Exam 2 (chap 1-6 and 9)

Question 1

Phillips’s research on the impact of media coverage of car-crash suicides revealed that following a publicized suicide:

Answer 1

victims of “suicide” accidents tended to be of similar age as the victim of the publicized suicide

Question 2

A research study that separated one group of schoolchildren from their electronic devices over a five-day summer camp stay found that when they returned home from the summer camp, they:

Answer 2

had increased social intelligence compared to their scores before the trip

Question 3

During the 1988 presidential campaign, Willie Horton was candidate George Bush’s (the elder) most valuable player because

Answer 3

Bush used peripheral advertising to discuss this felon’s release from prison

Question 4

Assume that a speaker has low credibility with the audience. For maximum attitude change, how discrepant from the audience’s initial position should the communication be?

Answer 4

Moderately discrepant

Question 5

In the case of people with low self-esteem, communications that arouse a great deal of fear tend to:

Answer 5

inhibit immediate action but are effective after a delay

Question 6

Walster and Festinger conducted an experiment in which subjects “overheard” a conversation between two graduate students, one of whom expressed an opinion on a certain issue. Subjects’ opinions were influenced by the graduate student’s opinion when:

Answer 6

the subject believed the graduate students were unaware of his or her presence

Question 7

The “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign resulted in:

Answer 7

a drop of 72% in littering on Texas highways

Question 8

Evolutionary psychologists argue that over time (i.e., a millennia), the two sets of core attitudes displayed by conservatives and liberals would:

Answer 8

have adaptive benefits for human societies

Question 9

Generally, high-fear appeals are more effective than low-fear appeals in producing behavior change when:

Answer 9

the issue is moderately important to the audience

Question 10

When a person is exposed to a watered-down attack on his or her beliefs, this produces resistance to later persuasion because:

Answer 10

the person gains some practice in defending his or her beliefs

Question 11

Research studies that examine the effect of mobile phones on cognitive tasks find that:

Answer 11

having one visible on a desk hurts performance on difficult cognitive tasks

Question 12

According to research presented in the text, people with high self-esteem are most likely to be persuaded by campaigns using:

Answer 12

moderate fear

Question 13

Appeals to identity in persuasive messages are ______ to persuade people to action.

Answer 13

more likely

Question 14

You are in the market for a new car and think you would like to own a Saab. According to research reported by Richard Nisbett and his associates, which of the following would be most likely to influence your decision?

Answer 14

Hearing about the huge repair bills a neighbor’s sister had on her Saab

Question 15

All other things being equal, the overwhelming weight of experimental evidence on fear and persuasion suggests that, in general, the more frightened a person is by a communication:

Answer 15

the more likely he or she is to take positive, preventive action

Question 16

When lawyers and politicians want to persuade, they often use:

Answer 16

both central and peripheral arguments

Question 17

In a study by Hovland and Weiss, subjects heard arguments regarding the feasibility of atomic submarines. Subjects were more persuaded by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer rather than the Soviet newspaper Pravda because:

Answer 17

Oppenheimer was perceived as an expert and trustworthy source of information, unlike Pravda

Question 18

Hovland, Harvey, and Sherif conducted an experiment on latitude of acceptance of ideas about the state being “wet” or “dry” on the sale of alcohol beverages. They found that:

Answer 18

the greatest change happened when a moderate discrepancy took place between the actual message and the individual’s original opinion

Question 19

Both opinions and attitudes are primarily cognitive in nature. However, attitudes:

Answer 19

have both an emotional and an evaluative component

Question 20

Suppose you are going to organize a program for high school students advocating stricter enforcement of the drug laws. All other things being equal, your most persuasive speaker would be a:

Answer 20

person serving a jail sentence for drug possession

Question 21

According to “Aronson’s first law,” people who do crazy things:

Answer 21

may be crazy but may also be normal people trying to adjust to extraordinary social influences

Question 22

After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Joe tells Mary that he knew all along Donald Trump would be elected. This is an example of:

Answer 22

the hindsight effect.

Question 23

Which of the following is NOT an advantage that professional social psychologists have over amateur social psychologists?

Answer 23

Professionals use observation of social phenomena in their thinking about social phenomena, whereas amateurs cannot.

Question 24

According to the “hindsight bias,” you would predict which of the following results?

Answer 24

People feel more confident they knew who would a win race after the race than they did before the race.

Question 25

Kia believes that Donald Trump was able to get his tax cuts passed in Congress because Republicans had a majority of seats, and that it would have happened whether or not Trump was president. This is an example of:

Answer 25

the situational view.

Question 26

People tend to explain the causes of other people's behavior as being the result of their personalities. Thus, if Luke gets a bad grade on a test, it must be because he is stupid. This tendency is called:

Answer 26

the dispositional view

Question 27

In his or her attempts to understand human social behavior, the professional social psychologist has the advantage of being able to:

Answer 27

control the influence of irrelevant factors when studying a problem

Question 28

Which of the following best reflects a dispositional view of human behavior?

Answer 28

“Bob is so self-centered that he has trouble getting along with other people.”

Question 29

The authors argue that 613 parents murdering their children and then taking their own lives in the Jonestown massacre is an example of:

Answer 29

the situation and how social influence is often primarily responsible for behavior, not the personalities of subjects

Question 30

In his first chapter, Aronson defines social psychology as the study of:

Answer 30

social influence

Question 31

Tomoko is asked to explain what makes her teacher so great. Tomoko responds that her teacher is a kind, gentle person. Tomoko’s appraisal of her teacher best represents:

Answer 31

the dispositional view

Question 32

“The influences that people have upon our beliefs and behavior and of how we influence others” is the text's definition of:

Answer 32

social psychology

Question 33

A dispositional interpretation of the Jonestown massacre would claim that:

Answer 33

the parents were evil

Question 34

Aronson defines social psychology as:

Answer 34

the influences that people have on our beliefs and the behavior of others

Question 35

In Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment,” young, psychologically normal men were randomly assigned to the role of playing a guard or a prisoner. After five days, the “prisoners” grew withdrawn and unsympathetic, while “guards” became sadistic and brutal. In general, the results of this study probably indicate that:

Answer 35

the situation is often primarily responsible for behavior, not the personalities of subjects

Question 36

Aronson states, “People who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy.” By this, he means that:

Answer 36

situations can cause most normal people to behave in abnormal ways

Question 37

The authors argue that THE central contribution of social psychology is:

Answer 37

to help us appreciate the complex situational view of human behavior

Question 38

Explaining unpleasant behavior by labeling people “crazy” or “sadistic”:

Answer 38

is dangerous because it gives the general public a false sense of security and invulnerability

Question 39

Aronson's first law reminds us that:

Answer 39

situations can cause most normal people to behave in abnormal ways.

Question 40

According to Aronson's text, the statement that we are all “amateur” social psychologists means that:

Answer 40

we develop explanations for the behavior of others

Question 41

In the context of an experiment, “random assignment” means that:

Answer 41

each subject has an equal chance to be in any condition in the study

Question 42

The factor systematically varied by the experimenter is usually termed:

Answer 42

the independent variable

Question 43

In an experiment, extraneous (nonmanipulated) variables are controlled by:

Answer 43

making all aspects of the procedure identical for all conditions, except for the independent variable manipulation

Question 44

Replications cannot:

Answer 44

determine causality

Question 45

Psychiatric interviews of subjects in Milgram's obedience study (in which subjects believed they were delivering intense electric shocks to another person) conducted one year following the study revealed:

Answer 45

that many subjects believed their participation in the study had been both instructive and enriching

Question 46

Suppose you conducted an experiment to study the effect of violence in television shows on aggressiveness in children. The dependent variable would be:

Answer 46

how aggressive the children were

Question 47

Suppose you volunteered to be a subject in a psychology experiment in which you were locked into a soundproof booth and were told that your brain waves were being measured. Furthermore, you truly believed that your brain wave pattern was being used to predict your basic personality traits. According to Aronson, this experiment would have_________mundane realism and_________experimental realism.

Answer 47

low; high

Question 48

The dependent variable in an experiment is used to measure:

Answer 48

the effects of the independent variable

Question 49

If subjects know the true purpose of an experiment while participating in it, the most serious risk is if they:

Answer 49

act in ways that they believe will make them look good or “normal”

Question 50

In Asch's study of conformity, which involved a comparison of the lengths of different lines, subjects were told that the experiment was about perceptual judgment. Telling subjects this:

Answer 50

was part of the experimenter's cover story

Question 51

Suppose you constructed an experiment to better understand the effect of the content of a speech on how persuaded people were by it. In this experiment, the independent variable would be:

Answer 51

the content of the speech

Question 52

Generally, the relationship between control and impact is such that:

Answer 52

as impact increases, control decreases

Question 53

An experiment that gets the subject involved and interested but that does not represent events that occur in the real world is:

Answer 53

high in experimental realism and low in mundane realism

Question 54

If researchers find a positive correlation between cowardice and nosebleeds, it most likely means that:

Answer 54

there is an association between the two variables

Question 55

Many subjects in a study by Robyn Dawes, Jeanne McTavish, and Harriet Shaklee experienced considerable discomfort after their participation in a study of how people respond to “social dilemmas.” This study was included in The Social Animal to illustrate:

Answer 55

that no code of ethics can anticipate all problems, even when an experiment is carefully planned and conducted

Question 56

Debriefing a subject at the end of an experiment:

Answer 56

is a valuable way of undoing some of the discomfort and deception that may have occurred during the experiment

Question 57

Cover stories are used to:

Answer 57

mislead subjects about the true purpose of the experiment

Question 58

According to the text, the first step in the scientific method is:

Answer 58

observation

Question 59

________ realism refers to the impact an experiment has upon a subject; ________ realism refers to the degree to which laboratory procedures are similar to commonly occurring events in the outside world.

Answer 59

Experimental; mundane

Question 60

In social psychological experiments, the experimenter tries to:

Answer 60

create a functional equivalent to conditions found in the real world

Question 61

Kia believes that Donald Trump was able to get his tax cuts passed in Congress because of his interpersonal skills. This is an example of:

Answer 61

the dispositional view.

Question 62

In his first chapter, Aronson defines social psychology as the study of:

Answer 62

social influence

Question 63

“The influences that people have upon our beliefs and behavior and of how we influence others” is the text's definition of:

Answer 63

social psychology

Question 64

According to Aronson's text, the statement that we are all “amateur” social psychologists means that:

Answer 64

we develop explanations for the behavior of others

Question 65

The authors argue that 613 parents murdering their children and then taking their own lives in the Jonestown massacre is an example of:

Answer 65

the situation and how social influence is often primarily responsible for behavior, not the personalities of subjects

Question 66

Aronson's first law reminds us that:

Answer 66

situations can cause most normal people to behave in abnormal ways.

Question 67

A dispositional interpretation of the Jonestown massacre would claim that:

Answer 67

the parents were evil

Question 68

Explaining unpleasant behavior by labeling people “crazy” or “sadistic”:

Answer 68

is dangerous because it gives the general public a false sense of security and invulnerability

Question 69

According to the “hindsight bias,” you would predict which of the following results?

Answer 69

People feel more confident they knew who would a win race after the race than they did before the race.

Question 70

Which of the following is NOT an advantage that professional social psychologists have over amateur social psychologists?

Answer 70

Professionals can always make people behave the way they want them to act.

Question 71

Suppose you volunteered to be a subject in a psychology experiment in which you were locked into a soundproof booth and were told that your brain waves were being measured. Furthermore, you truly believed that your brain wave pattern was being used to predict your basic personality traits. According to Aronson, this experiment would have_________mundane realism and_________experimental realism.

Answer 71

low; high

Question 72

If researchers find a positive correlation between cowardice and nosebleeds, it most likely means that:

Answer 72

there is an association between the two variables

Question 73

When a study is repeated by other investigators in other labs, it is called

Answer 73

a replication

Question 74

In Asch's study of conformity, which involved a comparison of the lengths of different lines, subjects were told that the experiment was about perceptual judgment. Telling subjects this:

Answer 74

was part of the experimenter's cover story

Question 75

According to Aronson, the most important condition that must be met before any experiment can lead to definite cause-and-effect conclusions is:

Answer 75

random assignment of subjects to groups

Question 76

If subjects know the true purpose of an experiment while participating in it, the most serious risk is if they:

Answer 76

act in ways that they believe will make them look good or “normal”

Question 77

According to the text, the first step in the scientific method is:

Answer 77

observation

Question 78

Aronson believes that the study of social psychology is:

Answer 78

an art and a science

Question 79

Cover stories are used to:

Answer 79

mislead subjects about the true purpose of the experiment

Question 80

Generally, the relationship between control and impact is such that:

Answer 80

as impact increases, control decreases

Question 81

Which of the following conclusions is supported by Aronson and Mills's experiment in which subjects underwent either a severe or a mild initiation to join a boring discussion group?

Answer 81

The harder you work for something, the more you will like it.

Question 82

In a study by Mettee and Aronson, subjects whose self-esteem had been temporarily lowered were more likely to cheat at a card game than subjects whose self-esteem was temporarily increased. According to Aronson, the results of this study suggest that:

Answer 82

behaving in an immoral fashion is more dissonance arousing for people with high self-esteem than for those with low self-esteem

Question 83

Which of the following is not cited by Aronson as a possible way for people to reduce dissonance?

Answer 83

Worrying more about the inconsistency that gives rise to the dissonance

Question 84

Why is it, according to dissonance theory, that we evaluate favorably those goals we've had to suffer for?

Answer 84

We are motivated to justify the time and effort we've spent.

Question 85

Suppose you conduct an experiment in which a child is placed in a room with a highly attractive toy. Generalizing from Freedman's research, you could diminish the child's attraction to the toy by:

Answer 85

using a mild threat of punishment for playing with the toy

Question 86

Lord, Ross, and Lepper showed articles favoring and opposing capital punishment to groups of students who either opposed or were in favor of it. The results of this study showed that reading articles on both sides of the controversial issue:

Answer 86

actually increased the difference in attitudes between the two groups

Question 87

In a study discussed in the text, students were paid either $20 or $1 for telling collaborative subjects that a dull task was actually interesting. Which group showed greater attitude change in actually rating the task as interesting?

Answer 87

The group that told the lie for $1

Question 88

According to dissonance theory, people are generally more motivated to:

Answer 88

believe they are right rather than to actually be right

Question 89

Studies have found that instructions that emphasize identity (e.g., don't be a cheater) versus ones that emphasize behavior (e.g., don't cheat):

Answer 89

cause the greatest dissonance in people

Question 90

The process of dissonance reduction is a/an __________ process.

Answer 90

unconscious

Question 91

Research participants were less likely to blame the victim in Harber's research that used a sexual assault scene from the movie The Accused when:

Answer 91

they were instructed to feely express their deepest thoughts and feelings about the movie

Question 92

A couple of these conditions would cause the greatest dissonance in the Aronsons' view. However, the one condition that's absolutely necessary to cause the greatest dissonance is when ________________.

Answer 92

people's actions are inconsistent with a central aspect of their self-concept

Question 93

Darrin Lehman and Shelley Taylor studied college students who lived in Los Angeles, the site of an impending earthquake. In their interviews with students, they found that:

Answer 93

students living in seismically unsafe buildings tended to underestimate the damage that would result from a major quake

Question 94

Aronson argues that the key to understanding whether dissonance will be aroused is whether people:

Answer 94

feel their behavior threatens their self-concept

Question 95

According to dissonance theory, as the external justifications for performing an act decrease, the need to find internal justifications for performing the act tends to:

Answer 95

increase

Question 96

According to Mills's study of cheating among sixth graders, students ________ after having resisted the temptation to cheat on an exam.

Answer 96

adopted harsher attitudes toward cheating

Question 97

All other things being equal, cognitive dissonance following a decision is greatest when:

Answer 97

the decision was not engaged in freely but was coerced

Question 98

According to a survey gauging people's reactions to scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes causes cancer:

Answer 98

smokers were far less likely to believe the report than nonsmokers were

Question 99

According to dissonance theory, we tend to experience dissonance after making an important decision because:

Answer 99

the chosen alternative is seldom entirely positive, while the rejected alternatives are seldom entirely negative