting instead of in a lab. d. Give the participants a good cover story.

c. Make the experiment as realistic as possible and conduct it in a real-life setting instead of in a lab.

9. Which of the following statements best describes cultural differences in the fundamental attribution error? a. Members of collectivist cultures rarely make dispositional attributions. b. Members of Western cultures rarely make dispositional attributions. c. Members of collectivist cultures are more likely to go beyond dispositional explanations, considering information about the situation as well. d. Members of Western cultures are more likely to go beyond dispositional explanations, considering information about the situation as well.

c. Members of collectivist cultures are more likely to go beyond dispositional explanations, considering information about the situation as well.

1. Which of the following is true about obtaining participants' informed consent for an experiment? a. It can be done before or after an experiment. b. It does not need to explain the nature of the experiment, as this would give away too many details. c. Participants should be told what kind of experiences they are agreeing to undergo. d. It is not necessary unless the experiment involves some sort of deception.

c. Participants should be told what kind of experiences they are agreeing to undergo.

5. Which of the following statements regarding the Carney et al. (2010) power-posing research is true? a. Standing in a closed posture with one's arms wrapped around one's own torso tends to be a high-power pose. b. While participants who previously had posed in a high-power posture exhibited evidence of increased testosterone, their self-report responses indicated that they did not feel more powerful after the manipulation. c. Participants who posed in a high-power posture adopted riskier strategies on a subsequent gambling task. d. Participants were less willing to adopt low-power poses compared to high-power poses.

c. Participants who posed in a high-power posture adopted riskier strategies on a subsequent gambling task.

7. Which of the following is the best way to increase the external validity of a study? a. Make sure it is low in psychological realism. b. Conduct the study in the laboratory instead of the field. c. Replicate the study with a different population of people in a different setting. d. Make sure you have at least two dependent variables.

c. Replicate the study with a different population of people in a different setting.

7. Let's suppose that the same experiment's (as in Question 6) procedures were repeated using a wider range of participants who vary in age, gender, occupation, and ethnicity. What is this process called and what is its purpose? a. Random assignment to condition; increase generalizability b. A meta-analysis; to increase internal validity c. Replication; to increase external validity d. Replication; to increase internal validity

c. Replication; to increase external validity

In the 1950s, Leon Festinger was dissatisfied with the ability of a major theory of the day, behaviorism, to explain why people change their attitudes. He formulated a new approach—_________________________—that made specific predictions about when and how people would change their attitudes.

cognitive dissonance theory

6. Suppose an experiment is designed such that male undergraduate university student participant groups are split in half at random. One group plays a violent video game and another plays a neutral game. Immediately afterwards, the participants have someone "accidentally" bump into them. The experimenter is measuring whether or not the participants react aggressively to the person who bumped into them. Which of the following are true about this experiment? a. It has high external validity because it uses a heterogeneous sample. b. The independent variable is how participants react and the dependent variable is which video game group they were assigned to. c. The dependent variable is how participants react and the independent variable is which video game group they were assigned to. d. It meets the condition of "random assignment to condition" because each participant was equally likely to be assigned to the violent or non-violent video game condition.

c. The dependent variable is how participants react and the independent variable is which video game group they were assigned to.

6. Which of the following is the basic dilemma of social psychology research? a. The interest in creating an experiment that is generalizable across different people and situations. b. The difficulty in studying controversial issues such as murder and pornography. c. The difficulty in establishing both high internal and external validity. d. The difficulty in knowing if the dependent variable is actually being affected by the independent variable or whether some other variable could be causing the effect.

c. The difficulty in establishing both high internal and external validity.

5. Which of the following is not true about field experiments? a. They take place in real-life settings instead of inside a laboratory. b. They use the same kinds of designs as laboratory experiments. c. They use an independent variable but not a dependent variable. d. They tend to be high in external validity because they are conducted in the real world.

c. They use an independent variable but not a dependent variable.

10. What is the purpose of an Institutional Review Board? a. To approve studies in advance to make sure that they have a strong validity b. To approve studies in advance to make sure that they can later be easily replicated in order to increase external validity c. To approve studies in advance to make sure that they follow ethical guidelines and will not cause any undue harm to the participants d. To meet with participants after an experiment to conduct debriefing and see if all the participants gave their informed consent

c. To approve studies in advance to make sure that they follow ethical guidelines and will not cause any undue harm to the participants

3. What is the goal of social neuroscience? a. To legitimize social psychology as a science through the use of machines such as EEGs and fMRIs b. To settle debates in social psychology, such as whether a social process is caused by brain structure or culture c. To explore how different kinds of brain activity correlate with social information processing by having participants think about a social situation and seeing which parts of the brain are involved. d. To see if social processes can happen without other people being present. This is achieved by having participants think about a social situation and measuring which parts of the brain are involved.

c. To explore how different kinds of brain activity correlate with social information processing by having participants think about a social situation and seeing which parts of the brain are involved.

2. Which of the following is the most important priority in designing psychology experiments? a. To be as close to the real world as possible b. To be as controlled as possible in order to increase c. To maintain the health and welfare of the participants d. To find out the answers to important issues affecting society, such as aggression and prejudice

c. To maintain the health and welfare of the participants

2. Why is it important to establish interjudge reliability in an observational study? a. To make sure the observations are less empirical b. To make sure the observations are subjective c. To make sure the observations are not subjective and have not been distorted by one person d. To resolve disputes between researchers

c. To make sure the observations are not subjective and have not been distorted by one person

4. Which of the following is the most accurate conclusion based on the Jones and Harris (1967) Castro essay study? a. When a target's behavior is forced, perceivers do not attribute it to any sort of internal cause. b. We are less generous with ourselves when making attributions for negative events than we are when others are the actors. c. We are more likely to make an internal attribution for a chosen action versus a forced action. d. We are more likely to make an internal attribution when the actor in question is perceptually salient.

c. We are more likely to make an internal attribution for a chosen action versus a forced action.

2. The research by Paul Ekman and Walter Friesen (1973) indicated that the ability to interpret six major emotions is: a. a product of people's particular cultural experiences. b. a result of an individual's predispositions. c. cross-cultural. d. highly individualistic.

c. cross-cultural.

3. In case of pride, research has indicated that: a. photographs of pride expressions could not be accurately decoded by participants from the United States. b. the prototypical pride expressions included slumped shoulders and a sunken chest. c. photographs of pride expressions were accurately decoded by participants from the United States. d. pride expressions were not associated with winning around the world.

c. photographs of pride expressions were accurately decoded by participants from the United States.

Part of the creativity in conducting social psychological research involves:

choosing the right method, maximizing its strengths, and mini- mizing its weaknesses.

Social psychologists would try to understand the ____________ and ____________ that drive otherwise healthy, well-educated, bright people to commit murder and suicide for the sake of a religious or political goal.

circumstances; situations

1. Research indicates that which of the following candidates would be most likely to win a political election? a. Denise, whose face other people often perceive as indicating a warm personality b. Theo, who many people believe is gay based only on his facial appearance c. Vanessa, who has large eyes, a high forehead, and a small, child-like nose d. Rudy, whose face is usually seen by others as indicating a cold, calculating, and powerful personality

d. Rudy, whose face is usually seen by others as indicating a cold, calculating, and powerful personality

1. Joshua Susskind et al. (2008) studied the facial expressions of disgust and fear. What major conclusion did they arrive at? a. The muscle movements of the emotions of disgust and fear were exactly the same. b. The "fear face" decreases perception, while "disgust face" enhances perception. c. For fear, less air is breathed in and eye movements are slower; in contrast, for disgust, eyes widen and more air is breathed in. d. The muscle movements of the emotions of disgust and fear were completely the opposite.

d. The muscle movements of the emotions of disgust and fear were completely the opposite.

5. Belief in a just world is _____________ that helps people maintain their vision of life as ______________. a. an internal attribution; unpredictable b. a self-serving bias; unsafe c. an internal attribution; safe d. a defensive attribution; predictable

d. a defensive attribution; predictable

2. The frequency with which the observed behavior between the same person and the same stimulus occurs across time and situations is called a. discriminative information. b. observed information. c. consensus information. d. consistency information.

d. consistency information.

3. Social psychology uses three main methods for answering questions about social behavior. These methods are a. observational, ethnographical, and experimental. b. correlational, observational, and archival analysis. c. correlational, observational, and surveys. d. correlational, observational, and experimental.

d. correlational, observational, and experimental.

3. Fundamental attribution error refers to the a. tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people's behavior is due to the situation they are in. b. tendency to underestimate other people's behavior as a reflection of their internal, dispositional factors. c. tendency to overestimate other people's behavior as a reflection of their dispositional beliefs and situational factors. d. tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people's behavior is due to dispositions and beliefs and to underestimate the role of situational factors.

d. tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people's behavior is due to dispositions and beliefs and to underestimate the role of situational factors.

Misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that will actually transpire

deception

Genovese's neighbors might have assumed that someone else had called the police, a phenomenon Latané and Darley (1968) called the ________________________.

diffusion of responsibility

electroencephalography (EEG)

electrodes are placed on the scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain

The "fear face" __________ perception, while the "disgust face" ____________ it.

enhances; decreases

The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have

ethnography

A concept developed by Charles Darwin to explain the ways in which animals adapt to their environments

evolutionary theory

The only way to determine causal relationships is with the ______________________.

experimental method

The fundamental attribution error is best defined as the tendency to

explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits, thereby underestimating the power of social influence.

The crown jewel of nonverbal communication is the _________________.

facial-expressions channel

Experiments conducted in natural settings rather than in the laboratory

field experiments

One of the best ways to increase external validity is by conducting ___________________.

field experiments

The tendency to explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits and to underestimate the power of social influence and the immediate situation.

fundamental attribution error

For all of its downsides, hazing can also build ____________________.

group cohesiveness

social psychologists would say that the best strategy for understanding Jason's (from the chapter) reaction would be to find a way to determine _____________________ rather than to dissect the objective nature of the kiss itself (its length, degree of pressure, etc.).

his construal of Maria's behavior

Andre's manager, Liz, conducts his annual performance evaluation. According to social psychologists, Andre's positive or negative reaction to Liz's feedback will most likely depend on

how he construes the feedback.

Behaviorists over-looked the importance of:

how people interpret their environments

The goal of social psychology is to:

identify properties of human nature that make almost everyone susceptible to social influence, regardless of social class or culture.

Self-esteem is obviously a beneficial thing, but when it causes people to ___________________ rather than __________________, it can impede change and self-improvement.

justify their actions; learn from them

The results demonstrated that the more unpleasant the procedure the participants underwent to get into a group, the ________ they liked the group.

more

"Naïve realism" refers to the fact that

most people believe they perceive things accurately

The process by which heritable traits that promote survival in a particular environment are passed along to future generations; organisms with those traits are more likely to produce offspring

natural selection

Our expectations can even change the __________ of the social world.

nature

To the social psychologist, social influence is broader than attempts by one person to change another person's behavior. It includes:

our thoughts and feelings our overt acts, They takes many forms other than deliberate attempts at persuasion.

By failing to fully appreciate the power of the situation, we tend to:

oversimplify the problem, which can lead us to blame the victim in situations where the individual was overpowered by social forces

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

people are placed in scanners that measure changes in blood flow in their brains.

Sometimes our expectations about the social world interfere with __________________________.

perceiving it accurately

Fritz Heider observed: "Generally, a person reacts to what he thinks the other person is ____________, ____________, and ______________, in addition to what the other person may be doing." We are busy guessing all the time about the other person's state of mind, motives, and thoughts. We may be right—but often we are wrong.

perceiving; feeling; thinking

Understanding that people's behavior is often not caused by their ______________ but by the ___________________ is central to social psychology.

personalities; situations they are in

Most Americans will explain someone's behavior in terms of _____________.

personality

The question of why one person becomes a murderer and his/her neighbor does not would be most inter- esting to researchers in the field of

personality psychology.

You expect that you or another person will behave in some way, so you act in ways to make your prediction come true.

self-fulfilling prophecy

Many social psychologists therefore special- ize in the study of _______________.

social cognition

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people

social perception

Social psychology is located between its closest cousins, ___________ and __________________.

sociology; personality psychology

naïve realism

the conviction that we perceive things "as they really are." If other people see the same things differ- ently, therefore, it must be because they are biased

Social psychologists emphasize the importance of two central motives:

the need to feel good about ourselves the need to be accurate.

Social psychology is the study of

the real or imagined influence of other people.

Social psychology is:

the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people: parents, friends, employers, teachers, strangers—indeed, by the entire social situation.