PSY254 Social Psychology: Exam 1

The Westlake Hills Little League team just lost a game. According to research on attribution biases, right after the game, the Westlake Hills coach is likely to say

"Our opponents played better than ever today."

Which of the following correlations indicates the weakest relationship between two variables?

0.1

The classic Milgram study showed that about ________ percent of participants delivered ________ to the "learner."

60; a 450-volt shock (highest possible)

Which of the following statements about culture and self-esteem is the most accurate?

Americans utter many more self-complimentary statements during conversations (relative to Japanese individuals).

________ theory focuses on the ways in which we answer such questions as, "Why does my roommate always play his music so loud?"

Attribution

The social psychologist Carol Dweck and colleagues (1995) found that people who believe that intelligence is a matter of hard work actually study harder in school and get better grades. She used this finding to design an academic success program targeted for minority junior high school students. What does this illustrate about the connection between basic and applied research?

Basic research can lead to theories used to design applied interventions.

Research by Tracy and colleagues (2007, 2013) examined the expression of pride in athletes who were sighted versus blind. Which of the following best summarizes the results of this research?

Both sighted and blind athletes displayed nonverbal expressions of pride after winning.

Recall that Steve Heine and colleagues compared how Canadian and Japanese students responded to positive or negative feedback after taking a creativity test. After the feedback, participants took a second creativity test. The results showed that

Canadians worked longer on the second creativity test after receiving positive feedback than after receiving negative feedback.

Prior to a basketball game, Coach Keating shakes his players' hands. Each player then gives the others a fist bump and a hug. In contrast, Coach Lopez wishes the players luck and then the team goes through a cheer. Based on research by Kraus and colleagues. how will the teams do if they follow the same routine over the season?

Coach Keating's team will do better because the touch in which they engage coordinates the team.

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?

What is one of the most important differences between correlational and experimental research designs?

Experiments use random assignment.

________ are mental shortcuts that provide serviceable but often inexact answers to common judgmental problems.

Heuristics

Tamara just bought a brand new purse. According to research on culture and social class in the United States, how is Tamara likely to respond when her best friend buys the same purse?

If Tamara is from the middle class, she is likely disappointed that she is no longer unique.

Which of the following statements about attribution is INACCURATE?

If an individual's reaction occurs just once, it is easier to determine whether the behavior should be attributed to the situation or to the person.

If an experiment produces reliable results, what does this mean?

It is likely to yield the same results on repeated occasions.

Luis has negative schemas about his looks and his intelligence. He believes he is unattractive and doubts his intellectual abilities. At school on Friday, Luis interacted with a few different people. Which of these interactions is Luis likely to remember the following week?

Luis's history teacher said his paper was not clear.

Marco, a physics major, and Tim, a social work major, always take the school bus together. Today the bus was delayed. Tim is going to be late for a midterm, whereas Marco does not have class for the first few hours. While walking from the bus stop, Marco and Tim pass a woman crying on a bench. According to Darley and Batson's Good Samaritan study, how are Marco and Tim likely to behave?

Marco is more likely to help the woman, given that he does not have to rush to a midterm.

Michelle and Eahlam were assigned to work together on the first day of chemistry class. Shortly after introducing themselves to each other, Michelle awkwardly missed her seat and fell as she was trying to sit back down. She looked visibly embarrassed and had a bright pink blush. Based on what you know about embarrassment, what might Eahlam have inferred about Michelle when seeing this response?

Michelle is trustworthy

Adina has low self-esteem. She always feels uncomfortable in social situations. According to research on self-verification theory, with whom would Adina most likely choose to be friends?

Mitchell, who told her she's kind of awkward

Grandma Shirley gave each of her four grandchildren $25 as a holiday gift. Which of the grandchildren spent the money in a way to maximally benefit his or her happiness?

Nancy, who put the money toward a double feature at the movies.

Imagine the following scenario: In a research study of theory of mind, children are shown a candy box with the lid closed. The researcher asks them to predict what is in the box. Naturally, the children say, "Candy." Next, the researcher shows the children that, in reality, there are pencils in the box. Finally, the researcher asks the children to predict what a friend will say is in the box. ________ 4-year-olds would most likely tend to say ________

Nonautistic; "Candy."

When it comes to causal attributions, what is true of the distinction between people from interdependent and independent cultures?

People from interdependent cultures are more likely to use consensus information when making an attribution.

In the United States, a large luxury sedan is marketed with the slogan, "Feel good about yourself. Drive a Lexmark." According to broad generalizations surrounding the individualist-collectivist distinction, why might this slogan be LESS successful in Japan?

People in Japan tend not to base their self-worth on personal status.

Which of the following statements best reflects self-affirmation theory?

People maintain feelings of worth after an identity threat by focusing on how great they are in a different life area

Which of the following statements is NOT consistent with the evolutionary perspective?

People will inevitably do what they are biologically predisposed to do.

Which of the following is FALSE regarding the findings from research on culture and social perception?

Relative to people from Asia, Americans are less likely to assume that people are trustworthy.

Travis thinks that Roscoe is a terrible person. So when Travis finds out that Roscoe's business failed and Roscoe's wife left him, Travis's reaction is consistent with the just world hypothesis. He therefore thinks to himself,

Roscoe got what he deserved!"

Why are social psychologists interested in social media platforms such as Facebook?

Social media represents a commonly used space for social interactions.

Which of the following reflects a theory rather than a hypothesis?

The American South is more of a culture of honor than the North.

Davidson and Begley (2012) studied the effects of mindful meditation for Tibetan monks. Which of the following best summarizes the results of this research?

The Tibetan monks showed greater activity in the left frontal lobes, regions associated with positive emotions.

Someone cut Neha off while she was trying to find a parking spot at the movie theater, and she is mad. After a few more minutes, Neha finds another spot and heads inside. When buying popcorn, the attendant spills a bit of it and then moves on to the next person in line. How is Neha likely to interpret the attendant's behavior?

The attendant is rude and aggressive.

How are self-monitoring and self-handicapping related?

They are both forms of impression management.

Which of the following statements is true of schemas?

They are elaborate collections of systematized knowledge.

Actors' and observers' attributions differ for many reasons. Which of the following is NOT one of those reasons?

They have the same information about their own versus others' behavior

You are interested in pledging a fraternity. The first time you come by the frat house, you meet Vince as you walk in the door. Vince says hello and then angrily yells at his frat brother down the hall. What are you likely to infer about Vince based on this interaction

Vince has a high status role within the fraternity.

We often tell narratives about which emotions we felt in a particular situation and why. What seems to be true of these self-report accounts?

We are generally good at labeling which emotions we felt, but we are not so good at accounting for why we felt that way.

An institutional review board (IRB) has reviewed a study and determined that participating is likely to make the participants feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Could the IRB allow the researchers to begin this study?

Yes; as long as participants are not overly harmed and the research has significant value.

Which of the following instances of what we call common sense may be due to the representativeness heuristic?

You should avoid potato chips if you suffer from greasy skin and acne.

Dr. Lee runs a study to test whether people with low self-esteem prefer to spend time with someone who evaluates them more negatively rather than someone who evaluates them more positively. Dr. Lee hopes that this study will contribute to the broader research on self-verification, which argues that people have a strong desire for others to see them in ways consistent with how they see themselves. Dr. Lee's study tests ________ , whereas the total research on self-verification tests ________.

a hypothesis; a theory

The term construal refers to

a personal interpretation about situations and other people's behaviors

Primacy effects often result from

a tendency for information presented early on to strongly influence a final decision

Tiesha thinks that she did poorly on her exam because the questions were too hard, but that her friend did poorly because he is not smart. Tiesha's attributions reflect the

actor-observer difference

Vazire and colleagues conducted a series of studies to evaluate who we believe knows us best, ourselves or close others, and whether our beliefs are accurate. The results showed that

although we tend to believe that we know ourselves best, close others do a better job predicting certain aspects of our behavior than we do.

Activation of the ________ is associated with our gut feelings (particularly fear) in response to environmental stimuli, whereas activation of the ________ seems to heighten in response to rewards.

amygdala; nucleus accumbens

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.

Research by Ekman (1992) on the universality of facial expression showed that people from diverse cultures tend to agree in how they label the emotions of

anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

A group of social psychologists is working on a research project with the aim of promoting condom use as a way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This type of research project is probably best described as

applied science.

he propensity to show facial expressions and the tendency to live in groups are related in that they both

are human universals.

One of the primary reasons field experiments are conducted is that they

are very high in external validity.

Nadir wants to lose weight and decides to cut back on his calorie intake. This is proving difficult, given that his coworker Niya often shares brownies in their office's common area. Nadir tries to think of the brownies as a threat to his long-term health goals, rather than as a delicious, gooey treat. He is construing this temptation in which one of the following ways?

at a high-level

Suppose you are driving home from school and suddenly realize that you have not noticed anything you have driven past for the last few minutes. This experience of driving without paying attention to your route is an example of ________ processing.

automatic

Lola visits Trish in Weston, CT. At some point, Lola asks Trish whether there is a lot of crime in Weston. Although crime rarely occurs there, Trish recalls a recent news story about a Weston drug store robbery. On the basis of this memory, she then tells Lola that there is a lot of crime in Weston. This scenario illustrates reliance on the ________ heuristic.

availability

Bill has an older brother named Dan. Both Bill and Dan are physics professors. According to Frank Sulloway's research on the effects of birth order, Bill should

be more open to "off-the-wall" or "revolutionary" theories.

One of the most commonly used social neuroscience techniques is known as functional magnetic resonance imaging. This technique measures changes in the brain associated with ________ to determine which parts of the brain are active during certain activities.

blood flow

Recall that Wells and Gavanski (1989) asked study participants to read a story about a woman who went to lunch with her boss to celebrate a promotion. According to the story, the boss ordered a dish for the woman that contained wine. Unfortunately, the woman was so allergic to wine that she died. The researchers were interested in how participants would respond to additional information about the boss's behavior. Results of this study showed that participants who thought the

boss almost ordered a different dish that did not contain wine viewed his choice of meals as more causally significant.

Which is NOT one of the universal moral domains described in Haidt's moral foundations theory?

cleanliness/filth

It is the first time Phan has walked through Yosemite Park and she feels immense awe at the beauty of the giant mountains and expansive vistas. According to research on awe, Phan is also likely feeling a sense of

common humanity and connectedness to others.

Jamal watches how his new boyfriend reacts to a performer at a comedy club. Is he easily amused or is the comedian really that funny? If he compares his boyfriend's response to the comedian to other people in the audience, he is focusing on ________ information.

consensus

Flora will most likely attribute Jeremy's quiet, shy behavior to his introverted personality when

consistency is high, and consensus and distinctiveness are low.

Judy continually compliments the people with whom she works. Bob, one of Judy's best friends, thinks that Judy is genuinely thoughtful and friendly. Sarah, who does not know Judy well, thinks that Judy is shallow and fake. This example suggests how friendship influences

construals.

Maisie, a junior in high school, is studying for her SAT exam. Although she is tired after a long day of school, she sits down with her study guide and slowly works through five new math problems. Maisie is likely employing

controlled processing.

A social psychologist finds a relationship between socioeconomic status and relationship satisfaction in married couples. This study most likely describes which type of research method?

correlational

Ellen and Ernesto feel extra happy when reflecting on their relationship and the fact that they almost didn't meet at that party five years ago. It was only because Ellen's best friend's coat disappeared that she was still there when Ernesto arrived. When they think about how easily they could have missed each other, they are engaging in ________, and that they feel especially happy when they do so reflects ________.

counterfactual thinking; emotional amplification

The ________ is the idea that behavior should be attributed to potential causes that occur along with the behavior.

covariation principle

Which of the following approaches to understanding emotion assumes that emotions are strongly influenced by values, roles, institutions, and socialization practices?

cultural approach

According to the contingencies of the self-worth account of self-esteem (Crocker and Wolfe, 2001), a person's self-evaluations

depend on success and failure in important life domains.

A researcher measures the galvanic skin response (GSR), or degree of sweating, of people holding a clear plastic jar containing a spider. She compares the GSRs of people with spider phobias with the GSRs of people without spider phobias. In this experiment, the galvanic skin response functions as the

dependent variable.

Darwin's principle of serviceable habits suggests that facial expressions of emotion

derived from behaviors that proved useful and adaptive to our ancestors.

Consider the following finding from a study in which U.S. schoolchildren were asked to describe themselves: "Forty-four percent of children who were born outside of the United States mentioned their country of origin when describing themselves, whereas only 7 percent of those born in the United States mentioned their place of birth." This finding best supports the ________ hypothesis.

distinctiveness

Barbara just received a B on her test. She learns that one of her friends got an A on the same test, and another friend got a C. Later that night, Barbara tells her roommate that she did "really well" relative to other people in the class. According to social comparison theory, Barbara appears to have engaged in ________ comparison.

downward

Deborah and Steve went on vacation together last fall. Due to her work schedule, Deborah was able to leave for the trip before Steve, so her trip was a few days longer. Both Deborah and Steve had a great time and later think about the trip with equal fondness. That Deborah did not recollect her longer trip as more pleasurable than Steve's shorter trip best reflects the concept of

duration neglect.

Several mountain climbers were trapped on Mount Everest during a blinding snowstorm. Many climbers died on the mountain. One climber made it all the way back to base camp. Unfortunately, however, he collapsed and died mere yards away from the safety of his tent. Because this climber came so close to saving himself, ________ is particularly likely to occur in response to this climber's death.

emotional amplification

While boarding a plane, Doug feels fear after he notices a seated passenger looking agitated, sweating profusely, and holding a backpack. In this situation, Doug's

emotional reaction probably occurs before careful, systematic thought takes over.

The self-enhancement motive seems to better predict ________ responses to feedback, whereas the self-verification motive seems to better predict ________ responses.

emotional; cognitive

Which of the following is the term for brief and specific psychological and physiological responses that help people achieve goals?

emotions

Ekman's research showing that facial expressions of emotion are largely universal best supports the ________ perspective on emotion.

evolutionary

What are two essential components of a self-fulfilling prophesy?

expectations about what a person is like and behaving toward the person in ways consistent with the expectations

Which of the following do people share with animals, especially higher primates?

facial expressions

As they walked down the street, participants (who were unaware they were part of a study) were approached by a confederate posing as a panhandler (a person who begs for money). The confederate asked the participant either for 75 cents or for whatever change he or she had handy. The researchers compared how much money participants gave across these two conditions. This is best characterized as which type of research design?

field experiment

All of the following are examples of resources used in archival research EXCEPT

firsthand observations of behavior.

________ is the feeling of ease (or difficulty) associated with processing information.

fluency

The statement "From now on, I'm going to take vitamins everyday" is a(n) ________, whereas the statement "I will always take my vitamins after drinking my morning coffee" is a(n) ________.

goal intention; implementation intention

Emotions such as sympathy, concern, and compassion are triggered by concerns about ________ and motivate prosocial behavior toward people who are vulnerable.

harm

Luisa generally feels good about who she is. However, she just received a low grade on her chemistry midterm, so she is currently feeling badly about herself. Luisa has________ and ________.

high trait self-esteem; low state self-esteem

Your waiter seems to be doing everything wrong. He has forgotten to take your drink order. He delivers someone else's food to your table. He does not come out and say it, but his facial expressions seem to say he would rather be someplace else. If you assume his behavior is caused primarily by ________, your assumption is consistent with the fundamental attribution error.

his disposition

Looking ten years ahead, Lola dreams of being a celebrated writer. According to self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), Lola is reflecting on her ________ self.

ideal

Janet means well when she tells her daughter, "Please don't ever date a boy with a tattoo. People with tattoos are dangerous. A girl down the street dated a boy with a huge tattoo and he beat her up." If Janet knows other people with tattoos who are not dangerous but she holds these beliefs strongly and tells this particular story anyway, she may be engaging in

ideological distortion.

Under what circumstances is someone more likely to fear victimization as a result of watching a lot of television?

if he or she lives in a high-crime area

We may be bad at affective forecasting because of ________, the tendency to focus too much on a central aspect of an event while ignoring the possible impact of associated factors or other events.

immune neglect

Top-down processing is most useful

in ambiguous situations where we have at least some prior knowledge.

On her way to school, Aisha found a five dollar bill, which made her feel great. In class a little bit later, Aisha is given a problem set on which to work. According to what you know about the broaden-and-build hypothesis, Aisha is more likely to solve the problem set

in creative ways.

At the last minute, Christine decided to try a new route to work. On her drive in, she hit a deep pothole, causing one of her car tires to go flat. Her decision to try a new route ________ the likelihood that she engaged in counterfactual thinking.

increased

Suppose a person volunteered to participate in an experiment but was not told anything about what the experiment involved until after it was finished. The failure to inform this participant about the experiment violates which ethical principle in research?

informed consent

In her economics class, Nancy has been assigned to do a group project with Mario, whom she does not know well. Nancy's friend Tia knows Mario from another class and tells Nancy about him. According to the primacy effect, Nancy will form the best impression of Mario if Tia describes him in which way?

intelligent, industrious, warm, impulsive, critical, stubborn

Pat has listed ten things that describe who he is. The first three are "I am a son," "I am fun when I am with my friends," and "I am a manager." Pat is most likely part of a(n) ________ culture.

interdependent

A study shows that people who watch the local evening news believe the world is more dangerous than people who do not watch the evening news. On the basis of this study, a newspaper reporter concludes that watching the evening news causes people to believe the world is more dangerous than it actually is. This is a flawed conclusion because

it confuses a correlational relationship with a causal relationship.

All of the following statements about emotions are accurate EXCEPT that emotions

last for hours or even days.

The president of a fraternity wants to increase the number of fraternity members who volunteer for nonprofit organizations in the community. Which of the following strategies would BEST fit with Kurt Lewin's concept of channel factors?

leave information about when and how members might volunteer on the counter

What are the two measurable components of happiness?

life satisfaction; emotional well-being

Which of the following is the best example of observational research?

living with a group of people and observing their behavior

Dr. Samanta is interested in how personality changes over adolescence. She enrolls a sample of 10-year-olds and follows them through age 17. This kind of study is known as a(n) ________ study.

longitudinal

Over the weekend, your new friend Mary complained about all of the pressure the teachers put on students to do well in school. On Monday, you're shocked to see Mary looking at her notes during the exam in math class. You think, "Is Mary dishonest or was that pressure just too strong?" It occurs to you that no one else seemed to be cheating during the exam despite the same teacher pressure. Moreover, didn't Luis mention that Mary cheated on her boyfriend last year? On Thursday you notice Mary looking at José's answers during English class. By Friday, you're pretty sure what to think. According to the covariation principle, in this situation distinctiveness is ________ and you should make an ________ attribution for Mary's behavior.

low,internal

How does social class relate to causal attribution

lower- or working-class individuals make attributions similar to those from interdependent cultures.

The independent variable in an experiment is

manipulated and is the hypothesized cause of a particular outcome.

High school seniors were given a test that is supposed to predict scholastic performance during the first year of college. When the results were analyzed, however, there was no correlation between the test scores and first-year performance. This is an example of poor

measurement validity.

When there is a high correlation between a measurement instrument and the outcomes that the instrument is supposed to predict, this instrument is said to be high in

measurement validity.

Mary tells Halima about a situation that happened to their mutual friend. This friend's beloved pet cat was run over last week, and rather than waste the corpse, their friend decided to cook the cat and eat it. Even though she knows that their friend did not harm the cat before it died and that their friend felt fine afterward, Halima still feels that this behavior was wrong. Halima is experiencing

moral dumbfounding.

Jim watched a videotape of a woman talking about her life. Throughout the tape, the woman said many things that are stereotypical of a professor. She also said many things that are stereotypical of an engineer. Before watching the video, Jim was told that the woman was employed as an engineer. According to schema research, Jim will probably remember

more engineer-consistent information than professor-consistent information.

Howard Leventhal and colleagues (1965) tried to persuade college students to get a free tetanus shot on campus by presenting scary information about tetanus and pictures of people with lockjaw. Participants who were additionally given a map with the health center circled and asked to form a plan about when they would visit were ________. These results suggest that ________.

more likely than others to get the shot; a subtle nudge can have a big impact on behavior

Barbara mostly chooses to watch news programs that support her political beliefs while avoiding news programs that may disagree with her views. This is an example of the

motivated confirmation bias.

At his first therapy session, Curtis discusses his relationship history. He describes each romantic partner, what the relationship was like, why it ended, and what he took away. This tale that he weaves for his therapist conveys his

narrated self.

Lois has just won a lottery that netted her a great deal of money. According to research on happiness, Lois should be ________ as a result.

not much happier, especially if she has attended college

According to the textbook, which of the following is NOT directly associated with schema activation?

novel information

People sometimes work together on a project and later decide who should get the most credit. According to research by Ross and colleagues (1979), this decision often entails ________ one's own contributions to joint projects. Moreover, this tendency arises from ________.

overestimating; the availability heuristic

Which hormone promotes closeness and commitment?

oxytocin

Recall that Berglas and Jones (1978) led male participants to believe that they were going to either succeed or have difficulty on an upcoming test. Next, participants were given the chance to ingest either a performance-enhancing drug or a performance-inhibiting drug. Who preferred the performance-inhibiting drug?

participants who thought they would have difficulty on the test

According to Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory, people often form judgments about their traits and abilities by comparing themselves with others. According to the theory, this process is most likely to occur when

people have no objective standard by which to judge themselves.

Ana just watched a scary movie by herself and is feeling afraid. As she is getting into bed after the movie, Ana hears a sound on her roof and jumps up. She thinks someone must be trying to break in. Ana's experience demonstrates how emotions can exert a powerful influence on

perception.

The main pathway to produce a happy life can differ cross culturally. For people who grew up in the United States, this pathway tends to be through ________, whereas for people who grew up in East Asian countries, this pathway is often through ________.

personal achievement; harmonious relationships

Bo has repeatedly tried to find a job. After each unsuccessful attempt, he concludes that there is just something about him that will always get in the way of success in his life. Bo is displaying a ________ explanatory style.

pessimistic

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.

Recall that Isen studied how emotions might influence cognitive processes. She found that ________ emotions led participants to ________.

positive; categorize objects in more inclusive ways

Tiara is worried about bad things happening. She tries not to do poorly in her classes and avoids getting into fights with her boyfriend. Tiara is ________ focused.

prevention

Marla is on the subway, listening to music and reading over her review sheet from class. Suddenly, she hears someone nearby scream out. Afraid, she stops her music and looks around to figure out what's happening. This example best illustrates how emotions

prioritize what you pay attention to.

A social psychologist conducts an experiment and finds a statistically significant result. This means that the

probability of obtaining this finding by chance alone is less than some quantity.

Psychologists who want to measure a person's explanatory style assess each of the following attribution dimensions EXCEPT

rational/affective.

You read the results of a survey that reports that two-thirds of Cosmopolitan readers lost weight by "going vegan." You should not give the report of this survey much credence because

readers who responded to the survey are not likely the same as those who did not.

Base-rate information includes information about the

relative frequency of members of different categories in a population.

The degree to which two observers or coders score a behavior in a similar way is a measure of

reliability.

Pooja conducts a study as part of her honors thesis in psychology and finds a surprising result. Before publishing the finding in a psychology journal, she wants to be more confident that it did not happen by chance. What should Pooja consider doing?

rerunning the study to see if the result replicates

A stereotype is best characterized as a type of

schema

Professor Hansen expects that students will sit quietly and take notes during his large lecture course. Thus, a student who talks in class and never opens a notebook violates Professor Hansen's ________about students.

schema

Social psychology can be defined as the ________ study of the ________ of individuals in social situations.

scientific; feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

Research supporting self-verification theory has shown that people

selectively attend to information that is consistent with their self-views.

When Josue thinks about how good he is at baseball, he recalls that time he hit three home runs in a row. When Josue thinks about how good his best friend Tom is at baseball, he remembers that Tom averaged just one home run per game throughout the season. Josue's thinking contributes to which of the following?

self-enhancement

Gene is given a questionnaire that has statements like these printed on it: "I take a positive view of myself" and "I feel that I have a number of good qualities." He is asked to indicate how much he agrees with such statements. This questionnaire is meant to measure Gene's

self-esteem.

Ryan begins his 20-page sociology paper at about 5 p.m. on the night before the paper is due. At around 6 p.m., Gary requests a favor that will take several hours. Ryan grants the favor and ends up leaving himself just a few hours to complete the paper. Later, when friends ask Ryan about his paper grade, he says, "I got a D because I was helping Gary all night instead of writing." This scenario exemplifies a self-presentation process called

self-handicapping.

Last year, when Laura got a poor performance review from her supervisor, she told herself that the rating system was unfair and her boss had it in for her. When her review was glowing this year, Laura took it as a signal that she is both smart and capable. Laura's causal attributions are most consistent with which of the following?

self-serving attributional bias

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

situational; dispositional

Different theories make different predictions about the source of a person's self-esteem. For example, sociometer theory argues that self-esteem depends on ________, whereas the contingencies of self-worth account argues that self-esteem depends on ________.

social acceptances versus social rejection; success versus failure in important life domains

What is the "field of forces" that Kurt Lewin emphasized in understanding human behavior?

social situations

Sara's best friend just told her that she does not want to hang out any more. Sara's self-esteem plummets. She then calls three other good friends to see if they want to get dinner together. They say yes and Sara feels better about herself. Sara's feelings and behaviors reflect which psychological theory?

sociometer hypothesis

In 1992, Ross Perot asked voters, "Should the president have the line-item veto to eliminate waste?" Ninety-seven percent said yes. When the question was asked in more neutral terms ("Should the president have the line-item veto or not?") only 57 percent agreed. This example best illustrates

spin framing.

Jim meets Eun Joo for coffee and asks, "Would you be my date for the Sigma Chi formal dance?" She smiles and says, "That is so nice of you, but I already have plans." Jim then thinks to himself, "I will never find a date for this dance." Given this information, you can conclude that Jim's response reflects a(n) ________ attribution.

stable

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

stable/unstable

Kurt Lewin's concept of channel factors emphasizes how ________ rather than ________ shape(s) human behavior.

subtle situational features; internal dispositions

When it comes to display rules, people from interdependent cultures, in comparison to people from independent cultures people, tend to more readily

suppress expressions of positive emotion.

Sandra thinks that smiling a lot during a job interview increases a person's chances of getting a job offer. The main difference between Sandra's folk theory and social psychological theories is that social psychological theories are

tested using the scientific method.

Lauren is an attractive woman. She has large round eyes; a large forehead, high eyebrows, and a small, rounded chin. When other people first meet Lauren, what are they likely to think about her?

that she is naive

Kahneman and Tversky (1973) found that a majority of participants mistakenly believed there were more words in the English language that start with the letter r than words that have r in the third position. These results demonstrate the functioning of

the availability heuristic.

The just world hypothesis refers to

the belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

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

Betsy and Janet want to take their children on a backpacking trip. Research suggests that if they want to increase the probability that their children will look back on the trip and think it was great fun, Betsy and Janet should try to make sure that

the end of the trip is extremely fun.

In her social psychology course, Maria learns that the more one is exposed to something, such as a song on the radio, the more one tends to like it. Maria thinks this is obvious and questions why she signed up for the class. What might Maria be displaying?

the hindsight bias

The halo effect is the tendency to believe that physically attractive people have a host of other positive qualities, such as a high level of intelligence or a good personality. When asked to guess what the halo effect is before learning about it, many mistakenly assume that the reverse is true (that attractive people are seen as less smart or less kind). Once they learn about the effect, however, many say that it is no surprise and that they knew it all along. This reflects

the hindsight bias.

The research in which participants who were primed with the words "gamble" or "wager" were more likely to place a bet best shows

the influence of schemas on behavior

The self-serving bias tends to reflect all of the following EXCEPT

the motivation to be in control.

The Good Samaritan study conducted by Darley and Batson (1973) examined helping behavior in seminary students at Princeton University. These students were either rushed or not rushed to get to an appointment. The results of this study showed that

the nature of participants' religious orientations did not predict helping behavior; only whether or not they were rushed predicted whether they helped a person in need.

According to construal level theory, if you are imagining working on your thesis in graduate school in several years, you are most likely to be thinking about

the overall goal of how your thesis will help you to finish graduate school.

Hedwig just met her friend's new boyfriend, and her initial impression wasn't positive. He was so reserved; he barely talked at all. Hedwig then spends some time and energy thinking about all of the good things her friend has told her about him, and considers the fact that sometimes it takes a little while to feel comfortable around new people. She decides he is probably cool after all. In forming this new, positive impression of the boyfriend, Hedwig relied on

the rational system.

Ahmed went to the Museum of Modern Art during his vacation to New York City. Afterward, he remembers that he liked many pieces, but he can really only recall the details of the Andy Warhol painting he saw at the very end, as he was walking out the door. Ahmed is displaying

the recency effect.

Dan McAdams writes about and does research on the "narrated self," which consists of

the story we tell about our social self.

If a researcher finds a correlation between two variables, it is always possible that there is some unmeasured variable out there in the world that is the true cause of the other two, and is responsible for the relationship between them. This reflects

the third variable problem.

The naturalistic fallacy refers to the claim that

the way things are is the way they should be

Although Emil generally thinks of himself as both a good student and a good son, while visiting with his mother over the holidays he is thinking more about being a good son. That this good son aspect of his identity is more on his mind when he is with his mom illustrates the idea of

the working self-concept.

Pablo and Celia ask a job applicant to talk about her background for a few minutes. Before doing so, the applicant says she has bad allergies, so she might sniffle and speak with a shaky voice. The applicant then talks about herself, and she does, in fact, sniffle and speak with a shaky voice. While the applicant talks, Pablo is attentive. But Celia is tired and her mind wanders a bit. Attribution research suggests that, compared with Pablo, Celia is more likely to

think that the applicant is anxious or upset.

Which type of construal would best facilitate a child's capacity to wait for the larger reward during the delay of gratification task (otherwise known as "the marshmallow test")?

thinking of the marshmallow as a bunny's tail

Having prior knowledge about a situation can influence how we construe ambiguous situations. This is a result of a heavy reliance on

top-down processing.

an illusory correlation occurs when

two variables are believed to be correlated when in fact they are not.

The primary difference between natural experiments and standard experiments is that natural experiments

typically do not involve the random assignment of individuals.

Research in basic science aims to

understand a phenomenon in its own right without concern with real-world issues

Which of the following is LEAST characteristic of the goals of social psychology?

understanding how personality traits predispose people to respond to major events in their lives

Right before Jenny meets a new boyfriend for a dinner date, she finishes reading a novel about a husband who mistreats his wife. According to research on schemas, Jenny is likely to

view her boyfriend's actions in a more negative light.

According to the augmentation principle, which action is most likely to be attributed to the personality of the actor?

wearing a tropical shirt and shorts to a funeral

When is the better-than-average effect most likely to occur?

when people assess their abilities on ambiguous traits that can be construed in different ways

The textbook describes a study in which one group of participants was asked to determine whether working out a day before a tennis match made the player more likely to win, and another group of participants was asked to determine whether working out a day before a tennis match made a player more likely to lose. Consistent with the confirmation bias, participants in the group examining a connection between working out and winning were most likely to search for information about how many players________ and then ________ their matches.

worked out; won

Which of the following would be an example of random sampling in a survey study designed to learn more about the student body at a particular college?

writing the name of every student on a piece of paper and selecting participants by pulling names out of a hat

Frank Sulloway's (1996, 2001) research on the relationship between birth order and personality shows that

younger siblings tend to be more agreeable than older siblings.