Deck 10: Personal Control Beliefs

Question 1

The cognitive foundation underlying personal empowerment is:
(a)high enculturation.
(b)high reactance.
(c)high self-efficacy.
(d)high self-esteem.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Self-efficacy is not the same as ability.In what way does self-efficacy predict coping and performance above and beyond how one's ability predicts coping and performance?
(a)Circumstances are always ambiguous and unpredictable and hence require coping.
(b)Emotions are always ambiguous and unpredictable and hence require suppressing.
(c)Self-efficacy is a more important predictor of task performance than is ability.
(d)Self-efficacy predicts actual performance, whereas ability predicts only potential performance.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Based on the text, the opposite of self-efficacy is:
(a)apathy.
(b)doubt.
(c)helplessness.
(d)low self-esteem.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

__can be understood as the psychological state that results when an individual expects that life's outcomes are uncontrollable.
(a)Attribution
(b)Learned helplessness
(c)Self-efficacy
(d)Self-regulation

Question 5

When one student who doubts his computer skills watches another student cope very well with the demands of a computer, the first student's efficacy expectation rises. The student's increased efficacy expectation was due to the influence of:
(a)outcome feedback.
(b)personal behavior history.
(c)social contagion.
(d)vicarious experience.

Question 6

A strong sense of efficacy allows a performer to remain highly ___, even in the face of situational stress and problem-solving dead-ends.
(a)outcome-focused
(b)reactance-focused
(c)self-conscious
(d)task-focused

Question 7

An ___expectation is a person's estimate of how likely it is that he or she can act in a particular way; whereas an ___expectation is a person's estimate of what will happen once the person carries out that behavior.
(a)antecedent; effort
(b)efficacy; outcome
(c)effort; antecedent
(d)outcome; efficacy

Question 8

As one person watches a peer perform incompetently and verbalize distress, the observer comes to believe, "If she can't do it, what makes me think I can?"
The observer's self-efficacy belief has been affected by:
(a)personal behavior history.
(b)physiological state.
(c)verbal persuasion.
(d) vicarious experience.

Question 9

You might hear a person who is experiencing learned helplessness saying each of the following except:
(a)"I feel low; depressed."
(b)"I failed, but it wasn't my fault."
(c)"No matter why I tried, nothing seemed to work."
(d)"Why try?"

Question 10

Which of the following relations represent a person's efficacy expectations?

A)Action $\rightarrow$ Control
B)Action $\rightarrow$ Outcomes
C)Self $\rightarrow$ Action
D)Self $\rightarrow$ Control

Question 11

Strong self-efficacy beliefs are associated with all of the following except:
(a)altering attributions from external to internal.
(b)allowing problem solving to remain task-focused and thinking to remain efficient rather than erratic.
(c)predicting how much effort a performer exerts in the face of adversity.
(d)quieting doubt during failure or rejection.

Question 12

Helplessness is:
(a)caused by the failure to construct pre-performance implementation intentions.
(b)dependent on self-efficacy.
(c)innate.
(d)learned.

Question 13

The psychological meaning of failure for a mastery-oriented individual is:
(a)"I am incompetent."
(b)"I guess I'm not very good at this particular task."
(c)"I should be able to succeed, but this task is just too hard for me to figure out."
(d)"The more I fail, the harder I need to try."

Question 14

"Failure as a challenge" means that the meaning of failure is a(n):
(a)attributional phenomenon that raises an energizing reactance response.
(b)danger signal to our well-being that needs to be taken seriously.
(c)opportunity for learning and personal growth.
(d)second chance to prove one's otherwise uncertain ability level.

Question 15

The antecedent that most strongly determines the strength of a person's efficacy expectation is:
(a)personal behavior history.
(b)verbal persuasion.
(c)vicarious experience.
(d)physiological state.

Question 16

Which of the following quotations best represents an outcome expectation?
(a)"Do it."
(b) "I can do it."
(c)"I have what it takes to do this."
(d)"What I do will work."

Question 17

The motivation to exercise personal control in one's life is predicated on the person's:
(a)belief that positive outcomes can be achieved even in uncontrollable situations.
(b)belief that he or she has the personal capacity to produce favorable results.
(c)high self-esteem.
(d)passivity in low-control situations but activity in high-control situations.

Question 18

In the second phase of the Seligman and Maier (1967) experiment with dogs in the shuttle box, dogs in the ___condition(s) during phase 1 of the experiment were able to learn how to terminate the shock.
(a)aversive shock
(b)escapable shock
(c)inescapable shock
(d)high shock

Question 19

The following question represents which motivational construct: "If things start to go wrong during my performance, do I have the resources within me to cope successfully and turn things around for the better?
(a)attributional style
(b)learned helplessness
(c)reactance
(d)self-efficacy

Question 20

For a person with little self-efficacy and much self-doubt, task difficulties and setbacks usually open the door to the experience of:
(a)a mix between confusion and increased resolve that makes performance ambivalent.
(b)confusion and anxiety that spiral performance toward disaster.
(c)increased determination to do well during a second encounter with the task.
(d)resolve to improve performance or do better the next time.

Question 21

In learned helplessness experiments with human beings, the verbalization of "so why try" is the prototypical expression of the ___deficit.
(a)affective
(b)cognitive
(c)emotional
(d)motivational

Question 22

A ____refers to a hardy, resistant portrayal of the self during encounters with failure.
(a)fundamental attribution style
(b)fundamental motivational orientation
(c)mastery motivational orientation
(d)reactance motivational orientation

Question 23

A(n) _____is the personal tendency to explain why bad events happen to the self by using attributions that are unstable and controllable.
(a)depression-prone explanatory style
(b)helpless explanatory style
(c)optimistic explanatory style
(d)pessimistic explanatory style

Question 24

During failure feedback, mastery-oriented individuals generally focus on:
(a)their bad luck.
(b)how much they would benefit from assistance, such as coaching or social support.
(c)how they can remedy the failure.
(d)their low ability.

Question 25

Pessimistic explanatory style has been linked to:
(a)academic success.
(b)victory in presidential elections.
(c)acute social judgment.
(d)academic failure.

Question 26

The illusion of control is an attributional phenomenon that, over time, fosters:
(a)a pessimistic explanatory style.
(b)an optimistic explanatory style.
(c)depression.
(d)learned helplessness.

Question 27

In the face of an uncontrollable event, a person who copes actively and expresses assertive emotions such as frustration and anger is showing a ___effect to that event.
(a)displacement
(b)helpless
(c)hopeless, but not helpless
(d)reactance

Question 28

In their studies in which participants judged how much control they had in a low-control situation, Alloy and Abramson concluded that:
(a)depressed individuals made accurate judgments of control while nondepressed individuals overestimated their control.
(b)depressed individuals overestimated their control while nondepressed individuals made accurate judgments of control.
(c)depressed individuals underestimated their control while nondepressed individuals made accurate judgments about their control.
(d)both depressed and nondepressed individuals made accurate judgments about their control.

Question 29

_refers to the actual, objective relationship between a person's behavior and the environment's outcomes.
(a)Behavior
(b)Cognition
(c)Contingency
(d)Helplessness

Question 30

Value is defined as:
(a)a mental state of the future.
(b)extent of effort applied to the task.
(c) the gradient for success.
(d)The perceived attractiveness of a task.

Question 31

Expectancy best predicts ________, while value best predicts ________.
(a)mastery motivation, self-efficacy
(b)self-efficacy, mastery motivation
(c)choices, performance
(d)performance, choices

Question 32

In his study with undergraduates solving anagrams, Mikulincer (1988) found that an exposure to one unsolvable anagram produced a(n) ___effect, while exposure to four unsolvable problems produced a(n) ___effect.
(a)helpless; reactance
(b)immediate helplessness; delayed helplessness
(c)immediate reactance; delayed reactance
(d)reactance; helpless

Question 33

Who is the most susceptible to the illusion of control phenomenon?
(a)depressed individuals in situations that allow high or very high actual control
(b)depressed individuals in situations that allow little or no actual control
(c)nondepressed individuals in situations that allow high or very high actual control
(d)nondepressed individuals in situations that allow little or no actual control

Question 34

Define an efficacy expectation.Provide one example of an efficacy expectation.

Question 35

Identify the differences between efficacy expectations and outcome expectations.

Question 36

In the learned helplessness experiments with human beings as subjects, what stimulus is typically used to deliver the aversive, traumatic event?
(a)cold water
(b)electric shock
(c)hot room temperature
(d)noise

Question 37

Define an outcome expectation.Provide one example of an outcome expectation.

Question 38

The differential reaction to failure shown by a mastery-oriented versus a helpless-oriented individual is most pronounced and obvious during tasks that are:
(a)challenging, where success is not guaranteed
(b)easy
(c)problems with one clear right answer
(d)problems that are open-ended and do not have a clear single right answer

Question 39

According to Dweck and Repucci (1973), helpless-oriented children tend to quit in the face of failure because they tend to make ___attributions to explain their failures.
(a)high-ability
(b)low-ability
(c)high-effort
(d)low-effort

Question 40

After how many trials of failure on a new task will a person's active, effortful coping be the greatest?
(a)0 failures
(b)1 failure
(c)4 failures
(d)8 or more failures

Question 41

Attribution research shows that people do not always develop helplessness after learning that there is little they can do about an uncontrollable event.Use attribution theory to explain when people do versus do not develop helplessness in the face of an uncontrollable event.

Question 42

Value interventions increased perceived task value, but only for some people.
Value interventions increase value for people with initially low or weak expectations for success on that task or activity.Explain why value interventions work only conditionally for some but not for all.

Question 43

Imagine trying to promote personal empowerment in an athlete.Use self-efficacy theory to provide two specific ways/strategies to promote personal empowerment in the athlete.

Question 44

Learned helplessness theory relies on the components of contingency, cognition, and behavior to explain the motivational dynamics underlying helplessness.Explain what these three components mean and provide an illustrative example of each.

Question 45

What causes learned helplessness?
Identify the three deficits that typically accompany the experience of helplessness?

Question 46

For a person who was so plagued by doubt during social interaction that he avoided social interactions, what therapy tactics would self-efficacy research recommend to boost his self-efficacy?

Question 47

Sometimes people react to an uncontrollable life event with apathy and listlessness (i.e., learned helplessness); other times people react to the same uncontrollable event with assertiveness and hostility (i.e., reactance).Identify and discuss the critical variable that predicts whether people react with helplessness or reactance.

Question 48

Explain the important role that self-efficacy beliefs play in the choices we make and the persistence we show on difficult tasks.

Question 49

Discuss the differences between depressed and non-depressed individuals in estimating how much control they have over a situation.

Question 50

What is explanatory style? Explain why a pessimistic explanatory style negatively affects physical health and academic performance.

Question 51

According to reactance theory, why do people do precisely the opposite of what they are told to do?

Question 52

Describe what researchers do during the conduct of a "value intervention" to promote
high value in a task.

Question 53

A baseball player is in a slump.He explains his recent failures in a way that is consistent with a pessimistic explanatory style.Provide an example of what the coach might say to help reverse the helplessness.

Question 54

Outline what an expert model would do step-by-step in implementing a mastery-modeling program as a means of empowering anxious novices to become confident masters of a particular task.

Question 55

Outline the two-phase experimental procedure for a typical learned helplessness experiment.