Identity/Disorder/Groups Flashcards
Josiah, a spelling champion, is eliminated in the last round of a nationwide competition. After the contest ends, he repeats, “I only lost because I’m not a lucky person.” This statement most clearly exemplifies:
A. an internal self-concept.
B. an internal locus of control.
C. high self-efficacy.
D. none of the above.
D. none of the above.
Since this statement involves Josiah blaming his loss on an uncontrollable factor (luck or fate), it best exemplifies an external locus of control. Individuals with external loci believe that they lack the power to influence the outcomes of events in their lives.
Maxine, a college freshman, knows that her parents and mentors want her to become a doctor. However, her main goal at the moment is to become more socially at ease and talkative. According to the self-discrepancy theory, Maxine’s ideal self is:
A. a successful medical school graduate and physician.
B. a college student.
C. an outgoing “social butterfly.”
D. none of the above; Maxine will not have a cohesive ideal self until these conflicts have been resolved.
C. an outgoing “social butterfly.”
The ideal self is one of the three parts of the self-discrepancy theory. It includes our personal thoughts about how we should be or how we wish we were. Since Maxine simply desires to be socially adept, those thoughts constitute her ideal self.
A developmental psychologist randomly chooses five individuals of varying ages, genders, and social backgrounds. Using a series of questionnaires, he assesses the self-efficacy and self-esteem indices for each participant. If he were to plot the results on a simple Cartesian coordinate system, he would find that:
A. self-esteem and self-efficacy positively correlate, with a correlation coefficient of close to 1.
B. self-esteem and self-efficacy positively correlate, with a correlation coefficient of less than 1.
C. self-esteem and self-efficacy negatively correlate.
D. we cannot predict any certain relationship between these variables.
D. we cannot predict any certain relationship between these variables.
Which of these individuals is most likely to experience learned helplessness?
A. Phyllis, who attributes most of her golf losses to bad luck or the weather and has had an unusually bad season
B. Jason, who typically blames himself almost to the point of self-loathing after every failure
C. Max, who has failed all of his math exams this school year
D. Sarah, who has worked hard at computer programming and is slowly improving
A. Phyllis, who attributes most of her golf losses to bad luck or the weather and has had an unusually bad season
A psychologist wishes to determine whether a new patient has high or low self-efficacy as efficiently as possible. Which question would be most productive for the psychiatrist to ask?
A. When did you last blame an external or outside factor for a personal failure?
B. Do you typically feel valuable as a person?
C. When you think about an upcoming challenge or task, do you feel that you are equipped to handle it?
D. How would you describe the groups to which you belong or the labels that you assign to yourself?
C. When you think about an upcoming challenge or task, do you feel that you are equipped to handle it?
Self-efficacy refers to a person’s perspective of his or her ability to complete tasks.
According to George Herbert Mead, the “I” is best characterized as:
A. the free will that one uses to uniquely respond to a situation, generally within the constraints of societal norms.
B. an internalized collection of others’ attitudes regarding one and how one should be, resulting in the “socialized” identity.
C. one’s instinctive, often aggressive set of natural drives.
D. the part of oneself that consciously, morally represses one’s innate urges with the intent of reaching perfection.
A. the free will that one uses to uniquely respond to a situation, generally within the constraints of societal norms.
Deindividuation is a long-studied phenomenon in which individuals in a group setting experience decreased self-awareness and temporary loss of personal identity. Select all of the following factors that would likely promote deindividuation in a group of marching protestors.
I. The distribution of masks and hooded clothing prior to the event
II. A relatively small group size
III. A perceived lack of personal responsibility
IV. The prior consumption of alcohol by many of the group members
A. I and II only
B. III and IV only
C. I, II, and III only
D. I, III, and IV only
D. I, III, and IV only
The psychologist George Herbert Mead described four stages of the development of the “self,” all typically occurring at a fairly young age. In chronological order, a child will experience the stages of:
A. play, game, imitation, and the generalized other.
B. imitation, play, game, and the generalized other.
C. the generalized other, imitation, game, and play.
D. imitation, game, play, and the generalized other.
B. imitation, play, game, and the generalized other.
Hector, a young male who lives in the inner city, has been pressured to join a gang by his older brother. However, he knows that groups often fall victim to a variety of psychological phenomena, including groupthink and peer pressure. All of the following are part of Irving Janis’ eight symptoms of groupthink EXCEPT:
A. mindguards, or individuals within the group who voluntarily control the information accessed by other group members.
B. an illusion of morality, or the idea that the group is doing the right thing.
C. self-censorship, or the tendency of members to restrain their own views if they fear they may be dissenting.
D. an illusion of vulnerability, leading to anxiety and paranoia among group members.
D. an illusion of vulnerability, leading to anxiety and paranoia among group members.
When beginning your first day of surgical rotation, both you and a colleague answer one of the attending physician’s questions incorrectly. All day, you remain frustrated at yourself for being “too stupid” to answer, but feel terrible for your colleague because she “just happened to get the hardest question.” In making these judgments, you are falling victim to:
A. both the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias.
B. the self-serving bias alone.
C. the fundamental attribution error alone.
D. neither the fundamental attribution error nor the self-serving bias.
D. neither the fundamental attribution error nor the self-serving bias.
The correspondent inference theory focuses on dispositional attributions. According to this theory, when will such an attribution be made?
A. When the action in question is seen as entirely accidental
B. When the action in question aligns with society’s view of typical behavior
C. When the action in question directly harms or helps the person making the attribution
D. When the action in question has no personal relevance
C. When the action in question directly harms or helps the person making the attribution
An undergrad premedical honor society is choosing its new members for the fall semester. Though one potential member, Anna, has a poor grade in organic chemistry, the application committee concludes that this is not her fault because everyone fails that course. To make this attribution, the committee is using:
A. a consistency cue.
B. a distinctiveness cue.
C. a consensus cue.
D. none of the above.
C. a consensus cue.
Consensus cues focuses on the closeness of the behavior to that which is typically expected by society. If everyone fails organic chemistry, then Anna’s behavior is seen as aligning with the consensus, and the committee attributes it to situational factors (a hard class) as opposed to dispositional ones (Anna’s laziness or trouble understanding science).
According to the defensive attribution hypothesis, when is an individual most likely to blame the victim of an accident or crime?
A. When the consequences are fairly minor
B. When the accident seems entirely random and results in severe injury or death
C. When the victim comes from a different country and is much older than the individual
D. When the victim is perceived as much more successful than the individual
B. When the accident seems entirely random and results in severe injury or death
The defensive attribution hypothesis stems from the human fear that terrible consequences might happen to us simply due to chance.
To avoid being scared by this idea, we tend to blame the victims of an accident or to draw distinctions between ourselves and them (as in, “She was behaving in a way that I never would, so this could never happen to me”). This victim-blaming is most prevalent when the incident has severe consequences and when we perceive ourselves as similar to the victim.
According to the actor-observer bias, a person will:
A. blame dispositional factors when he is the observer, and situational factors when he is the actor.
B. blame situational factors when he is the observer, and dispositional factors when he is the actor.
C. always attribute actions to dispositional factors.
D. always attribute actions to situational factors.
A. blame dispositional factors when he is the observer, and situational factors when he is the actor.
According to the actor-observer bias, we tend to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional factors, while making situational attributions about our own actions. In other words, we are either the observer (as we watch others) or the actor (as we ourselves behave).
When you scored highly on a biology exam, you felt proud of your intelligence and hard work. If you commonly act according to the self-serving bias, what will you likely give as the reason for failing your next exam?
A. You fail every time you’re under a lot of pressure, so you might as well stop trying.
B. Your professor just didn’t teach according to your learning style.
C. You didn’t have the endurance you needed to succeed.
D. You should have studied for a greater total number of hours.
B. Your professor just didn’t teach according to your learning style.
The self-serving bias is our natural tendency to cite dispositional factors when we succeed, while attributing our failures to situational, or external, causes. Here, you attributed your successful biology score to your own personality, but blamed your later failure on an outside factor (the professor’s method of teaching).
A college student believes that his university is the best in the country, while ignoring recent data about its drop in the academic rankings. He also focuses on the members of last year’s graduating class who were successfully accepted to medical school, but never thinks about those who were rejected. The student is exemplifying both:
A. confirmation bias and the affect heuristic.
B. confirmation bias and belief perseverance.
C. the availability heuristic and optimism bias.
D. the just-world hypothesis and belief perseverance.
B. confirmation bias and belief perseverance.
Which of the following is NOT an example of a heuristic?
A. Familiarity
B. Representativeness
C. Confirmation
D. Availability
C. Confirmation
An MCAT tutor is trying to come up with an example of the representativeness heuristic. Which of these situations could he use?
A. A woman hears a political advertisement that is set to ominous, scary music and decides to oppose the candidate.
B. A girl has three friends named Megan, all of whom are very short; when she hears a woman named Megan on the radio, she assumes that the woman is short as well.
C. A man thinks that since a political dictator has committed horrible crimes, he must eventually be punished.
D. A teenager flips a coin ten times and gets heads eight times; he concludes that the next flip will probably be tails.
D. A teenager flips a coin ten times and gets heads eight times; he concludes that the next flip will probably be tails.
According to the DSM-V, bipolar I disorder is classified as a:
A. somatic disorder.
B. anxiety disorder.
C. trauma or stress-related disorder.
D. mood disorder.
D. mood disorder.
6 months after being the victim of an assault and robbery, a 32-year-old man wakes up and finds that his left arm is completely paralyzed. Over the next few months, he visits multiple doctors, who find no nerve damage or physiological cause whatsoever. This man appears to suffer from:
A. conversion disorder, a type of somatic disorder.
B. conversion disorder, a type of anxiety disorder.
C. illness anxiety disorder, a type of somatic disorder.
D. illness anxiety disorder, a type of mood disorder.
A. conversion disorder, a type of somatic disorder.
Which of these pairings do(es) NOT correctly match a disorder with its typical symptoms?
I. Bipolar I disorder – manic episodes that cycle with periods of major depression
II. Panic disorder – sudden episodes of disabling anxiety that can cause shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and sweating
III. Acute stress disorder – generalized anxiety or distress in response to daily life activities
A. I only
B. III only
C. I and II only
D. I, II, and III
B. III only
With regard to schizophrenia, a positive symptom is defined as:
A. a symptom that benefits the patient’s life, such as avolition.
B. a symptom that occurs in addition to normal experience, such as paranoid delusions.
C. a symptom that represents a lack of normal experience, such as “flat affect.”
D. a symptom that is unresponsive to medication, such as hallucinations.
B. a symptom that occurs in addition to normal experience, such as paranoid delusions.
Robert and Jenny have recently been diagnosed with different psychological disorders. While Robert is anxious and self-conscious of his diagnosis, Jenny feels perfectly normal and writes off most of her symptoms as “just how she always has been.” Robert is:
A. as likely as Jenny to be in the prodromal phase of schizophrenia.
B. more likely than Jenny to have a personality disorder.
C. less likely than Jenny to have a personality disorder.
D. less likely than Jenny to have the condition currently known as multiple personality disorder.
C. less likely than Jenny to have a personality disorder.
Which of the following pairings properly matches the symptom of a psychological disorder with its description?
A. Euthymia – depression or long-term sadness that does not yet fulfill the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder
B. Mania – a period of depressed mood, decreased appetite, and drastically increased sleep
C. Narcolepsy – rigid, immovable muscles and lowered sensitivity to stimuli
D. Echolalia – a tendency to repeat the speech of others word-for-word
D. Echolalia – a tendency to repeat the speech of others word-for-word
Which of the following psychological conditions would you expect to be categorized most similarly to narcissistic personality disorder in the DSM-V?
A. Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
B. Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
C. Paranoid personality disorder
D. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
B. Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
If John experiences frequent stomach pain and is constantly afraid that he is dying of various ailments, but his physician reassures him that he is physically healthy, he might suffer from the condition now officially termed:
A. hypochondriasis.
B. somatic symptom disorder.
C. histrionic personality disorder.
D. catatonic-type schizophrenia.
B. somatic symptom disorder.
With regard to musical performance, social facilitation is exemplified by:
A. vocalists in general performing best when extremely excited.
B. drummers performing very poorly when moderately aroused.
C. advanced pianists performing worse than usual in a public environment.
D. beginner guitarists making many extra mistakes in front of a large group of their friends.
D. beginner guitarists making many extra mistakes in front of a large group of their friends.
Jackson and Jay were best friends and tennis partners for six years. Recently, Jay transferred to another school, causing their friendship to suffer as they were forced to compete for a single spot at the state championship. According to the stereotype content model, Jackson likely views Jay:
A. with a paternalistic stereotype.
B. with a contemptuous stereotype.
C. with an admiration stereotype.
D. with an envious stereotype.
D. with an envious stereotype.
A high school student is trying out for the football team. This student’s reference group is most likely to include:
A. the varsity football players.
B. the other students trying out for the team.
C. the student population as a whole.
D. the varsity football players and the coaches.
B. the other students trying out for the team.
A 23-year-old student attends a small, private medical school that utilizes a pass-fail grading system. Who is most likely to be part of her in-group?
I. Her friends
II. Other medical students in her program
III. Her family living abroad
IV. Other former medical school applicants during the same cycle
A. I and II only
B. I and III only
C. I, II, and III only
D. I, II, III, and IV
C. I, II, and III only
A group of childhood behaviorists has noticed a strong trend of teenage boys wearing a particular brand of Michael Jordan basketball shoes. The researchers interviewed a cohort of boys before entering and after completing 10th grade and asked what types of clothing they most often wore. The results of these interviews are shown below.
What social phenomenon could help explain the trend shown in the figure above?
A. Groupthink
B. Deindividuation
C. Group polarization
D. Peer pressure
D. Peer pressure
Which of the following best demonstrates groupthink?
A. A company decides to hold a meeting to which all managers are invited. Because the managers don’t want to “rock the boat” or disrupt the group, they make very irrational decisions that later cost the company tremendous amounts of money.
B. Zach, a concert cello player, always plays better in concert halls in front of many people than he does when alone.
C. A family from Iran moves to New York City; over time, their traditions and behavior start to resemble those of other New Yorkers.
D. An elderly woman is mugged outside a busy convenience store and nobody stops to help or call the police.
A. A company decides to hold a meeting to which all managers are invited. Because the managers don’t want to “rock the boat” or disrupt the group, they make very irrational decisions that later cost the company tremendous amounts of money.
Formal social control is exemplified by:
A. a kindergartener who pushes another child during recess and feels guilt that evening.
B. a teenager who doesn’t wear deodorant to school and receives nasty looks from his peers; after a few weeks, he starts wearing deodorant.
C. a city that passes a law prohibiting jaywalking in a certain area downtown.
D. a lawyer who doesn’t prepare well for a trial and, after a judge criticizes his abilities, swears to start preparing more thoroughly.
C. a city that passes a law prohibiting jaywalking in a certain area downtown.
Senator Jones belongs to the Democratic Party and attends a national rally. Because he wants to remain accepted and liked by the fellow members of his party, he takes a stronger Democratic stance on issues than he normally would. What type of influence does this demonstrate?
A. Normative influence
B. Informational influence
C. Bystander influence
D. Assimilation influence
A. Normative influence
A salesman hopes to use impression management techniques to increase his sales of a probiotic pill. If he specifically decides to utilize altercasting, he could:
A. pretend he is similar to the potential customer in order to establish an immediate connection.
B. use a statement like “As a health-conscious person, you should be very interested in probiotics.”
C. present a sales pitch that portrays a real individual who falls within the same social circles as the potential buyer.
D. offer others a small bottle of probiotics as a way to get them interested in the product.
B. use a statement like “As a health-conscious person, you should be very interested in probiotics.”
A social scientist researched the likelihood of college students to become romantically involved. She interviewed students from two different universities in the same city and monitored them over a course of two years. The data collected from this study revealed the statistical probabilities shown below.
Which principle of attraction does the above data exemplify?
A. The golden ratio
B. Reciprocal liking
C. Proximity
D. None of the above
C. Proximity
According to the dramaturgical approach of impression management, what is the difference between front stage and back stage?
A. Front stage refers to the aspects of a person’s self that he consciously recognizes, while back stage relates to the unconscious or unacknowledged facets of his personality.
B. Front stage includes the image that a person presents to others, while back stage describes what others actually see.
C. Front stage refers to a person’s behavior when he is performing for others, while back stage includes actions that occur when the person is acting freely.
D. Front stage refers to the superego, while back stage is synonymous with the ego.
C. Front stage refers to a person’s behavior when he is performing for others, while back stage includes actions that occur when the person is acting freely.
Which of the examples below best demonstrates the concept of Fisherian selection?
A. Male wolf spiders have evolved to exploit a non-mating preference by looking like prey to female spiders in order to mate more often.
B. Male peacocks have developed ornamentation that is both elaborate and a physical hindrance, due to females’ mating preferences.
C. Bee colonies that “dance” in order to communicate the location of food have gained an evolutionary advantage.
D. A hummingbird who feeds on flowers provides a benefit to the plant species through pollination.
B. Male peacocks have developed ornamentation that is both elaborate and a physical hindrance, due to females’ mating preferences.
