Exam 13: Behaviour in a Social Context

Suppose you are told that a guest lecturer who will be coming to your class is rather aloof and cold. When the lecturer does come, you find that the lecturer behaves in a way that is consistent with the expectations you have been given. While it may be that the lecturer is in fact cold and aloof, which of the following additional conclusions is most likely?

Josephine is sitting on a jury whose task is to decide whether or not to give the defendant a life sentence in prison. Most of the members of the jury feel the defendant can be rehabilitated and feel a twenty-year sentence would be appropriate. However, after listening to some of the members express their opinions about how detrimental prison life can be, the jury finally recommends a sentence of only ten years. In this case, which psychological principle may have shaped the opinion?

When Mrs. Jones asks her kindergarten class, "Who is looking forward to summer vacation?" every student raises his or her hand. Notice that Mrs. Jones did not ask them to raise their hands they just know that is the socially acceptable way to respond to the question. The behaviour of raising your hand in elementary school is an example of:

Melissa is doing a project for her lab class in a group with three other people. Melissa knows that two of the other girls are straight A students and that they will do an excellent job on the project. Melissa also knows that the teacher will not know who has done what work on the project so she does not put much work into it. Melissa is falling sway to:

A young child decides to dress more like his peers in order to avoid their rejection and teasing. This child is best demonstrating the effect of:

You are leading a group of 25 adults on a tour of your campus and as you pass the tennis courts, you all stop to watch. Half of the courts contain students who are just learning to play tennis, while next to them are several exceptional tennis players from your college tennis team. According to the social facilitation effect, which of the following would you expect?

The term, "self-fulfilling prophecy" specifically refers to instances in which:

Which of the following characteristics would be the least likely to enhance the persuasiveness of a communicator?

Social loafing occurs when people exert less individual effort when working on a group task than when working by themselves.

As Liz and Joel start spending an increasing amount of time together playing pool, taking dance lessons, and surfing, they are also sharing an increasing number of their personal thoughts and feelings with each other. Their satisfaction for their relationship will continue to deepen if:

According to Janis, which of the following would be the least likely to reduce or prevent the possibility of groupthink?

The study conducted by LaPiere in 1934 using a young Chinese couple as participants demonstrated that:

Jill has been seeing two men to whom she is very attracted. Bob is a co-worker and Jill usually has lunch with Bob two or three days a week. Steve is a traveling salesperson and he and Jill manage to get together once or twice a month. Jill is more likely to develop a more meaningful relationship with Bob according to the concept of _.

Jeff and Mary have been dating for several weeks and are both considering making their relationship exclusive and not seeing other people. According to social exchange theory, their commitment to the relationship will be greater if:

All of the following were mentioned by Kelley as factors that determine the attributions we make EXCEPT:

Some studies found that when people freely engage in counterattitudinal behaviour, they experience increased physiological arousal. Which of the following statements regarding this finding is most accurate?

A psychologist is attempting to explain the source of various gender differences in mating behaviour. When explaining the fact that men tend to prefer younger women and women tend to prefer older men, he claims that this makes sense because older men have more earning potential, younger women are more economically dependent, and this age difference is consistent with most cultural expectations regarding relationships. This psychologist's views are most similar to those advanced by:

Dave is consistently ten to fifteen minutes late to work every morning. His wife explains to him that this is stealing from his employer. Dave has always considered himself to be an honest person, he therefore justifies the time theft by explaining to his wife that he is not paid enough for the hard work he does so he considers the time part of his salary. Dave changed his attitude in order to justify his actions thereby:

Self-perception theory appears to offer a better explanation of attitude change than dissonance theory when the counterattitudinal behaviour does not threaten a person's self-worth and when our attitudes are to begin with.

As part of an experiment, a person is asked to write an essay advocating an opinion that is opposite to her own. She is given no financial incentive to do this and after completing the essay, the experimenters find that her prior attitude has shifted towards the one advocated in the essay she just wrote. The opinions of other participants in the study who received a financial incentive ($20) for writing a counterattitudinal essay did not show similar shifts. This example best demonstrates the phenomenon called: