Exam 6: Perception and Individual Decision Making

Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She recently worked on a campaign against global warming during which she worked extremely hard to achieve project milestones. However, the campaign failed as it could not achieve the desired objective. Due to this, her manager, Brenda Owens gave her a poor performance appraisal. In the appraisal, Brenda said that Johanna was not motivated and failed to reach out to 25,000 people through Internet media to spread awareness about climate change. Which of the following, if true, weakens Brenda's statement?

Johanna Springer, who works as a sales executive at Pascal's Bank, is upset at the way her manager, Emma Womack, always calls her in for one-on-one meetings to discuss her underperformance. Though Springer makes a higher number of sales calls and works longer hours than last year, her sales figures are still low. She knows that the main reason behind her underperformance is the recent economic meltdown in the country. However, her manager feels that Springer's underperformance is the result of her laid back attitude and has nothing to do with external factors. In this situation, Womack's behavior is characterized by a(n) ________.

Which of the following terms refers to a situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting expectations cause the second person to behave in ways consistent with the original perception?

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors is known as the confirmation bias.

What is selective perception?

Monica Walden feels that people who use plastic bags are insensitive toward the environment. She believes that people have a certain obligation toward their environment and should take it upon themselves to protect and preserve it. Which of the following factors has most likely influenced Walden's perception of people?

Amanda Winter used to work as a public engagement coordinator at Safe Food Alliance, until three months ago when her manager, Laura Morris, promoted her to the position of a sustainable food campaigner. However, soon after this, Laura noticed that Amanda was facing major difficulties in achieving campaign milestones and the project was falling behind schedule due to her lack of performance. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument that Laura was influenced by the halo effect in her decision to promote Amanda?

________ bias indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

If a person responds to a particular situation in the same way over a long time period, then the attribution theory states that the behavior demonstrates ________.

An individual's perception of reality can be substantially different from objective reality.

Compare the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias.

Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on three factors. Which of the following is one of these three factors?

Escalation of commitment refers to staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it's wrong.