Social psych test

Question 1

Recall the Dutton and Aron Bridge study described in class. The basic finding was that the men called the female researcher more when they completed the survey on the scary bridge. When asked why, the men claimed that they felt aroused in her presence and interpreted their arousal as feeling of attraction for the female researcher. As a budding psychologist, why do you think that men called the female research assistant more after completing the survey on the unstable compared to the stable bridge?

Answer 1

Misattribution of arousal

Question 2

As social psychologists try to make sense of human nature, we organize our ideas and findings into theories. What is the best definition of a theory?

Answer 2

An integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events

Question 3

In the simplest sense of the term, what is a heuristic?

Answer 3

Simple, efficient thinking strategies

Question 4

What does the phrase “correlation does not equal causation” mean?

Answer 4

A relationship between two variables allows us to predict one when we know the other, but it does not mean one variable caused the other variable.

Question 5

Based on what you learned in the “Constructing Social Reality” video, what does the phrase “we often construct our own social reality” mean?

Answer 5

We have the ability to create subjective realities for ourselves that give different meanings to situations or people

Question 6

What are three ways that our values influence psychology?

Answer 6

1. One interpretation of results may be subjective
2. The concepts we choose to describe people are often subjective
3. We often impose a “right” or “wrong” judgment on a person’s behavior

Question 7

As Bella gets ready for class she spills coffee on her shirt. She grabs a shirt from her roommate’s laundry basket and runs out the door. She goes to the restroom to change her shirt only to realize in horror that her roommate’s shirt has a large picture of Justin Bieber on the front. She turns bright red and panics over the idea of walking into class wearing this shirt because she “knows” everyone will be looking at her. What psychological concept might explain how she is feeling?

Answer 7

The spotlight effect

Question 8

Imagine that you are sitting in the East Commons having lunch. While you are enjoying your salt and vinegar chips you notice a tall person walking towards your table. Suddenly the person trips scattering pizza and a coke all over the place. You think to yourself, “what a klutz”, not noticing that the person has tripped over someone’s misplaced backpack. This is an example of the … ?

Answer 8

Fundamental attribution error

Question 9

Different cultures have different influences on how we view the self. Choose the answer that best reflects the relationships

Answer 9

Collectivist culture = interdependence

Individualist culture = independence

Question 10

The better-than-average effect is a type of self-serving bias. What factors would make a person more likely to engage in this type of self-serving bias?

Answer 10

When the trait dimension is:

1. socially desirable
2. subjective or abstract

Question 11

In the Clark and Clark doll study 33% of Black children reached for the White doll when asked to pick the “doll that looks like you”. This finding is often used as evidence for the negative effects of a. ____ on black children’s b.____

Answer 11

a. segregation

b. feelings of self worth

Question 12

Bella and Cooper are playing chess. Eventually, Bella beats Cooper. Cooper, who has high self-esteem, is noticeably unhappy by the outcome. Given what you know about Cooper and what was discussed in lecture about people with high-self esteem, which response is most likely?

Answer 12

Cooper will accept Bella’s challenge to play chess again

Question 13

People who are schematic on a particular trait will process schema-related behaviors in distinct ways from people who are aschematic on that trait. Based on the study described in the lecture, how do schematics process the schema-related behaviors of others?

Answer 13

Schematics will generate larger units of schema-related behavior than will aschematics

Question 14

Why do we tend to underestimate the situational determinants of other people’s behavior but do not do the same thing when we think about our own behavior?

Answer 14

When watching other people, we focus on their behavior; when we act, we focus on the situation

Question 15

In the simplest terms, what is an attribution?

Answer 15

It is the cause or source of someone’s behavior

Question 16

Cooper is attending a new student orientation at Princeton University. As he enters the auditorium where the orientation will take place, he trips. Everyone in the auditorium stops talking and looks at Cooper. After witnessing this event you, as an aspiring social psychologist, jump up and ask Cooper to complete a questionnaire to assess his feelings at the moment. Which questionnaire would be the most APPROPRIATE and what would you expect to find?

Answer 16

State self-esteem scale; and a lowered social sefl-esteem

Question 17

Recall the slide about International friendship day that was shown in lecture. When asked how many female names were listed on the slide many students believed that there were more female names than was actually the case (there were only 7 our of the 14 names). Why did this occur?

Answer 17

The female names were of famous people, thus these names were more available in memory, which then led the students to assume that there were more female names

Question 18

Recall “the power of the situation” video. What was the take home message or main point of the video?

Answer 18

Situational forces are powerful and we often fall prey to or are influence by such forces

Question 19

Recall the demonstration in class: students who were initially told to suppress their thoughts about red apples should show faster responding, after suppression is over, to words related to red apples because of which psychological process?

Answer 19

Rebound and hyper-accessibility effects

Question 20

We all engage in some form of self-serving bias. What is one of the disadvantages of doing so, as described in the book?

Answer 20

Individual group members may take too much credit for the group’s success, thus creating conflict among the group members

Question 21

What is on of the common drawbacks/criticisms of conducting experimental research?

Answer 21

Often lacks social (mundane) realism

Question 22

Imagine that your friend Bob views being a psychologist as the most central aspect of his self-concept. One day Bob learns that he just had a paper accepted at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, social psychology’s top journal. When Bob gets home from work, he feels like he is a great father, a wonderful husband, and a talented cook. How might you classify Bob in terms of self- representation?

Answer 22

He has a less complex self-representation

Question 23

Despite a strong emphasis to increase the self-esteem of America’s youth, there is a “dark side” to having extremely high self-esteem (narcissists). Based on what you learned in lecture, what are some of the costs of extremely high self-esteem?

Answer 23

Engaging in unprotected sex, reacting violently to threats

Question 24

When people have “healthy” levels of high self-esteem they are better able to deal with self-threats, put a positive self-enhancing spin on social information, and respond to failure by focusing on their other positive attributes. Considering this information, what type of mindset would best characterize people with high self-esteem?

Answer 24

They seek to maximize, they look for opportunities to highlight their self-worth

Question 25

Janet had a lousy Friday. Her professor was not happy with her thesis draft and told her that she would need to revise it by Monday morning. She was quite worried about how good of a job she would do in such a short time. Instead of working on her thesis, she does everything to distract her from doing any work. Considering her behaviors and the situation, what might Janet be doing to protect her self-worth if on Monday her advisor thinks her thesis has not improved enough?

Answer 25

Self-handicapping

Question 26

When people are asked to predict how they will feel in the future they often mispredict the A and B of their future emotions

Answer 26

A. Duration

B. Intensity

Question 27

Even though an object may resemble a category, it does not always mean that the object is from that category. This idea is best understood by which cognitive rule?

Answer 27

Representativeness heuristic

Question 28

Immediately after we see someone behaving in a particular way, we are more likely to infer that the person’s behavior was cause by ___A___, but once time has passed we are more likely to infer that the person’s behavior was caused by ___B___?

Answer 28

A. their internal states (disposition)

B. the situation

Question 29

One day you are talking to your friend, Justin, about how often he mows the lawn in a month. He tells you that he mows the lawn about 60% of the time. The next day you bump into his gf and you ask her the same question. She says that she mows the lawn about 70% of the time. Based on lecture and what you read in the book how can this be explained?

Answer 29

It is based on the availability heuristic and the egocentric bias.

Question 30

Heuristic often serves us well. In many cases, we immediately know something without reasoning or analyzing. However, what are some of the limits of our intuitive judgement?

Answer 30

All of the above!

• we tend to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs
• we tend to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs
• we ignore case rate information

Question 31

Imagine your friend Bob failed his chemistry test. He is really upset so you try to console him by explaining “how there are natural variations in behavior and that his poor performance could simple be a reflection of that variation and not an indication for his poor performance”?

Answer 31

Regression to the mean

Question 32

In the Darley and Latane diffusion of responsibility experiment, participants heard a fellow participant (the victim) crying for help after supposedly having a seizure.
Under what conditions did the victim receive the most help?

Answer 32

When the participant believed that he/she was the only one who could help the victim

Question 33

As described in lecture, what are the three levels of analysis social psychologists use to explain social psychology phenomena?

Answer 33

• Between people
• A the person level
• and within the person

Question 34

Based on what you read in the book, the processing of information can be broken down in two ways. What are the two ways and how is the information processed?

Answer 34

1. Controlled - consciously, deliberately,

2. Automatic - unconsciously, effortlessly

Question 35

Which of the following statements BEST captures the essence of social psychology?

Answer 35

The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another

Question 36

Recall the example from class in which I described my friend Bob who wore sweater vests and enjoyed reading poetry. I then asked you what the probability was that he was a classics scholar or a farmer. Many of you said he was more likely a classics scholar. What did the class fail to recognize?

Answer 36

Base rates in the population

Question 37

There are a number of ways that people with high and low self- esteem differ. For instance, high self-esteem is __A__ and low self-esteem is __B__.

Answer 37

A. Promotion focused

B. Prevention focused

Question 38

Recall the in-class demonstration regarding the word completion task designed to measure implicit self-esteem (the task called “doing two things @ once). What is one reason why researchers might want to measure self-esteem implicitly?

Answer 38

By using an indirect measure of self-esteem, researchers are able to bypass answers that may be given as a result of social desirability concerns

Question 39

What are the three factors of Harold Kelly’s Theory of Attribution?

Answer 39

Distinctiveness, Consensus, and Consistency

Question 40

Random sampling prevents researchers from ___.

Answer 40

Collecting a biased sample that will limit generalizability

Question 41

What are the four components or parts that make up the self?

Answer 41

1. Self-esteem
2. Social self
3. Self-knowledge
4. Self-concept

Question 42

What is experimental realism

Answer 42

the degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves participants

Question 43

What is mundane realism

Answer 43

The degree to which an experiment is similar to everyday situations