Chapter 1 social psychology

The evolutionary perspective on social behavior suggests that

we inherit tendencies or predispositions to behave in certain ways

social psychologists focus their attention mainly on individuals because

our actions are performed by and thoughts occur in the mind of individuals

Which of the following best explains the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?

A theory makes predictions about observable events, whereas a hypothesis tests predictions made.

A researcher worked with members of a political action committee (PAC) to survey potential voters by telephone before an election. PAC members conducted the poll themselves while the researcher tabulated the results. The poll asked which candidate people plan to vote for in the upcoming election. Which of the following may present problems for the accuracy of the results?

All of these may present problems for the accuracy of the results.

Paul is researching the prevalence of sexist or demeaning language aimed at women and its use across different neighborhoods. To do this, he spends an hour in different neighborhoods and covertly follows his research assistant as she walks down the sidewalk 10 feet ahead of him. When sexist or demeaning language is used, Paul fastidiously records it in his notebook. What technique is Paul using to come to his conclusions?

Controlled observation

Jim is 28, single, and a freelance writer who works from his apartment. Throughout high school, college, and graduate school, Jim felt happy and engaged with life, but he has recently felt more and more unhappy and detached. According to social psychology research, what short-term solution should Jim take to improve his happiness?

He should join one or more groups.

Which of the following study questions could absolutely NOT be explored using experimentation due to ethical reasons?

How do individuals cope when their spouse dies?

Elaine is researching how insults influence activity in certain parts of the brain. To do this, she uses fMRI to view the brain activity of patients who are presented with a variety of subtle and obvious insults spoken by both men and women. Which of the following best describes Elaine's field?

Social neuroscience

A researcher thinks that a person's mood has an effect on how helpful that person is likely to be. To test this, the researcher has some research participants come to the laboratory where they are first given a difficult test and then either heavily praised or strongly criticized for their test performance. Afterward, participants are asked to help the researcher's assistant move some heavy boxes into another room. The researcher makes careful note of how many and which participants help with moving the boxes. In this example, the hypothesis is

a person's mood has an effect on how helpful that person is likely to be

Sue is conducting an experiment in which she is trying to determine the influence of staring at a speaker on how much different speakers stutter. Sue sends people to a speech class with instructions to stare for varied amounts of time at the speaker. The dependent variable is the

amount of stuttering that occurs

Which core value for social psychologists requires a commitment to gathering and evaluating information about the world in as careful, precise, and error-free a manner as possible?

accuracy

A researcher wants to know whether writing an essay on a controversial topic will have an effect on the attitudes held by people. First, she administers an attitude survey that covers a number of topics, including electronic voting machines. She then randomly assigns subjects to write an essay either supporting or opposing electronic voting machines. One week later, she administers the same attitude survey and compares those responses to the responses from the first time the survey was administered. In this experiment, the independent variable (IV) is the ________.

attitude survey

The tendency for one event to be associated with changes in another event is known as ________.

causation

A multicultural perspective is recognized as increasingly important to research in social psychology because

cultural factors are only important in some areas of research, such as research dealing with facial recognition

Renata created an experiment to observe how temperature affects social interactions. However, she did not state this purpose to participants. In fact, participants, all graduate students, were under the assumption that they were attending a campus-sponsored food and drink social gathering. Over the course of two hours, Renata drastically changed the room's temperature every 10 minutes and recorded information on how participants behaved. At the end of the two hours, Renata emerged and discussed the full nature of the experiment with the participants, including the deception she employed and why she needed to do so. At the end of the experiment, Renata employed the tactic of ________.

debriefing

Arnold is a social psychologist interested in learning about people's reactions to emergencies. He creates an experiment where his research assistant, Todd, pretends to have a heart attack in the middle of a busy coffee shop. From behind a one-way glass, Arnold observes and records the reactions of the customers in the coffee shop before emerging and explaining the nature of the experiment. Arnold has used ________.

deception

In addition to social cognition and behavioral approaches, research on ______ has helped social psychologists develop a greater understanding of how people form impressions, choose to help others, and even comply with requests.

emotions

Thom's mental state is very affected by the weather. During the summer, he readily admits that he feels happier and more carefree. During the winter, when it is cold and gets darker earlier, Thom feels irritable and occasionally depressed. Thom's thoughts and behavior are impacted by ________.

environmental variables

Sasha is a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology. She is researching the role that a good sense of humor plays in securing a mate and is planning on honing this research into a dissertation that focuses on humor's influence on reproductive success. Sasha is engaged in the study of

evolutionary psychology

Carla has just run a series of experiments involving college students as participants. The experiments were all conducted in a controlled environment on campus. Carla is now interested in whether her findings would apply to both younger and older people in neighborhoods and towns outside of the college. Carla is concerned with ________.

external validity

Yelena is researching the effect of volume on people's social interactions. She invites participants to play a card game that requires the cooperation of members of a group. There is music playing in the background. With each game, she adjusts the volume of the music. She keeps the lighting, the number of participants, and the length of the games the same. The volume of the music is the ________.

independent variable

Which of the following is a safeguard that most social psychologists agree must be in place in order to use temporary deception?

informed consent

In an experiment, researchers wanted to know whether changing the level of lighting in a factory would have an effect on the productivity of employees. In order to address this question, employees were randomly assigned to three separate identical work areas, but the lighting was set at a different level in each of the work areas. Then, employees in all three work groups began to operate machinery that produced small electrical components. The number of components produced by each group was carefully tallied at the end of each 8-hour shift. In this example, the dependent variable is the ________.

level of lighting

In an experiment, researchers wanted to know whether changing the level of lighting in a factory would have an effect on the productivity of employees. In order to address this question, employees were randomly assigned to three separate identical work areas, but the lighting was set at a different level in each of the work areas. Then, employees in all three work groups began to operate machinery that produced small electrical components. The number of components produced by each group was carefully tallied at the end of each 8-hour shift. In this example, the hypothesis is the ________.

level of lighting will affect employee productivity

Which type of variable intervenes between an independent variable and changes in social behavior?

mediating

When research results are not consistent with a theory, the researcher's next step usually involves ________.

modifying the theory and collecting additional data

A researcher is interested in the relationship between courtship behaviors and physical characteristics of people. If the researcher should establish that there is a correlation of +.37 between physical attractiveness and dating frequency, we can conclude that

more attractive people date more often than less attractive people

Research of adult populations has documented a negative correlation between 1) obesity and 2) participation in physically demanding leisure activities. One possible interpretation of these results is that ________.

obese people tend to exercise less than non-obese people

Results of systematic research indicate that our impression of a person whom we just met is influenced by ________.

our mood

Generally, deception used in an experiment is usually mild and is known as ________ deception.

passive

which of the following categories is NOT one of the five categories mentioned in the text regarding factors affecting social interaction

perceptual processes

one reason that social scientists put their faith in the scientific method is that the scientific ,method

produces more conclusive evidence than other methods

Suppose smoking and drinking alcohol are found to be correlated at +.65. We can conclude that ________.

smoking is probably related to drinking

Researchers believe that experiencing strong negative emotions such as fear or anxiety will increase people's need to affiliate. To test this idea, the researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two small groups. Members of Group 1 were left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows. While waiting, the lights went out for a brief period of time and the participants could hear screams from another room. Members of Group 2 were likewise left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows, but the lights were left on and no screams were heard. Researchers observed how frequently members of each group started conversations with other members of their group on non-experiment related topics. In this experiment, the hypothesis is that ________.

strong negative emotions will increase people's need to affiliate with others

Research has shown a positive correlation between 1) socio-economic status of the family of origin and 2) college graduation rates. Based on this information, we can conclude that

students born into wealthier families are more likely to complete college than students born into poorer families

In order to determine whether people have a strong or weak preference for the color of their cookware, a company wants to collect information from many of its past customers. If the number of past customers is very large, the company may want to consider using ________ methods.

survey

A researcher wants to know whether writing an essay on a controversial topic will have an effect on the attitudes held by people. First, she administers an attitude survey that covers a number of topics, including electronic voting machines. She then randomly assigns subjects to write an essay either supporting or opposing the use of electronic voting machines. One week later, she administers the same attitude survey and compares those responses to the responses from the first time the survey was administered. In this experiment, the dependent variable (DV) is ________.

the essay

The moon is full, and Cristinel has been behaving wildly. Although sober, he's been alternately barking like a dog at strangers on the street and/or asking them, "aren't ya' just happy now?" According to your text, Cristinel's behavior could be due to

the moon as an environmental influence

Rafael is concerned with the idea of inherent morality and wants to research ethical indicators present in toddlers and babies. He knows that many other social psychologists have also been concerned with this topic, so Rafael focuses on analyzing previously published research on this topic in order to find repeating patterns among results and also to see if there are any gaps in the body of research. Rafael is focused on ________.

the survey method

Kim knows she needs to go take summer courses, but worries about leaving her new boyfriend for three months. She wonders, will "absence make the heart go stronger" be true, or is "out of sight, out of mind" more applicable? this is an example of

the unscientific nature of conventional wisdom

Frameworks for explaining various events or processes are known as ________.

theories

Researchers were recently surprised to learn that the correlation between the type of clothing people wear when they are not at work and the type of jobs they hold is approximately zero. Based on this, we can conclude that

there is no relationship between the types of clothing worn in non-work settings and the type of work that people do

Suppose a company asked its workers "Now that you have received a raise, how satisfied are you with your job?" and found out that 87% indicated they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied." A major concern of this study would likely be the

way the question was asked

Which of the following describes the modern view of social psychology?

Behavior and thought are intimately and continuously linked.

LaShawna meets another girl at a party who is not from LaShawna's ethnic group, and whom LaShawna judges, based on her stereotype of that group, is probably shallow and a gossip. The best description of LaShawna's judgment is that she is engaged in

a social cognitive process

In one study, participants were presented with words that were either consistent or inconsistent with their strongly held values. Participants showed quite strong reactions to the value inconsistent words. This suggests that we process information we

disagree with quickly

Based on his estimate of how long it would take him to complete his midterm essay, Armando told his instructor he would turn in the paper on Tuesday, but he was late turning it in, causing his instructor to deduct a letter grade from the paper. Next time Armando makes such a promise based on a plan, he will likely

make the same planning error and be late again

Eric is a social psychologist who is respected in his field. However, his colleagues are often apprehensive of challenging Eric's strongly held ideas, even when they know that Eric's ideas are laden with errors, because Eric has been known to get upset when he has to question his assumptions. Eric struggles with maintaining the core value of

open-mindedness.

Researchers believe that experiencing strong negative emotions such as fear or anxiety will increase people's need to affiliate. To test this idea, the researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two small groups. Members of Group 1 were left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows. While waiting, the lights went out for a brief period of time and the participants could hear screams from another room. Members of Group 2 were likewise left for 10 minutes in a room with no windows, but the lights were left on and no screams were heard. Researchers observed how frequently members of each group started conversations with other members of their group on non-experiment related topics. Researchers assigned participants to one of the two groups randomly because ________.

random assignment ensures that any changes in the dependent variable are caused only by changes in the independent variable

Professor Garcia is studying how cancer patients are coping with their illness by giving them one of the following sets of instructions: they are to keep a daily diary and write about anything, keep a daily diary and write about how they are trying to cope with their illness, or not told to keep any diary whatsoever. After following this protocol for a month, Professor Garcia then measures the cancer patients' self-reported level of depression. The independent variable in this hypothetical study is ________ and the dependent variable is ________.

the type of diary kept, if any; the self-reported level of depression