psych mc 6 Flashcards
All of the following were cited in the textbook as factors which promote relaxation except for
drinking a small amount of alcohol
The Flashback football team had been down by 35 points at half-time, but they had made a big comeback in the second half. With less than 15 seconds remaining on the clock they made a touchdown that narrowed the other team’s lead to a single point. Their quarterback has decided to try for a two-point conversion in an attempt to win the game by a single point in the dying seconds. As the team lines up for the final play of the game, both the quarterback and the intended receiver are likely to be experiencing
pressure
The name Hans Selye gave to the body’s response to stress is
the general adaptation syndrome
A group that one belongs to and identifies with is known as a(n)
ingroup
Which of the following has been shown to increase the risk of such chronic diseases as lung cancer, emphysema, and stroke?
smoking
Evidence from numerous studies of the bystander effect suggests that
it is a widespread phenomenon
Which of the following is not typically a reason for noncompliance with medical advice?
the cost of the medical treatment program
Marriages arranged by families and other go-betweens remain common in cultures high in
collectivism
Which of the following psychologists is known for conducting classic research on obedience to authority?
Stanley Milgram
The Featured Study by Cohen and his colleagues showed that high-stress subjects had a higher incidence of colds than low-stress subjects. This finding indicates that illness and levels of stress are
positively correlated
When Jerry thought he was the only person who was assigned the job of contacting alumni for a 15-year reunion, he spent several hours on the phone each evening trying to reach members of his graduating class. When he learned that eight other people were also working on contacting the alumni he spent only 30 minutes each night making phone calls. The process that would best explain the decrease in Jerry’s effort when he learned that he was working as part of a larger group, is
social loafing
Actors and observers tend to give different explanations for the same instance of behavior because
situational pressures may not be readily apparent to an observer
The week of final exams subjects most students to what kind of stress?
pressure
A man who believes that “women just don’t make good leaders” may dwell on his female supervisor’s mistakes and quickly forget about her achievements. This scenario illustrates which of the following concepts?
the illusory correlation effect
Bruce performed very well on the examination, which he attributed to native ability and hard work. Which bias does this illustrate?
the self-serving bias
Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people are referred to as
“social schemas”
Individualism is to collectivism as __________ is to __________.
personal; group
The final stage of Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome during which the organism’s resources for fighting stress may be depleted is called
exhaustion
The two major pathways via which the brain may signal the endocrine system are through the
pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system
A person who is hard-driving, ambitious, competitive, and at risk for having a heart attack is said to have __________ personality.
a Type A
According to Baumeister, the pressure to perform can elevate self-consciousness, which then disrupts our attention by
diverting attention from the demands of the task
Frustration refers to
being blocked in the pursuit of a desired goal
Elliot Aronson views inconsistency as the key to dissonance, but maintains that it is inconsistency between one’s __________ and one’s __________ that motivates dissonance.
self-concept; behavior
Which of the following statements regarding the effectiveness of two-sided arguments is accurate?
Overall, two-sided arguments tend to be more effective than one-sided arguments.
Valerie is doing homework for her statistics class. When she checks the answer she has just calculated for the problem she has been working on, she finds it is incorrect. She is frustrated, and tells her roommate: “I don’t know why I’m even trying, I’ll never catch on in this course. I should just give up now.” According to Albert Ellis, Valerie’s statements reflect
catastrophic thinking
Recent research evidence from studies which have investigated the link between depression and heart disease suggests that
the emotional dysfunction of depression may cause heart disease
According to Hazan and Shaver’s model of infant attachment and romantic love, adults with which of the following attachment styles are most likely to have satisfying, interdependent, and long-lasting relationships?
secure
Behavioral vacillation would be most apt to go with which type of conflict?
approach-avoidance
In making a causal attribution, we first tend to decide if an event was due to __________ causes.
internal or external
Groupthink is more likely when the group
- is under pressure to make a major decision
Travis was piloting a small private jet. He was making his final approach through heavy fog, and when he finally broke through the fog cover at 150 feet he realized that the runway was 20 yards to his left. For an instant he experienced a sensation of total panic, but he quickly took action. With his heart still pounding he gave the plane full throttle in an attempt to clear the rapidly approaching trees. According to Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, as Travis took action he was experiencing
a resistance reaction
In his studies on conformity, Asch found that if a group of persons espouses an opinion contradictory to one’s own opinion, one is most likely to
voice the group’s opinion
Which of the following statements regarding social loafing is not accurate?
Social loafing is an inevitable outcome of group projects.
Which of the following is not a variable people use to stereotype other people?
- ethnicity
- gender
- occupation
- Any of these variables may be used.
(any of these is the answer)
Laboratory experiments with cardiology patients have shown that brief period of mental stress
can trigger acute symptoms of heart disease, such as myocardial ischemia
Constructive coping includes all of the following except
reliance on the use of defense mechanisms
Which of the following statements regarding stereotypes is accurate?
Stereotypes are so pervasive that they are often activated automatically.
The bystander effect is
greater the more people there are in the group
In Weiten’s studies, __________ turned out to be more strongly related to measures of mental health than scores on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale were.
pressure
Putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes is referred to as
individualism
You’ve been invited to dinner at a nice restaurant on the final night of a TV mini-series you’ve been watching and thus find yourself confronted with
an approach-approach conflict
Barbara’s car has been running poorly lately. Whose advice is Barbara most likely to follow in order to make her car run better?
her mechanic
Your unique ideas about how a college class should be run, what a typical straight “A” student is like, and how a typical professor will act are all examples of
social schemas
Most of Conrad’s friends consider him to be highly neurotic. It is likely that, compared to his friends, Conrad is
more likely to perceive events as stressful
Noncompliance with medical advice occurs approximately
30 to 60 percent of the time
The __________ controls the fight-or-flight response as a physiological reaction to a threat.
autonomic nervous system
Love as the basis for marriage is
an 18th-century invention of Western culture
The Featured Study by Cohen and his colleagues showed that
psychological stress can increase people’s susceptibility to infectious disease
If you tend to overemphasize internal characteristics in explaining the behavior of others, you are evidencing the
fundamental attribution error
The principle cause of coronary heart disease is
atherosclerosis
Individual differences in cardiovascular reactivity
probably contribute to susceptibility to heart disease
Catastrophic thinking is characterized as involving
exaggeration of the magnitude of one’s problems
According to Hazan and Shaver, romantic love is an attachment process, and people’s intimate relationships in adulthood follow the same form as their attachments
in infancy
When the adrenal medulla is stimulated
large amounts of catecholamines are released into the bloodstream
Herbert Benson devised a simple procedure, called the relaxation response, that can have beneficial health effects. To experience the full benefits, the procedure should be practiced
on a daily basis
Scott spent a great deal of time and money on becoming a member of a certain club, yet later discovered that the members of the club were boring. According to dissonance theory, Scott would most likely
continue to extol the virtues of the club to his friends
Group cohesiveness refers to the
strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other and to the group itself
An actor’s behavior being the same over time and across situations defines the covariation information referred to as
consistency
The most likely initial consequence of an approach-avoidance conflict is
vacillation
Which of the following could be an example of the fundamental attribution error?
Sue explained Ralph’s failure in terms of his incompetence and laziness.
Which of the following statements regarding the research on dissonance theory is most accurate?
Research has generally supported dissonance theory.
Holmes and Rahe reasoned that major sources of stress for people come from
changes in one’s life that require readjustment
According to the notion of defensive attribution, we tend to explain the setbacks that befall other people in terms of __________ causes.
internal
Selye believed that the body’s reactions to stressful situations
are nonspecific - that is, the same to different stressors
Which of the following is the best piece of advice regarding exercise and its ability to reduce your vulnerability to stress?
Gradually increase your participation in an enjoyable activity.
Baumeister and Steinhilber found evidence that, in the final, decisive game of a series in a professional sport such as baseball
the home team is under greater pressure than the visiting team, and its performance may decline
Obedience is a form of compliance in which people change their behavior in response to
direct commands
According to Hazan and Shaver’s model of infant attachment and romantic love, adults with which of the following attachment styles are most likely to report more intense emotional highs and lows in their romantic relationships?
anxious-ambivalent
Active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress are called
coping
According to this viewpoint, men emphasize physical attractiveness in mate selection while women emphasize the ability to acquire resources. Which theory does this describe?
evolutionary theory
Psychology is committed to the reliance on systematic observation through research, to arrive at conclusions. That is, psychology is committed to
empiricism
Observers tend to favor __________ attributions about the success of males; observers tend to favor __________ attributions about the success of females.
internal; external
Bryce is an army field surgeon who has been operating on wounded soldiers for the past 24 hours, without a break. It seems as if he will never be able to deal with all the wounded soldiers that are already at the field hospital, and more wounded are arriving every hour. Meanwhile, the sound of heavy artillery is getting closer all the time. At this point, Bryce feels completely worn out. His overall energy reserves are totally depleted, and his body just wants to give up. According to Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, Bryce is probably experiencing
physiological exhaustion
A person responding uniquely to someone or something defines the item of covariation information referred to as
distinctiveness
Which of the following is not characteristic of Type A individuals?
They are easygoing and sociable.
The bystander effect should be strongest in
a large group when need for help is ambiguous
In the Featured Study on stress and the common cold, Cohen and his colleagues found that, in the subsample of subjects without an infectious roommate
high-stress subjects were more likely to develop colds than low-stress subjects
Making excuses for problems (blaming something else) reflects a
self-serving bias
Virginia has wanted to be a physician for as long as she can remember, but she has been unable to gain entry to medical school. Virginia is probably experiencing
frustration
According to Albert Ellis, the key to making realistic appraisals of stress is to
dispute irrational assumptions
Long-term success rates for those who quit smoking are about __________ percent.
25
According to evolutionary psychologists, which of the following characteristics in a prospective mate would be the least important consideration for a woman seeking a mate?
physical attractiveness
Rory experienced a massive heart attack, after which he enrolled in a stress management training course. Based on the research reported by Blumental, once Rory has completed the course, he should find that his likelihood of
having a second heart attack will be reduced
Social schemas are best defined as
organized clusters of ideas about people or social events
Which of the following statements regarding the use of weak arguments in persuasive communication is accurate?
Adding weak arguments to a persuasive message will likely do more harm than good to one’s case.
Winona has a 10-page term paper due first thing in the morning, and she still has over half the paper left to write. At the same time her boyfriend is insisting that she come to the concert that evening where he will be performing his first violin solo. She knows that she needs to work on the paper, but she also knows her boyfriend will be disappointed if she doesn’t attend the concert. Winona is most likely feeling
pressure
n which of the following situations are people most likely to follow the instructions they receive from health care professionals?
when they like, respect and understand the health care professional
According to optimal-arousal theories, which of the following situations would be least affected by a high optimal-arousal level?
buttoning a shirt
Individuals from Western societies are more likely to evidence a(n) __________ in their causal attributions relative to individuals from non-Western societies.
self-serving bias
When Stoner (1961) compared the average decision of a group’s members against their group decision generated through group discussion, he found that
groups arrived at riskier decisions than individuals
Which of the following organs is involved in both of the body’s two major stress pathways?
the adrenal gland
One of the things that made the Featured Study by Cohen and his colleagues outstanding was
the enormous effort that the researchers went through to control for possible confounding variables
Imagine that a researcher publishes the results from a study, and the results indicate that there is a statistically significant association between sleep deprivation and coronary disease. This result would mean that
the findings are not likely to be due to chance fluctuations
Your author takes the position that coping behavior to stress
may be adaptive or maladaptive
Diffusion of responsibility refers to the
tendency of others to assume that someone else will take responsibility in a crisis
Finding humor in a stressful situation
can help to reduce stress by discharging pent-up emotions
Research suggests that vulnerability to cardiovascular diseases may be influenced by diet. In particular, low-fiber diets may increase the likelihood of __________, and low consumption of fruit and vegetables may be associated with vulnerability to __________.
coronary disease; stroke
Which of the following behaviors is likely to be variable across cultures?
A. attitudes about conformity
B. the tendency to obey authority figures
C. the role of love in mating relationships
D. all of these behaviors
(all)
Widely held beliefs about groups of people based on their group membership defines
stereotypes
Dr. Gouin believes that getting a promotion at work or getting married is just as stressful as losing a job or getting a divorce. Dr. Gouin’s beliefs are most like those of
Holmes and Rahe
What appears to mediate between a potentially stressful event and the emotional, physiological, and behavioral response to that event?
the appraisal of the event
A psychologist with which of the following orientations is most likely to analyze romantic relationships in terms of the adaptive problems they have presented over the course of human history?
evolutionary
Which of the following types of love relationships is most likely to have a sexual component?
passionate love
The fact that stress lies in the eye of the beholder illustrates the theme of
the subjectivity of experience
Stress and health research suggests that
stress may relate to the incidence of physical illness in general
Which of the following is, in general, likely to reduce the persuasiveness of a message?
The receiver has been forewarned about the message.
Which of the following individuals is recognized for developing self-perception theory?
Daryl Bem
Tatiana just finished entering her 10-page term paper into one of the computers in the University’s computer lab. She clicks the “Save” command, and the computer unexpectedly locks up. When she reboots the computer she discovers that all but the first two pages of her term paper have been lost. At this point in time Tatiana is most likely experiencing
frustration
Harry is an excellent basketball player who seldom misses a shot during practice. After yesterday’s practice Harry’s coach told him that some scouts from a big college would be at today’s practice. Based on the research by Baumeister, it is likely that this increase in pressure will make Harry
more self-conscious and will interfere with his performance
In Milgram’s (1963) study of obedience, subjects
were ordered to deliver painful electric shocks to a stranger
The fundamental attribution error leads observers to attribute the crime and poverty of urban ethnic neighborhoods to the
personal qualities of the residents
Simply repeating a message causes it to be perceived as more true. This finding is known as the __________ effect.
validity
Jim always comes to the office early, argues his position aggressively during meetings, and frequently feels frustrated when things don’t go his way. Jim’s behavior is typical of a person with a
Type A personality
Which of the following are Japanese subjects more likely to engage in than American subjects?
self-effacing bias
A shift toward more extreme decisions in a group as a function of discussion is referred to as
group polarization
Brooke had been battling the rising flood waters around her home for more than 72 hours. It seemed that no matter how many sandbags she stacked, it wasn’t enough. At this point she just feels that there is nothing else that she can do. Her overall energy reserves are totally depleted, and her body just wants to give up. According to Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, Brooke is probably experiencing
physiological exhaustion
The correct order for the three stages of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome is
alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Attributing one’s successes to dispositional factors and one’s failures to situational factors is referred to as
a self-serving bias
Which of the following individuals proposed the covariation model of attribution?
Harold Kelley
According to Hazan and Shaver’s model of infant attachment and romantic love, adults with which of the following attachment styles are most likely to feel negative about their relationships after dealing with conflict?
anxious-ambivalent
