Exam 13: Behaviour in a Social Context

The fundamental attribution error refers to how people tend to overestimate the importance of personal factors and the importance of situational factors, when explaining other people's behaviours.

A psychologist who is discussing the causes of racism and prejudice argues that these negative beliefs are caused primarily by people's needs to enhance their self-esteem and to feel good about themselves. This psychologist's explanation is most consistent with

As a researcher you approach couples at an amusement park and ask them how much they are in love. Some couples you ask before they get on the roller coaster, and other couples you ask as they get off. You find that people report they are more in love after they get off the roller coaster. How can you explain this?

When a group of like-minded people gathers and discusses an issue, the group's opinion, attitude, or decision may become more extreme through the processes of normative social influence and informational social influence.

Which of the following statements regarding the results of the Irwin and Gross study examining the impact of video games on child aggression is most accurate?

A person with covert prejudicial feelings towards gays and lesbians would most likely have the slowest reaction times to which of the following word pairs presented using the implicit association test?

In general, people appear to prefer having a dating partner or spouse who is of _.

Research by Kulik and Mahler found that hospital patients awaiting open-heart surgery expressed a stronger preference to have a roommate who:

The committee for hiring faculty is reviewing applications for the new faculty position in the psychology department. The short list includes three people, the first two of which are very qualified, and the third a little less so. The department desperately needs a new person to take some of the tremendous teaching load for next semester so the committee really needs to make a decision today. Among the group there are strong opinions, both positive and negative, about the top two candidates but everyone finally agrees that they can "live with" the less qualified person, so that person is offered the job. The committee, in their strong desire to seek agreement, fell sway to:

The tendency for members of a group to suspend critical thinking because they are striving for agreement is specifically called: