Deck 13: A: Reading

Question 1

What basic distinction do Gilbert and his colleagues make between human beings and other animals?

A) Human beings have the ability to act altruistically while other animals are exclusively self-concerned.
B) Human beings demonstrate the motivation for happiness, while other animals do not experience that emotion.
C) Human beings have the potential to experience deep feelings, while other animals are incapable of such emotional states.
D) Human beings can predict and therefore avoid unpleasant occurrences, while other animals must learn from their own mistakes or those of other animals.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In demonstrating the "region $\beta$ paradox," what do Gilbert and his colleagues suggest about people's willingness to endure painful medical procedures?

A) People report a procedure is less painful if a physician tells them ahead of time that the procedure is minimally painful, which demonstrates their suggestibility.
B) People are more likely to chicken out of a mildly painful procedure than a highly painful procedure.
C) The amount of pain people think they can endure is directly proportional to their prior experience with painful procedures.
D) People are more likely to chicken out of a highly painful procedure than a mildly painful procedure.

Answer 2

People are more likely to chicken out of a mildly painful procedure than a highly painful procedure.

Question 3

The results in the first study of Gilbert et al. found that when people judge how unpleasant an event is at the time and then predict how they feel about the same event a week later, their:

A) dislike of the same events significantly increases.
B) dislike of the same events significantly decreases.
C) dislike of the same events does not change in only one week.
D) dislike from pretest to posttest of the events is unrelated because of larger personality differences.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In Study 2, what do Gilbert and his colleagues find are the emotional responses of a person to an insulting partner?

A) People generally like it when others "take them down a notch," and so insulting partners and insulting nonpartners are equally liked.
B) People like an insulting nonpartner more than an insulting partner, because the perceived insult has less of a "personal" effect on them.
C) People show no level of liking for either an insulting partner or an insulting nonpartner.
D) After people are insulted both by a partner and by a nonpartner, they like their partner more than the nonpartner.

Question 5

In Study 1, what do Gilbert and his colleagues hypothesize about subjects' predictions regarding the duration of the distress they will experience?

A) Mild distress will cause shorter emotional disruption than severe distress.
B) Mild distress will cause longer emotional disruption than mild distress.
C) The duration of their emotional disruption will not be related to the depth of their distress, but rather to the person who causes the distress (i.e., spouse, boss, friend, stranger).
D) The duration of their emotional distress will be unrelated to the level of distress to which they are exposed.