Psych 382 exam 1 (lecture and quiz review questions)

A specific and falsifiable prediction regarding the relationship between or among two or more variables is called a(n):

research hypothesis

Liam, the photography editor of a national magazine, is looking through a series of pictures to find a model who seems strong and competent. Given research findings on physical appearance and snap judgments, Liam should select a model whose face has

an angular chin

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

Internal validity refers to the extent to which relationships can be expected to hold up when they are tested again in different ways and for different people

False

A correlational study has shown that a moderate positive correlation exists between adults who abuse alcohol and their parents being alcoholic. The conclusion that having alcoholic parents causes children to abuse alcohol is thus proven

false

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.

smoking and drinking are found to be correlated at +.65. We can conduct that

smoking and drinking are related

The greater the reward promised for a boring activity, the more one will come to enjoy the activity

false

The person in the social situation is the sole determinant of behavior

false

To change the way people act, you must first change their attitudes

false

The evolutionary perspective on social behavior suggests that

we inherit tendencies to behave in certain ways.

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.

Rhonda tells you that she hates her new apartment. According to the covariation principle, which question would you ask to assess the consistency covariation dimension?

Does Rhonda always report hating her apartment, or is she just saying so today?

Which of the following is an example of controlled processing?

Learning to ride a bike

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.

All relevant information, including the real hypothesis, the nature of any deception used, and how the data are going to be used should be provided:

at the time of debriefing

If a theory's predictions are not confirmed, then

confidence in the theory is reduced.

Andrew saw a TV commercial for a new video game that he had been wanting. The game was on sale for 50% off, but the store was set to close in two hours. Andrew was 15 minutes late getting to the store and missed the sale. To ease his distress about missing the sale, Andrew reasoned that he never really had a chance to get to the store before it closed because traffic was too heavy, even though he could have taken a different, quicker route. This is an example of

counterfactual thinking.

People pull harder in a tug-of-war when they are part of a team than when they are pulling by themselves

false

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.

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.

Heuristics exert a strong influence on our thinking in large measure because they

reduce the mental effort needed to make judgments and decisions.

Suppose you are telling your friend about a woman you just met. You tell your friend that this person seemed very compassionate and was interested in helping others; however, you couldn't recall whether she said she was a nurse or a businesswoman. On the basis of the ________ heuristic, your friend would probably think that she is a ________.

representativeness; nurse

The actor-observer difference is the tendency to make attributions for one's own behavior, while making attributions for others' behavior.

situational; dispositional

According to your reading, one of the most pervasive sources of distortion in secondhand accounts is

the desire to entertain.

One of the most pervasive sources of distortion in secondhand accounts is

the desire to entertain.

According to , our confidence that a particular cause is responsible for a given outcome is reduced if there are other plausible causes that might have produced it.

the discounting principle

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.

During finals week, Jonah tells his friend that he'll be able to write four term papers over the next few days. Jonah is shocked and upset when he is barely able to complete two of these four papers. Jonah's behavior is consistent with

the planning fallacy.

Social Psychology is defined as

the scientific study of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals in social situations

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

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.

One evening, after seeing a ________ at the Cineplex, you are on your way home. You drive into a store parking lot, where another driver grabs a parking place you had spotted and were waiting for. You perceive the behavior as very ________.

violent movie; aggressive

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.

If you would like for your student government to pass a bill putting more lights along major walkways, how could you use ease of retrieval to persuade them?

Ask them to think of 2 instances in which the lack of lighting made them or someone they know feel fearful while walking on campus after dark.

Which process of social cognition refers to the information we notice?

Attention

Which of the following contrasts controlled processing and automatic processing?

Controlled processing is systematic and effortful, whereas automatic processing is fast and relatively effortless.

Jack recently had a job interview that seemed to go exceedingly well by all objective standards. However, Jack noted that his interviewer seemed to be in a bad mood that day. To what extent should Jack be concerned about the latter piece of information?

He should be aware that he will likely be viewed less favorably by the interviewer than if the interviewer was in a good mood.

Molly and Emily are members of a girls' basketball team who are responsible for helping to organize fundraising efforts for their team. Molly is extremely motivated to complete this task; in contrast, Emily only shows a mild interest in completing the required task. Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the likelihood that Molly and Emily will complete their tasks?

Molly's motivation will likely cause her to predict that she will finish her task quickly; however, this will have no effect on whether she actually completes her task quicker than Emily.

Which of the following individuals is exhibiting behaviors or thoughts consistent with priming?

Natalie, after finishing a romantic novel, passionately embraces her boyfriend and tells him how much she loves him.

Four students are preparing to take a mid-term exam in Political Science. Going in to the exam, who would be most likely to suffer from the overconfidence bias?

Ronald, who is in his first political science course and first semester of college.

Tracy encounters a member of a certain political group whose views and attributes are inconsistent with her schemas about that group. Due to a strong perseverance effect, what is the MOST likely conclusion that Tracy will make?

Tracy will continue to believe that most members of that group fit her schemas.

Which concept refers to the situations that are created by the experiment through the experimental manipulations?

Which concept refers to the situations that are created by the experiment through the experimental manipulations?

Which of the following questions best reflects what attribution theory seeks to explain?

Why did Larissa break up with Tom?

Shortly before being interviewed for a job she really wants, Meredith finds that the human resources director was involved in a minor traffic accident during lunch. Should Meredith be concerned that the traffic accident may have a negative influence on the outcomes of the job interview?

Yes, research indicates that even experienced interviewers are influenced by their current moods.

One way that schemas influence social thought is by

acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information.

Arlene walks into the room her husband has just painted. She immediately dislikes the color. Arlene has experienced

an automatic evaluative reaction.

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

produces more conclusive evidence than other methods.

According to the textbook, all of the following factors can DECREASE the accuracy of secondhand information EXCEPT

base-rate information.

In her debate class, Min was assigned to give a "pro-life" speech on abortion. Before her speech, the teacher told everyone that Min had been assigned to take this position, regardless of her true beliefs. Research on the fundamental attribution error suggests that, after class, the other students will

be biased to think that Min is truly pro-life.

A theory that is proposed must be

consistent with existing evidence.

Gloria looks back on her marriage and thinks, "If only I had put more effort into the relationship, Lew and I would still be together." This self-reflection exemplifies

counterfactual thinking.

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 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.

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

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

essay.

Zoë is in a fairly good mood. Consequently, we should expect her to show a(n) ________ in her use of ________.

increase; heuristics

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

informed consent

Based on your reading: Kyle, a male student, and Megha, a female student, both failed their geography exams. According to research by Dweck and colleagues, Kyle is likely to attribute his failure to his , whereas Megha is likely to attribute her failure to her _.

lack of effort; lack of ability

One way to manage information overload is to make use of

mental shortcuts, such as heuristics.

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

modifying the theory and collecting additional data.

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

passive

Many members of a street gang believe privately that their initiation process is too harsh and dangerous. However, they do not express these beliefs because they assume that everyone else thinks the initiation process is just fine. This scenario exemplifies

pluralistic ignorance.

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.

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.

The textbook describes research by Todorov and colleagues in which participants rated a large number of faces along different personality dimensions. Which two dimensions stood out as the main dimensions used in these ratings?

trustworthiness and dominance

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

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 examples best shows how expectations (i.e., schemas) can be self-fulfilling prophecies?

Teachers who expect that some children will do well in school actually lead those children to perform better.

According to the textbook's description of positive and negative framing, which of the following statements would be most likely to influence someone NOT to undergo a risky surgery?

Ten out of one hundred people who have this surgery die.

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

a variety of cultural factors such as race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability help determine self-identity.

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.

Groups will generally make more moderate decisions than a single individual will

false

If you pick up a crying baby whenever it cries, this will increase the amount the baby will cry, so it can get picked up again

false

Social psychologists focus their attention mainly on individuals because

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

Sarah supervises a work group of six colleagues in an advertising agency. Recently, the creativity of her work group has not been as high as it should be. To help boost the group's creativity, and keeping in mind the effects of mood on cognition, Sarah might

take steps to put her group's members in a happier mood during work hours.

Blair watches the newscast each evening, with its usual diet of fires and other accidents. She often eats at Herby's Fried Snacks, a restaurant located in a brick building, despite the fact that her eating there has resulted in bad indigestion several times. She avoids the well-respected Korean restaurant because the Korean restaurant is in a wooden building. Blair's eating habits are probably being guided by

the availability heuristic.

Amanda has lost some money she needs for next semester's tuition. While betting on red, the roulette wheel has come up with five blacks in a row. To try to get her money back, Amanda is now doubling up her bet each time on red, believing that red will come up soon. She bases her belief on the (roughly) 50/50 odds of red and black occurring over a large number of spins of the wheel. Amanda's strategy appears to be based on

the representativeness heuristic.

The fact that we can make judgments and evaluations about different aspects of the world in either a controlled, reflective way or an automatic way suggests

we have two systems for evaluating the social world which may be located in different areas of the brain.

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

Behavior and thought are intimately and continuously linked.

Michelle consistently attributes her failures to stable, global, and internal causes. Maria accounts for her failures by citing unstable, specific, and external causes. According to research on explanatory style, Michelle is likely to (BLANK) than Maria.

Earn lower grades

Which of the following study questions would be a poor choice to explore using experimentation due to ethical reasons?

How do individuals cope when their spouse dies?

Which of the following is a benefit of automatic processing?

It allows us to deal with problems when our attention is directed elsewhere.

The confirmation bias makes what prediction about human behavior?

People will seek out supporting evidence for their beliefs.

Which of the following categories is one of the five categories mentioned in the text regarding factors affecting social interaction?

Perceptual processes

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

Which of the following news headlines would be most likely to make a lasting impression on readers?

Stocks Plummet on Release of Dire Economic Forecast!

Which statement best describes the attribution process

The process through which we seek to identify the causes of others' behavior and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.

Most people rate themselves as below average when comparing themselves to others on socially desirable characteristics (e.g., attractiveness)

false

Jason is undergoing treatment for depression. His therapist has encouraged Jason to remember as many details as possible about times when Jason was not feeling depressed. Jason is having difficulties remembering a time when he was not depressed. This is probably because of the effects of

mood-dependent memories.

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.

In thinking about a major assignment that is due in one week, Jacey focuses on the tasks to be accomplished and how she thinks she will approach each task. She does not spend much time thinking about how long similar tasks have taken her in the past. As a result, Jacey is likely to underestimate the amount of time needed for the assignment. This is probably because Jacey has

never attempted a similar type of assignment in the past.

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.

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

smoking is probably related to drinking.

The dimension of explanatory style considers whether the causes of a particular behavior will be present again in the future.

stable/unstable

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.