Deck 13: Social Psychology

Question 1

Solomon Asch had participants choose which line was the same length as a comparison line in the presence of confederates who chose obviously wrong answers.Asch found about twice as much conformity when the number of confederates was large (about 10)as when it was smaller (about 5).

Answer 1

False

Question 2

According to the door-in-the-face technique,an effective way to get you to agree to a big request (take a group of juvenile delinquents to the zoo on Saturday)is to first ask you to do an even larger request (serve as a counselor to the delinquents for two hours,every week for the next two years).

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Researchers have found that composite photos that produce average facial features are rated as highly attractive.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Proximity refers to a feeling of warmth,affection,and closeness to another person.

Question 5

To measure the maturity of someone's moral judgments,Kohlberg devised a series of moral dilemmas,which are problems that pit one moral value against another.

Question 6

The term aversive racism refers to a blatant,obvious form of hostility for people of other races.

Question 7

According to research on the sleeper effect,persuasion attempts are much more likely to be successful when we hear them subconsciously,such as when we are asleep.

Question 8

Couples that divorce within the first seven years of marriage actually begin their marriages with more love and affection than do couples that remain married.

Question 9

A group of volunteers and paid staff work for a political campaign.The candidate loses the election.According to the theory of cognitive dissonance,the volunteers are more likely to be upset and feel that they have wasted their time than the paid staff.

Question 10

Two groups have a history of prejudice and hostility between them.The research has found that the best way to reduce this prejudice is to have members from each group talk and try to get to know each other.

Question 11

Altruistic behavior refers to helping others despite some cost or risk to others.

Question 12

Hank falls to the sidewalk among many other pedestrians-he's having a heart attack! Harry falls to the sidewalk in the presence of just one other pedestrian-he's having a heart attack! Hank is more likely to receive help than Harry is.

Question 13

On the average,first impressions are more influential than information learned later.

Question 14

Your professor is passing back exams,and as you are waiting to receive your exam,you notice that the student sitting next to you has a big,red "F" at the top of her exam.You think,"Wow,this must have been a really difficult exam." Your thinking illustrates the fundamental attribution error.

Question 15

The vast majority of students at Really Big State University wear backpacks with straps over both shoulders.The vast majority of students at the University of Some Distant State wear backpacks with just a single strap over one shoulder.Students at both universities say they wear their backpacks that way because it is the most comfortable for them.The students' backpack wearing behavior at both schools reflects normative influence.

Question 16

Psychologists once regarded morality as a set of arbitrary,learned rules,such as learning to stop at a red light and go at a green light.

Question 17

The Implicit Association Test,taken by over 600,000 people,finds that even Whites who claim to have little or no prejudice,link White-pleasant and Black-unpleasant more quickly.

Question 18

The basic lesson from Zimbardo's simulated prison study and from Milgram's teacher-learner study is that humans are crueler than previously realized.

Question 19

Tony,a sophomore,listens to a speech favoring a tuition increase at his college for next year.Because Tony intends to return for his junior year,he is more likely to follow the central route to persuasion in listening to the speech than the peripheral route.

Question 20

You are going to play a prisoner's dilemma game with the same partner every day for a week.According to the research,the choice that is most likely to lead to a big pay-off over the course of the week is for you to choose to compete as frequently as possible.

Question 21

Social perception and ____________________ are the processes we use to learn about others and make inferences from that information.
cognition

Question 22

Other things being equal,the first information we learn about someone influences us more than later information does.This is known as the ____________________ effect.
primacy

Question 23

A ____________________ is a generalized belief or expectation about a group of people;____________________ is a negative attitude about a group of people.
stereotype,a prejudice

Question 24

A common way of measuring attitudes is to have people check points along a line ranging from 1,meaning "strongly disagree" to 7,meaning "strongly agree." This rating scale is called a ____________________ scale.
Likert

Question 25

A student learns about the results of Milgram's study of obedience and says,"Those participants were so cruel! I'm not cruel,so I would never deliver shocks to another person." This student is committing the fundamental attribution error.

Question 26

Latané and Darley proposed that being in a crowd decreases our probability of action because of ____________________.
diffusion of responsibility

Question 27

If you base your explanation of somebody's behavior on attitudes or personality traits,this would be based on ____________________ attribution.If you base your explanation on the day's events or rewards associated with certain acts,this would be based on ____________________ attribution.
internal,external

Question 28

The prisoner's dilemma is an attempt to investigate ____________________ and ____________________.
cooperation,competition or
competition,cooperation

Question 29

To measure the maturity of someone's moral judgments,Kohlberg devised a series of ____________________ which are problems that pit one moral value against another.
moral dilemmas

Question 30

Attributions that we adopt to maximize credit for success and minimize blame for failure are called ____________________.
self-serving biases

Question 31

If a jury convenes to decide on a verdict and sentence in a criminal trial and every juror thinks the defendant is guilty from the start of the deliberation,they are likely to decide on a harsher sentence for the defendant as a group than if they were individually asked to determine the sentence.

Question 32

People listening to a message on a topic that they consider of little importance will probably follow the ____________________ route to persuasion.
peripheral

Question 33

The actor-observer effect is the tendency to attribute your own behavior mostly to ____________________ causes and the behavior of other people mostly to ____________________ causes.
external,internal

Question 34

Social psychologists use the term ____________________ to describe a situation in which people say nothing and each person falsely assumes that others have a better-informed opinion.
pluralistic ignorance

Question 35

____________________ is defined as the behavior of helping others despite some cost or risk to oneself.
Altruistic behavior

Question 36

Our first impression of somebody may influence the way we treat that person and they,in turn,may react in accordance with the way they are being treated.This can lead to what is termed a ____________________.
self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 37

Researchers using games have found that people in every society they tested will at least occasionally pay to punish the uncooperative players,and the societies with the greatest amount of ____________________ tend also to be the ones with the greatest amount of altruistic punishment.
altruism

Question 38

The term ____________________ refers to an inconsistency between one's attitudes and behavior.
cognitive dissonance

Question 39

In the prisoner's dilemma,the most dependable strategy is ____________________,also called "tit for tat."
reciprocity

Question 40

Compared to the United States,researchers typically find that conformity rates are higher in ____________________.
Asia

Question 41

People in a group (especially a group of strangers)are less likely to offer help to a person in need than is a single individual.Of the following,which is the best explanation for this tendency?

A)cognitive dissonance
B)diffusion of responsibility
C)group polarization
D)prisoner's dilemma

Question 42

In general,which of the following factors decreases the probability that a given person will come to the aid of a person in distress?

A)being certain that the person needs help
B)personally knowing the person in distress
C)having other people around who might also help
D)having plenty of time available

Question 43

To measure the maturity of someone's moral judgments,Kohlberg devised a series of __________,problems that pit one moral value against another.

A)justice dilemmas
B)moral dilemmas
C)equality dilemmas
D)ethical dilemmas

Question 44

Somebody who studies the everyday behaviors of more or less normal people and their relationships with other such people would be a

A)cognitive psychologist.
B)behavioral psychologist.
C)social psychologist.
D)clinical psychologist.

Question 45

The prisoner's dilemma is a situation in which

A)people are more likely to reach the best possible decision if they fail to discuss it with one another.
B)the response that seems beneficial to an individual is disadvantageous to the group.
C)anything one chooses to do will produce exactly the same outcome.
D)a group of people judge the length of some lines and the experimenter determines whether they conform to one another's opinion.

Question 46

It is good to help other people,but only because they may one day return the favor.This sentiment best represents which of Kohlberg's levels of morality?

A)unconventional
B)conventional
C)postconventional
D)preconventional

Question 47

The prisoner's dilemma is an attempt to investigate

A)factors that change people's political attitudes.
B)the development of prejudices.
C)cooperation and competition.
D)under what circumstances people help or ignore a person in distress.

Question 48

Our beliefs and expectations about groups of people can lead to prejudice and discrimination.Define these two distinct but related terms.Explain why researchers have developed measures such as the Implicit Association Test to assess stereotypes and prejudices.

Question 49

Social psychology research has revealed that other people can encourage us to do something we would not have done on our own,and they can inhibit us from doing something that we would have done on our own.One example of this is social loafing.Define social loafing and describe two examples of situations when individuals do NOT engage in social loafing.

Question 50

In the Public Goods game,when someone punishes and gains nothing except a sense of justice,it is called

A)just treatment
B)altruistic punishment.
C)equality treatment.
D)equal punishment.

Question 51

Originally,____________________ cultures were thought to be more prone to conformity than ____________________ cultures.Most studies have found ____________________ between Japanese and American attitudes.
collectivist,individualist,no significant difference

Question 52

To measure the maturity of someone's moral judgments,Kohlberg devised a series of

A)moral dilemmas.
B)psychological tests.
C)social dilemas.
D)clinical tests.

Question 53

We want to understand why people behave as they do.One method we use is to draw inferences about their reasons.Attribution is the set of thought processes we use to assign causes to our own behavior and that of others.Define internal attribution and external attribution.Describe the three types of information that Harold Kelley proposed we rely on when deciding whether to make an internal or external attribution for behavior.

Question 54

It appears that reciprocity only works when:

A)the two people cannot see each other and expect no further contact.
B)men are involved.
C)women are involved.
D)we can keep track of who returns favors and who does not.

Question 55

To investigate how situations evoke cooperation or competition,many researchers in psychology and economics have used the prisoner's dilemma.Define the prisoner's dilemma.

Question 56

In the prisoner's dilemma,the most dependable strategy is __________,also called "tit for tat."

A)aversivity
B)sharing
C)reciprocity
D)scientific management

Question 57

Psychologists Latane and Darley propose that no one helped Kitty Genovese when she was attacked near her apartment in New York in 1964 because

A)nobody realized she needed help.
B)it appeared that she was the one who was doing the attacking.
C)nobody wanted to get involved out of fear for their own life.
D)everyone knew there were other people who could,and presumably would,help her.

Question 58

In a prisoner's dilemma,two prisoners have agreed with each other that they will not confess.Now each of them is offered a deal: "If you confess,we will punish your friend harshly but let you off easy." The probability that they will both cooperate with each other (instead of confessing)is increased if they

A)are in constant communication with each other.
B)have promised each other not to confess.
C)both have a high self-monitoring personality.
D)realize that they both go to prison if both confess.

Question 59

In the Prisoner's Dilemma,people often make a self-defeating decision because

A)the choices offered to one person are much more generous than those offered to another person.
B)what seems personally beneficial to each person is harmful to the group.
C)the choices and their probable consequences are not explained until after the person chooses.
D)the choices and their probable consequences are stated in a complex,confusing way.

Question 60

In the prisoner's dilemma,what is done to encourage accused people to confess?

A)They are offered a lower penalty if they confess.
B)They are threatened with shocks or whippings if they do not confess.
C)The prosecutor makes friends with the accused people.
D)They are shown fake films that seem to show them committing the crime.

Question 61

The "primacy effect" refers to the fact that:

A)the first information we learn about someone influences us more than later information.
B)what people do is more important than what they say when you are forming your first impression.
C)what people say is more important than what they do when you are forming your first impression.
D)unusual information about someone is harder to remember than expected information.

Question 62

Someone is asked to scream and clap as loud as she can.If she is alone she screams louder than if she is screaming as part of a group of people who are all screaming as loud as they can.This is an example of what psychologists call

A)diffusion of responsibility.
B)conformity.
C)social loafing.
D)group polarization.

Question 63

You are asked to "name all the uses you can think of for a brick," writing each one on a card.If you are working by yourself you will probably come up with far more responses than if you are working as part of a group.This is most clearly an example of what psychologists call

A)diffusion of responsibility.
B)conformity.
C)group polarization.
D)social loafing.

Question 64

The major reason that first impressions are so influential is that

A)they alter our interpretation of later experiences.
B)they are stored in deeper layers of the brain.
C)emotional behaviors are less concealed during first encounters.
D)emotional behaviors are more concealed during first encounters.

Question 65

Social loafing generally does NOT occur

A)when people know that their individual contribution can be evaluated.
B)when there are more than 10 people in the group.
C)when all of the group members are the same sex.
D)when there are both men and women in the group.

Question 66

One explanation for bystander apathy is that you assume that the other people are not acting because they know something you don't know.This is called

A)diffusion of responsibility.
B)pluralistic ignorance.
C)social loafing.
D)herd mentality.

Question 67

Expectations that change one's own behavior in such a way as to increase the probability of the predicted event are known as

A)implicit associations.
B)self-handicapping tendencies.
C)self-fulfilling prophecies.
D)aversive attributions.

Question 68

According to the primacy effect in impression formation,you will be more influenced by?

A)ordinary information than by unusual information.
B)physical characteristics than by nonverbal behaviors.
C)information received first,rather than that received later.
D)peripheral rather than central traits.

Question 69

The process by which we gather and remember information about others and make inferences based on that information is termed

A)information processing.
B)community psychology.
C)cultural knowledge.
D)social perception and cognition.

Question 70

One important reason why people sometimes fail to help a person in distress is

A)group polarization.
B)the difference between high self-monitors and low self-monitors.
C)cognitive dissonance.
D)diffusion of responsibility.

Question 71

You are sitting in your psychology class,and you do not understand what the professor is saying.You would like to ask a question,but as you look around the room,you see others quietly taking notes,and it looks like they understand.Nobody is asking questions,so you don't either.As it turns out,the majority of the students are thinking just as you are,so nobody asks any questions.This situation illustrates the concept of

A)the diffusion of responsibility.
B)pluralistic ignorance.
C)social loafing.
D)group polarization.

Question 72

The presence of many other people will decrease the probability that you will

A)help a person in distress.
B)be influenced by group polarization.
C)make internal attributions.
D)make external attributions.

Question 73

One person is most likely to come to the aid of a second person if the first person

A)is in a hurry.
B)is alone.
C)perceives much ambiguity in the situation.
D)is in a crowd.

Question 74

One of the main reasons why people frequently fail to help a person in distress is

A)diffusion of responsibility.
B)cognitive dissonance.
C)the fundamental attribution error.
D)the actor-observer effect.

Question 75

Two people tell you something about Pete,whom you have not met yourself.One of those statements is favorable;the other is unfavorable.Which statement will probably have a greater influence on your impression of Pete?

A)the one you hear first
B)the one you hear second
C)the more favorable statement
D)the one that is stated in fewer words

Question 76

Our first impression of somebody may influence the way we treat that person and they,in turn,may react in accordance with the way they are being treated.This can lead to what is termed a

A)reaction formation.
B)self-fulfilling prophecy.
C)repression of emotions.
D)mutually beneficial interchange.

Question 77

Social loafing refers to people's tendency to

A)group other people together based on social status.
B)put less effort into relationships that have been ongoing than into new relationships.
C)work less hard when sharing the work with other people than when working alone.
D)work less hard when you have an audience than when you are alone.

Question 78

Suppose Maria is asked to write down all the ways she can think of to use a brick.She is to write each answer on a card and toss her cards in with those of several partners,and the group with the most uses will be declared the winner.Maria is likely to loaf on the job if

A)she sees her partners working hard.
B)she believes her partners will do the task poorly.
C)she is told that each person's contributions will be announced separately.
D)she believes the others are writing uses for some other object,not a brick.

Question 79

Social loafing generally does NOT occur:

A)with team sports.
B)when there are more than 10 people in the group.
C)when all of the group members are the same sex.
D)when there are both men and women in the group.

Question 80

Which of the following would decrease social loafing?

A)increase the size of the group
B)make each individual's contribution to the group effort anonymous
C)decrease the importance of the task being worked on by the group
D)convince group members that their contribution to the success of the project is unique