Ch 13: Social Psychology

Which of the following statements best defines conformity?

A change in a person's behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard

According to research in the area of health and social psychology, who among the following is likely to have the earliest death?

A chronically lonely person

When Cameron was asked if he liked animated movies, he said yes. According to the self-perception theory, which of the following statements is the best explanation for Cameron's answer?

Cameron likes animated movies because he has watched and enjoyed all of them.

Which of the following is a difference between the central and peripheral route to persuasion?

The central route is effective when people have the ability and the motivation to pay attention, while the peripheral route is not.

According to studies over the past half-century, which of the following is a condition under which a person's attitude will guide his or her actions?

When the person has a vested interest in the issue

According to the cognitive dissonance theory, when attitudes and behavior conflict, individuals are most likely to reduce cognitive dissonance by:

changing their attitudes to fit the behavior

Gary's mother tells him that he must complete his homework before he goes out to play. Gary does not like to disobey his mother but he really wants to go out and play. He convinces himself that his mother has been mean to him lately so he can disobey her just this one time without feeling guilty. Gary is trying to change his attitude to fit his behavior most likely to reduce the _____ he is experiencing.

cognitive dissonance

In the context of social influence, Solomon Asch's experiment demonstrates _____.

conformity

Felicia tells her mother that she failed the biology test because her professor made the test too difficult. Felicia is attributing her performance to _____ factors.

external

Risky shift and group polarization are aspects of _____.

group decision making

Stanley Milgram's experiment demonstrated the effect of _____.

obedience

Random acts of kindness, such as helping a visually impaired person cross the street, are examples of _____.

prosocial behaviors

Caroline has volunteered to work with the underprivileged children who are participants in her professor's literacy project. She is hoping that her professor will take this into consideration when calculating her grades. In this scenario, Caroline is demonstrating an expectation of _____.

reciprocity

When Karen does poorly on a weekly test, she blames it on the distractions she had at school that week. In this scenario, Karen is using the _____ to justify her performance on the test.

self-serving bias

A bicyclist claims that bicycle racing times would be faster if individuals raced in groups, because the knowledge of being in a group produces more energy to perform better. The bicyclist's claim is based on the concept of:

social facilitation.

Six people are competing in a tug-of-war competition. First, they compete as individuals, and then they compete as a team. It is observed that when they are competing as a team their combined effort level is less than the sum of their individual efforts. In the context of group influence, this reduction in effort when competing as a team is most likely due to the effect of:

social loafing.

The hormone that is typically implicated in aggressive behavior is _____.

testosterone

_____ is the personality trait most strongly associated with prosocial behaviors.

Agreeableness

_____ is an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group.

Discrimination

Joyce has the potential to be an honor student. However, she frustrates her teachers because of her actions. Rather than using her skills to excel, she tends to hide her intellectual abilities to act more like the students she is friends with. She sometimes answers questions incorrectly just to be more like her friends. In the context of the key aspects of social influence, which of the following perspectives explains Joyce's behavior most accurately?

Normative social influence

From the perspective of the investment model of close relationships, long-term relationships are most likely to continue when:

there are few tempting alternatives for the partners.