Mega Social Psychology Exam 1..
What is a sample?
A representation from a defined population
As which of the following can a hypothesis be described?
A testable prediction about a specific outcome.
What is the relationship between a hypothesis and a theory?
A theory generates a hypothesis.
Which if the following is NOT a benefit of observational research?
Ability to maintain careful control
If I want my roommate to act more responsibly, what is the way to use self-fulfilling prophecy to achieve that change?
Act as you would with someone who is responsible
According to the text, the following are the elements that go into defining a self, with the exception of ____________.
Age
Archival research is the study of which of the following
Already-existing records
What method examines cultural beliefs and norms, such as beauty standard?
Archival research
What type of technology provides researchers with measures of participants' neural activity while they engage in various tasks?
Brain-imaging techniques
Which perspective represents a preference for a tightly knit social framework in which individuals can expect relatives or other members of their social group to look after them?
Collectivism
Stacey suggests that because children are more impulsive than adults, they will have more difficulty controlling their anger. Stacey's prediction regarding anger management exemplifies:
Correct a hypothesis
A communications researcher recruited participants to study eye contact between men and women. The participants were told the study was about beauty norms when it was actually about competition in social interaction. What research technique was being used by the researcher in this study?
Deception
The variable whose changes are considered to be the effect of the manipulation of another variable is called the _____________ variable.
Dependent
In order to determine whether or not changing one variable (such as education) will produce changes in another (such as income), one needs to conduct _______ research.
Experimental
The research method than can provide cause-and-effect relationships is _____.
Experimental Research
You are interested in finding out the effect that crowding has on people's moods. You conduct a study in a psychology research lab using two types of participants - participants who have to wait in a crowded waiting room before completing a measure of their mood, and participants who wait in an empty room before completing the same measure. Which type of research did you conduct?
Experimental research
What influential figure in social psychology defined it as an attempt to "understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others"?
Gordon Allport
Another name for the "I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon" is the
Hindsight bias
When asked who you think will win the next presidential election, you reply that you do not know. However, after the election results are reported, you claim that it was obvious all along. This is an example of the
Hindsight bias
Which one of the following is one of the purposes of a hypothesis according to the text?
Hypotheses allow researchers to define the relationship between two or more variables.
Which of these steps comes earliest in the research process?
Identify the problem through a review past research
While driving, you see a sign that says, "Red light cameras are in effect at this stop." You are careful not to run the light. A social psychologist would explain your behavior as the result of the __________ presence of others.
Implied
In a study designed to see whether the font type influences the grade received on a paper, the ___________ variable is the font type.
Independent Study
____________ is a preference for a loosely knit social framework in society in which individuals are supposed to take care of themselves.
Individualism
What is the main challenge with correlational research?
Inferring the reason for the relationship
IRB stands for _____.
Institutional Review Board
_________ is when two independent variables in combination have a different effect than either variable alone.
Interaction effect
What is a problem with doing field experiments?
Internal validity
What is a major limitation of web-based studies?
Internet users are more likely to be white, young, and have children, thus not representing the population.
What is the primary disadvantage of observational research?
It cannot determine how variables are related to one another.
What is the primary reason that the discussion of implicit egotism is included in your text?
It demonstrates the self-correcting nature of science.
Why is social psychology called an integrative science?
It draws on the multi-disciplinary insights of sociology, anthropology, neurology, political science, economics, and biology to understand behavior.
In what setting are people likely to be more "individualist" and less dependent on group ties?
Large urban areas
When, approximately, did the field of social psychology start?
Less than 150 years ago
When looking at a brain scan, such as an fMRI or a PET scan, what we are really seeing is ___________.
Metabolism
What type of method investigates behavior in a natural setting?
Naturalistic Observation
Description of behavior in a realistic context and without affecting the situation are the goals of ___________.
Naturalistic observation
Standing in the campus courtyard with a clipboard to record your observations of university students' usage of cellular phones is an example of what type of research?
Naturalistic observation
A study finds that the greater the competitive behavior among female supervisors, the lower their ethical behavior. This is an example of a:
Negative correlation
Which of the following correlations provide the most accurate information?
None of the above
Which study first formally introduced the scientific method into the social sciences?
Norman Triplett's study of children and fishing reels in 1897
________ is best suited to theory building, and _________ is best suited to theory testing.
Observation, experimental
What occurs when preconceived ideas held by the researcher affect the nature of the observations?
Observer Bias
Which of the following is not mentioned in the text when describing what makes a good theory?
Operational definition
The classic study described in the text, where the researchers infiltrated a cult to investigate how cult members would behave when their doomsday passed, was an example of what kind of research method?
Participant observation
Which of the following is not true of Internet-based research?
Participants tend to be older than the general population
What is the "hot" approach to behavioral affect?
People act due to needs, desires, and emotions.
According to the text, which of the following findings have been supported by social psychological research?
People think that physically attractive individuals are more intelligent than less attractive individuals.
Which of the following focal areas is more characteristic of psychological social psychology, contrasted with sociological social psychology?
Personality
Early theorist Wilhelm Wundt argued that social psychology was a "social science" with the parent discipline of ______________.
Philosophy
What historical era provides evidence the modern human mind and the self were emerging?
Plestozine
When psychological social psychologists study group dynamics, what do they generally emphasize?
Processes that occur at the individual level
A major drawback to self-selection bias in survey research is that ____
Researchers cannot generalize results
A major drawback to self-selection bias in survey research is that ____.
Researchers cannot generalize results
What type of social psychology focuses on the role that large groups and social norms play in shaping behavior?
Sociological
According to your textbook, what two cognitive processes are most important in defining "the self"?
Symbol usage and self-awareness
Which of the following is not a category of research methods described in the text?
Technological
People will more often engage in unsafe or risky behavior when others are present than when they are alone. This is due to the effects of which of the following?
The actual presence of others
What makes meta-analytic findings so convincing to scientists?
The computation of multiple investigations lead to a statement of the overall conclusions of the research.
What is the primary disadvantage of experimental research?
The high level of control can make generalizations difficult.
What is the central principle of informed consent?
The idea that potential participants should know enough about the study to make a choice about whether to participate.
What is the central focus of psychological social psychology?
The individual and how individuals respond to social stimuli
What is the major principle of Gestalt psychology?
The mind organizes stimuli into a meaningful whole.
If a self-fulfilling prophecy is, by definition, false in the beginning, what eventually makes it true?
The perceiver (the prophet) forms an impression of the target and then acts in a manner consistent with prophecy. This, in turn, causes the target's behavior to change to correspond to the perceiver's actions.
Which of the following is true in naturalistic observation?
The researcher is as unobtrusive as possible.
A set of procedures used to gather, analyze, and interpret information that reduces error and leads to dependable generalizations, is called _____________.
The scientific method
Why can experiments show the cause of a behavior?
They isolate the effect of a single variable.
Why do researchers use deception?
They worry that participants will not behave naturally if they know the purpose of the study.
According to the textbook, why did self-awareness and symbol usage evolve in our ancestors?
To deal with an increasingly complex social environment
Both the actual presence of others and the imagined presence of others, influence thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
True
Interactionism analyzes how both the person and the situation affect human behavior.
True
The behaviorist perspective in psychology only focused on observable actions by only studying social cues in situations.
True
The observational approach is believed to be the best research method for theory building in social psychology.
True
Deception in an experiment is
Used only if it is essential and justified
What is one possible way to solve the research dilemma of choosing between greater control and greater realism in experiments?
Using virtual environment technology
We are shopping for a bicycle and we see an ad for one at 30% off, we will approach that item with the impression that it is a great deal, even though it may still be more expensive than other bikes and may be out of our budget. This bicycle store manager is well-aware of the concept of:
anchoring bias
Mr. Brown has gathered evidence that the self-esteem of students is negatively correlated with their typical levels of anxiety. Before he uses this evidence to conclude that self-esteem reduces anxiety, Mr. Brown should first be reminded that:
correlation does not prove causation.
You have just participated in a research study that required you to choose which picture you preferred among several pairs. At the end of the study, the researcher explained that she was trying to identify correlations between age, gender, and racial groups when making preferences. The researcher's disclosing of the true purpose of the study is part of the ____ process.
debriefing
Studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors while controlling others describes what type of research?
experimental research
Random selection ensures that the results are ____.
generalizable
A letter comes in the mail informing John that he was accepted into a college. When he tells his mother she says, "I really had a feeling that you were going to get in" (even though she had expressed doubts to his father earlier that week). This is an example of a(an):
hindsight bias
Research on the wording of survey questions suggests that
how questions are worded can influence how they are answered.
A testable prediction that describes a relationship, which may exist between events is a
hypothesis
A serious shortcoming of a correlational study is that it cannot
identify which variables causes the other variable
The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates in a study is called the ______ variable.
independent
_____ is an ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.
informed consent
A researcher compares the results of several investigations on rural bystander apathy. This type of research is called ____.
meta analysis
Professor Carter observes and records the behavior of grocery shoppers as they select items to purchase. Which type of research is Professor Carter employing?
naturalistic observation
Theories help social psychologists _____ their observations and _____ their hypotheses.
organize; test
A social psychologists finds that the higher the temperature, the more violent crimes. This is an example of ____.
positive correlation
A major requirement of the ethical principles of social-psychological research is that the researcher
protect participants from harm and significant discomfort
A sample in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion is called a _____ sample.
random
The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition is referred to as
random assignment
You conduct a study that examines the role of exercise on depression alleviation. You assign the first 50 people who are motivated to sign up to the experimental group, and the second group of 50 people, who sign up much later, to the control group. After one month, you find that the experimental group (who exercised three times a week on average) is significantly less depressed than the control group (who exercised one time a week on average). Although you may be tempted to conclude that exercise helps stave off depression, you cannot because of a lack of ____ in your study.
random assignment
If you ask conservative, liberal, and independent voters their opinions of political candidates, rather than just conservative voters, you are attempting to ensure that your sample is ____ .
representative
Suppose an instructor asks all the students who are failing a class if they believe the course is too difficult, and he find that they indeed think it is. Although the instructor has conducted a basic survey, the results of it are limited because the sample is not _____ .
representative
Although not everyone answers a mail survey, it is reasonable to assume that those who do responds are different in important ways from those who do not respond. The term used to describe this problem in survey research is
selection bias
A major limitation of archival research is ___.
selective deposit
Survey respondents are allowed to decide entirely for themselves whether or not they want to participate in a survey is called:
self-selection bias
A _____ is an organized set of concepts tied together in a logical way that can explain and predict observed events.
theory
