CH6 (test bank) Flashcards
________ is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in
order to give meaning to their environment.
A) Sensation
B) Impression
C) Apprehension
D) Attribution
E) Perception
E) Perception
Which of the following statements is true regarding perception?
A) Perception of reality is independent of one’s personality.
B) Our perception of a target is not affected by the context of the situation in which the perception is
made.
C) Our perception of reality can be different from the objective reality.
D) Our perception of reality is independent of our past experiences.
E) We form a perception of a target by looking at it in isolation.
C) Our perception of reality can be different from the objective reality.
When two people witness something at the same time and in the same situation yet interpret it differently, factors that operate to shape their perceptions reside in the ________.
A) perceivers
B) target
C) timing
D) context
E) situation
A) perceivers
David Myers is of the opinion that people who drive SUVs are rash drivers. He feels that people
driving SUVs do not respect road rules and always violate traffic regulations. What personal factor is
most likely to be affecting Myers’ perception of SUV drivers?
A) his financial background
B) his expectations
C) his interest
D) his motive
E) his personality
B) his expectations
Extremely attractive or unattractive individuals are most likely to be noticed in a group. Which of the
following statements best describes the reason behind it?
A) Our perception of reality depends on our past experiences.
B) Our perception of reality depends on our personality.
C) We don’t look at targets in isolation.
D) The time at which we see an object can influence our perception of the object.
E) Our motives and expectations affect our perception of a target.
C) We don’t look at targets in isolation.
During team meetings Amber Downing always notices that Rhona Law tends to ask innumerable
questions and suggests ideas at each discussion. However, Law stands out in the meetings only because
she is the only one making suggestions. If both of them were part of team meetings where almost all
members made suggestions and asked questions, Law would not have drawn as much attention from
Downing. Which of the following factors has most likely influenced Downing’s perception of Law?
A) expectation
B) interest
C) past experience
D) context
E) motive
D) context
Monica Walden feels that people who use plastic bags are insensitive toward the environment. She believes that people have a certain obligation toward their environment and should take it upon themselves to protect and preserve it. Which of the following factors has most likely influenced Walden’s perception of people?
A) location
B) time
C) characteristic of the target
D) expectation
E) context
D) expectation
Which of the following is a factor present in a target which may affect a person’s perception?
A) attitude
B) motive
C) interest
D) novelty
E) experience
D) novelty
Which of the following is a factor present in a situation which may affect a person’s perception?
A) similarity
B) size
C) expectation
D) time
E) experience
D) time
Which of the following is a factor present in a perceiver which may affect perception?
A) interest
B) similarity
C) sound
D) proximity
E) background
A) interest
Alicia Akers works as a marketing executive. She always talks in a high pitch and often draws a lot
of attention wherever she is. Which of the following statements best explains the reason behind people
noticing Akers?
A) Perception of reality depends on the perceiver’s past experiences.
B) Perception of reality depends on the perceiver’s personality.
C) Characteristics of the target affect people’s perception.
D) The time at which we observe behavior affects perception.
E) Motives and interests of the perceiver affects perception of behavior.
C) Characteristics of the target affect people’s perception.
________ explains the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we assign to a given behavior.
A) Attribution theory
B) Equity theory
C) Object relations theory
D) Attachment theory
E) Cultural schema theory
A) Attribution theory
Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on three factors. Which of the following is one of these three factors?
A) traceability
B) consistency
C) verifiability
D) relatedness
E) affect intensity
B) consistency
Which of the following is an example of internally caused behavior?
A) An employee was late for a team meeting because of a heavy downpour.
B) An employee was laid off because the company was attempting to cut costs by laying off employees.
C) An employee was fired from work because he violated a company policy.
D) An employee could not attend an interview because of a delayed flight.
E) An employee could not come to work because he met with an accident.
C) An employee was fired from work because he violated a company policy.
Which of the following is an example of externally caused behavior?
A) An employee postpones a meeting because he overslept.
B) An employee is late to work because of a punctured tire.
C) An employee was fired because he violated a company policy.
D) An employee was promoted when he achieved more than the assigned objectives.
E) An employee closed a sale with an important corporate client because of his excellent negotiation
skills.
B) An employee is late to work because of a punctured tire
According to the attribution theory, ________ is one the three main factors which attempts to
determine an individual’s behavior.
A) distinctiveness
B) perverseness
C) flexibleness
D) resilience
E) timorousness
A) distinctiveness
When individuals observe another person’s behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is
internally or externally caused. Which of the following attempts to explain this phenomenon?
A) pygmalion effect
B) emotional dissonance
C) attribution theory
D) two-factor theory
E) framing effect
C) attribution theory
With reference to the attribution theory, which of the following terms indicates the extent to which
an individual displays different behaviors in different situations?
A) flexibility
B) integrity
C) consensus
D) consistency
E) distinctiveness
E) distinctiveness
If a person responds to a particular situation in the same way over a long time period, then the
attribution theory states that the behavior demonstrates ________.
A) distinctiveness
B) consensus
C) consistency
D) discontinuity
E) traceability
C) consistency
According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to external
causes.
A) low on distinctiveness
B) low on adaptability
C) low on consistency
D) high on stability
E) low on consensus
C) low on consistency
Janice Yoder works in an environmental campaigning organization and often needs to interact with a
large team for project implementation activities. However, she always finds it difficult to work as a part
of a team. She always seems to have major disagreements with team members which lead to
antagonistic relations between them. Though she has moved from one team to another, her relations with
colleagues always seem to be hostile and cold. How would the attribution theory describe this behavior?
A) low on consensus
B) high on reliability
C) high on adaptability
D) high on consistency
E) low on distinctiveness
D) high on consistency
According to the attribution theory, if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same
way, we can say the behavior shows ________.
A) distinctiveness
B) tractability
C) consensus
D) consistency
E) manageability
C) consensus
Janice is late for work each day by about ten minutes. How would attribution theory describe this
behavior?
A) It shows consensus.
B) It shows similarity.
C) It shows consistency.
D) It shows reliability.
E) It shows distinctiveness.
C) It shows consistency.
According to the attribution theory, which of the following behaviors is most likely to be attributed to an external cause?
A) a behavior that scores high on consensus
B) a behavior that scores low on distinctiveness
C) a behavior that scores high on consistency
D) a behavior that scores low on traceability
E) a behavior that scores high on rigidity
A) a behavior that scores high on consensus
Samantha is never late for work. But last Monday she arrived an hour late because of heavy traffic.
According to the attribution theory, Samantha’s behavior on that day scores ________.
A) high on reliability
B) low on distinctiveness
C) high on traceability
D) low on consistency
E) high on stability
D) low on consistency
Megan Cardova, who works as a sales executive at Orbit Bank, has been failing to meet her sales
targets for the last 10 months. Recently, she had a face-to-face discussion with her manager where she
said that the unrealistic targets were the reason for her underperformance. The manager, however,
noticed that all the other team members were achieving their targets and sometimes were even achieving
more than the set numbers. Which of the following is Cardova’s behavior most likely to be characterized
by according to the attribution theory?
A) low distinctiveness
B) high rigidity
C) high traceability
D) low consensus
E) low consistency
D) low consensus
According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to internal
causes.
A) low on consistency
B) high on rigidity
C) low on distinctiveness
D) high on consensus
E) low on conformity
C) low on distinctiveness
Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of external
factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of
others?
A) fundamental attribution error
B) bandwagon effect
C) contrast effect
D) emotional dissonance
E) self-fulfilling prophecy
A) fundamental attribution error
Naomi Fisher, a sales manager at Pure, a water purifier company, had a new member, Leah Marshall
join her team. Though during Leah’s interview, Naomi felt she would be a productive sales executive,
her performance has often been below the mark. Consistently in the past three months, Leah has been
unable to reach her targets and is falling substantially behind on her annual targets. Naomi assumes that
Leah is not determined and motivated enough to do what it takes. Which of the following, if true,
weakens Naomi’s assumption?
A) Leah has often arrived late for team meetings conducted in the morning.
B) Leah has been assigned a sales territory where consumers are from low income groups.
C) Leah has good interpersonal skills and gets along well with her customers.
D) Research showed that the company’s largest competitor had a lower turnover than they did.
E) Naomi recently received feedback from other team members that Leah is often uncooperative.
B) Leah has been assigned a sales territory where consumers are from low income groups.
Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her
organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She recently worked on a campaign
against global warming during which she worked extremely hard to achieve project milestones.
However, the campaign failed as it could not achieve the desired objective. Due to this, her manager,
Brenda Owens gave her a poor performance appraisal. In the appraisal, Brenda said that Johanna was
not motivated and failed to reach out to 25,000 people through Internet media to spread awareness about
climate change. Which of the following, if true, weakens Brenda’s statement?
A) Johanna lacks experience in publicizing campaigns using Internet media.
B) Brenda was unable to make time for Johanna to brief her on the tasks involved in carrying out the
campaign’s media strategy.
C) Johanna recently moved from the agriculture campaign to the climate campaign.
D) Johanna’s previous job involved an extensive amount of researching on environmental issues.
E) Brenda is known in the organization to be a fair and unbiased manager.
B) Brenda was unable to make time for Johanna to brief her on the tasks involved in carrying out the
campaign’s media strategy.
Johanna Springer, who works as a sales executive at Pascal’s Bank, is upset at the way her manager,
Emma Womack, always calls her in for one-on-one meetings to discuss her underperformance. Though
Springer makes a higher number of sales calls and works longer hours than last year, her sales figures
are still low. She knows that the main reason behind her underperformance is the recent economic
meltdown in the country. However, her manager feels that Springer’s underperformance is the result of
her laid back attitude and has nothing to do with external factors. In this situation, Womack’s behavior is
characterized by a(n) ________.
A) anchoring bias
B) contrast effect
C) fundamental attribution error
D) self-fulfilling prophecy
E) pygmalion effect
C) fundamental attribution error
________ bias indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his own successes to internal
factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.
A) Status quo
B) Self-serving
C) Distinction
D) Congruence
E) Anchoring
B) Self-serving
) Jane Allen, a campaign manager at a non-profit organization, often takes full credit for project
successes even when her team members’ contributions play a big role in achieving milestones. However,
when projects receive setbacks, she blames her team members and sometimes states that the situation
was beyond her control. Allen’s behavior is an example of a(n) ________ bias.
A) impact
B) anchoring
C) confirmation
D) distinction
E) self-serving
E) self-serving
Laura Simpson, a campaign manager at a child rights organization in Jakarta, planned a marathon
for celebrities to raise money for underprivileged children. Though all arrangements for the event had
been made, a few days before the event she realized that on the same day there was a political rally
happening in the city which will block access to the route on which the marathon was supposed to be
undertaken. In such a situation, what is Simpson, who suffers from a self-serving bias, most likely to
say?
A) I did not do sufficient research on public events in the city.
B) My colleagues did not inform me about the rally.
C) The director had warned me of this. I should have known better.
D) I should have weighed feasibility options for the event.
E) I should have established better contacts to know about this update.
B) My colleagues did not inform me about the rally.
Individuals engage in ________ because it is impossible for them to assimilate everything they see
and can take in only certain stimuli.
A) selective perception
B) cognitive dissonance
C) self-serving bias
D) emotional labor
E) self-fulfilling prophecy
A) selective perception
You are more likely to notice a car like your own due to ________.
A) stereotyping
B) self-serving bias
C) halo effect
D) selective perception
E) contrast effect
D) selective perception
Harriet Kirby, a fund raising manager at a women’s rights organization, experienced a bad incident
last year with the public relations manager of a banking company who had committed to sponsor a
charity event. The bank backed out at the last minute. This year, when a renowned international bank
executive showed interest in sponsoring the organization’s upcoming annual event, Kirby rejected their
participation. She felt that banks have a casual approach toward charity events, and it is risky to involve
them in the event. Which of the following is Kirby most likely to be characterized by?
A) selective perception
B) cognitive dissonance
C) self-serving bias
D) bandwagon effect
E) self-fulfilling prophecy
A) selective perception
