Exam 4: Choices and Actions

Rachel has taken French for years and is very good at it. Nonetheless, she just enrolled in Intermediate French (which will be easy for her) rather than Advanced French (which will be slightly challenging but not impossible). It is probably safe to assume that Rachel ____.

The purpose of goal shielding is to ____.

Emotionally, suicidal people tend to be ________________.

The idea that at least some of our activities must be motivated by their inner drives and choices, rather than by external factors, reflects ____.

Habits are primarily influenced by the ________________ system.

Ursula believes that traits and abilities as fixed at birth and remain the same no matter what. By contrast, Yuri believes that people develop their traits and abilities across time, and that they can become better and better with practice. Social psychologists would say that Ursula is a(n) ____ while Yuri is a(n) ____.

Based on the information about suicide in the text, which of the following statements would be most likely to appear in a suicide note?

Both reactance theory and self-determination suggest that a sense of ________________ is important to people, and that they will strive to achieve it.

When asked whether they have any current goals or personal projects, only about 50% of people indicate that they do; other people are unable to identify any current goals that they have.

Research suggests that when athletes who are preparing for a big game visualize themselves training really hard for the game, they ____; when they visualize themselves actually winning the game, they ____.

When people make multiple demands upon themselves (when they must complete or persist at multiple tasks), their capacity for change (their willpower) sometimes seems to get "used up." Research shows that in fact, ____.

Closing one's eyes, so one does not need to look at a desired (but forbidden) object, is a good way to increase one's ____.

Jacopo has a long-term goal of becoming a neurologist. At the moment, though, he is only seven years old. He therefore also has several "stepping stone goals" (finishing high school, going to college, going to medical school, etc.). That is, Jacopo has a complete ____.

According to self-determination theory, people who act based on ____ are freer than others.

Peter is team leader for a major project at work. The project is very complex and will require a number of months to complete. He wants to ensure that the team members will stay motivated and on task despite the inevitable frustrations. Based on research, it is likely that the lowest motivation will occur ____.

Research on decision-making indicates that there are two main steps in making choices. They are ____.

Research on suicide notes shows that when people leave notes, the notes tend to ____.

As discussed in the text, when purchasing a car, people end up paying a bit more attention than intended to choices such as color and engine size, and a bit less attention than intended on information such as the chances of fatalities should there be an accident with the car. This pattern can be taken as evidence for ____.

The tendency for people to place greater weight on the present over the future in decision-making is known as ____.

Effective self-regulation involves ____.