Learning Curve Questions

_____ are inferences that tend to be inaccurate, overused, self-perpetuating, and automatic; these are properties that can produce harmful results.

Stereotypes

Candy knows that she should always bring a gift when she goes to someone's house because she watched her parents bring gifts when visiting other people's houses. Candy learned this behavior because of:

a psychological phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is appropriate.

A student's statement that his professor gave him a bad grade because she does not like him is a(n):

attribution.

When Tom's parents asked him whether he would jump off a bridge because all of his friends are doing it, they were referring to Tom's susceptibility to:

conformity.

Dahlia is trying to make partner at one of the city's most prestigious law firms. It is generally understood that associates remain hard at work in the office until at least 7 or 8 each evening. This is an element of the firm's:

norms.

A psychology professor walks into the classroom, and tells the students to stand up and put their hands on their heads. The students comply. They have demonstrated:

obedience.

Perceptual confirmation refers to the idea that:

observers will perceive what they expect to perceive.

Perceptual confirmation refers to people _____, while self-fulfilling prophecy refers to people _____.

seeing what they expect; behaving the way they are expected to behave

People who have a fear of confirming an observer's stereotype experience:

stereotype threat

When people make inferences about other people based on knowledge of the categories to which they belong, they are:

stereotyping.

Reason is to emotion as _____ persuasion is to _____ persuasion.

systematic; heuristic

In order to evaluate the accuracy of new information and beliefs, people are MOST likely to assess:

the consistency with their old beliefs.

According to the text, giving people candy with their restaurant bill will have which effect on customers?

They will leave a larger tip than if they had not gotten the candy.

Which statement is the BEST example of a stereotype?

Tina is blond and therefore must have a lot of fun.

Jeannie has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and her teacher believes that all children with ADHD misbehave in the classroom. Jeannie has never misbehaved in the classroom before, but now her parents get a weekly phone call from the principal about Jeannie's bad behavior at school. Jeannie's teacher may be creating _____ for Jeannie.

a self-fulfilling prophecy

Women are stereotyped as being bad at mathematics. Jennifer is asked to report her gender on her math exam. She proceeds to perform poorly on the test even though she has an "A" in the class. This is an example of:

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The basic motivation to believe what is right and to avoid believing what is wrong is called the _____ motive.

accuracy

Beth's friend works at a famous fast food restaurant. He told her that the hamburgers they use are a mix of many different types of meat. Although Beth trusts her friend, she does not want to believe him until she finds information to support his claim. Beth's hesitance in accepting the information her friend provided is BEST explained by the:

accuracy motive

Stacy is with a group of friends who are all drinking alcohol. They offer her some, and even though she does not drink, Stacy desperately wants to fit in with her friends, so she decides to have a few drinks. Stacy's decision to drink was a result of the:

approval motive.

According to the text, a(n) _____ tells people what they should do, while a belief tells them how to do it.

attitude

James usually does very well on tests, but he was up all night before his psychology midterm cleaning his flooded basement, and he therefore failed his exam. He tried to explain his situation to his teacher, but she thought that James's performance was caused by a tendency to avoid studying and she did not want to hear his excuse. The teacher incorrectly made a(n) _____ attribution about James's test performance.

dispositional

Javier believes that the reason his friend Manny did not mow his lawn this weekend is because he is lazy. Javier is making a(n) _____ attribution about his friend.

dispositional

MOST political candidates spend their time using the _____ persuasion technique by appealing to a person's habits and emotions.

heuristic

In one study described in the text, European American and African American participants either indicated or did not indicate their race before taking a college entrance examination. Whether participants indicated their race was a(n) _____ variable in this study.

independent

Situational attributions occur when individuals make:

inferences about the causes of people's behavior based on the situation in which it occurred.

The actor-observer effect occurs because people:

know more about their own situation than they do about other peoples' circumstances.

In Stanley Milgram's famous study, _____ of the participants delivered the highest level of shock.

more than 50% but less than 100%

Deanna is attending a yoga class for the first time. After noticing that everyone is seated on a yoga mat with their socks and shoes removed, Deanna takes off her socks and shoes and sits down on a yoga mat. Deanna's behavior is guided by:

normative influence.

People tend to make dispositional attributions for other people's actions even when they are caused by:

situational factors.

Which technique was used in a study cited in the text to increase the number of people who would put an ugly sign on their front yard?

the foot-in-the-door technique

In the case of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, many people were influenced to invest in a fraudulent design that promised very large monetary returns. Which basic motivation MOST likely made them susceptible to social influence in this case?

the hedonic motive