Deck 6: Social Influence

Question 1

Social facilitation refers to:

A) doing what you have been ordered to do
B) changing your behaviour or opinion to become similar to that of others
C) increasing the level of an activity due to the presence of another person
D) yielding to a request by another person
E) engaging in cooperative efforts to improve your social environment

Answer 1

C

Question 2

You begin to write your exam faster having noticed that the student to your left has asked for extra paper. This is an example of:

A) social reinforcement
B) conformity
C) compliance
D) coaction effects
E) evaluation apprehension

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to Allport's (1924) conclusion after studying social facilitation:

A) coaction effects result in inferior performance
B) overt responses are facilitated in the presence of a coworker
C) thinking is facilitated in the presence of coworkers
D) thinking is hampered in the presence of coworkers
E) both b and d

Answer 3

E

Question 4

When an individual is influenced by the presence of a person who is participating in the same event, the phenomenon is termed:

A) social facilitation
B) the audience effect
C) the coaction effect
D) social inhibition
E) evaluation apprehension

Question 5

In Triplett's study of the effect of the presence of others on winding fishing reels:

A) some participants were stimulated positively
B) some participants were adversely affected
C) girls were more likely than boys to be positively influenced
D) all of the above
E) a and c

Question 6

According to Zajonc, the presence of another person:

A) increases arousal
B) may facilitate behaviour
C) may interfere with ongoing behaviour
D) all of the above
E) a and b

Question 7

According to Zajonc, the effects of an audience on behaviour are a result of:

A) an increase in the level of arousal, which enhances general reactivity
B) an innate drive based on evaluation apprehension
C) a learned drive based on evaluation apprehension
D) a learned drive based on increased environmental stimulation
E) an innate drive based on increased environmental stimulation

Question 8

According to Zajonc, the arousal induced by the presence of an audience has the following effects on learning a new behaviour:

A) increases the strength with which the correct response is emitted
B) decreases the strength with which the incorrect responses are emitted
C) increases the strength with which the incorrect responses are emitted
D) a and c
E) a and b

Question 9

What underlying process did Cottrell suggest is responsible for the influence of an audience on behaviour?

A) evaluation apprehension
B) arousal
C) affective responses
D) an innate drive
E) habituation

Question 10

What is the basic premise of the distraction-conflict theory of the arousal produced by audience and coaction effects?

A) conflict in paying attention to comparing one's performance with that of a coactor
B) distraction produced by innate drives
C) distraction produced by a biological response to the presence of others
D) conflict produced by a distracting audience
E) distraction produced by conflict with an audience

Question 11

Studies investigating the role of evaluation apprehension in social facilitation have found that on the whole:

A) evaluation apprehension is necessary for social facilitation to occur
B) evaluation apprehension is neither necessary nor sufficient for social apprehension to occur
C) evaluation apprehension only enhances performance
D) social facilitation can take place in the absence of evaluation apprehension
E) none of the above

Question 12

According to research by Herman et al. (2003), what is the effect on eating of an audience?

A) when people eat in a group, they tend to eat more
B) when in the presence of a model who eats a lot, they eat more
C) when in the presence of someone who they believe is evaluating them, they eat less
D) when in the presence of a model who eats less, they also eat less
E) all of the above

Question 13

The view that an individual's arousal is caused by a division of attention between the task and the audience is known as:

A) evaluation apprehension
B) selective attention theory
C) distraction-conflict theory
D) information overload
E) arousal-attention theory

Question 14

According to research findings, which of the following may play a role in coaction effects?

A) culture
B) rivalry
C) knowledge of results
D) eye contact
E) all of the above

Question 15

Which of the following has/have been offered as explanation(s) for social facilitation?

A) mere presence of others
B) evaluation apprehension
C) increased self-awareness
D) attentional conflict
E) all of the above

Question 16

The distraction-conflict theory states that:

A) an individual is aroused by the presence of others because of the conflict involved in attending to the task at hand while being distracted by the audience or coactors
B) an individual is distracted by the need to outperform other coactors in the task
C) an individual's performance on a simple task is a function of environmental distractions and the individual's motivation to perform well
D) an individual's performance on a task is influenced by the presence of others because of sensory overload
E) an individual is distracted by a coactor, and this leads to interpersonal conflict which affects the individual's performance of a task

Question 17

Which of the following is a non-arousal theory of social facilitation?

A) evaluation apprehension
B) distraction-conflict theory
C) self-presentation
D) mere presence
E) none of the above

Question 18

Which of the following is a theory of social facilitation?

A) self-awareness
B) self-presentation
C) evaluation apprehension
D) distraction-conflict theory
E) all of the above

Question 19

The phenomenon of decreased effort by individuals working with others in a group is known as:

A) social inhibition
B) social loafing
C) affective responses
D) evaluation apprehension
E) audience effect

Question 20

If you see someone throw a brick through a window and immediately is arrested by the police nearby, you are less likely to throw a second brick. What theory best explains this?

A) disinhibition in social modeling
B) inhibition in social modeling
C) observational learning
D) distraction-conflict
E) cognitive dissonance

Question 21

Research on social loafing suggests that it is more likely to occur in __________ than in __________.

A) a basketball game, a football match
B) a 400-metre dash, a rowing contest
C) a baseball game, a swim meet
D) a squash game, a volleyball game
E) a tug-of-war, a relay race

Question 22

One of the most likely causes of social loafing, as suggested in the text is:

A) inadequate coordination
B) the 'free rider' effect
C) difficulty of identifying individual outputs for evaluation
D) lack of arousal
E) learned helplessness

Question 23

Which of the following best illustrates reciprocal determinism in social learning?

A) copying the leap of a ballet dancer
B) throwing a brick through a window after observing someone doing the same thing
C) choosing to join a biker gang and being influenced by models in the gang
D) dressing like someone in your peer group
E) performing better on a team of excellent players

Question 24

Which of the following does not accurately describe the autokinetic effect?

A) the illusion that a moving light in a dark room appears stationary
B) the fact that people's estimates of illusory movements are very consistent
C) the fact that people in a moving car consistently underestimate distances
D) the fact that people in a stationary car appear to underestimate the distances of moving lights
E) all of the above

Question 25

__________ occurs when an individual, under no direct pressure to do so, modifies his or her beliefs or behaviours so that they are similar to those of other individuals.

A) Compliance
B) Obedience
C) Conformity
D) Acceptance
E) Interaction

Question 26

Neuroscience research shows that we have mirror neuron system in our brains. What does this system do?

A) fires when we observe ourselves, as in a mirror
B) fires when we observe someone else perform an activity that we intend to perform
C) fires to inhibit acting where the consequences are observed to be negative
D) fires when we reciprocate an environmental influences
E) fires when we have seven years of bad luck

Question 27

In Sherif's (1936) research on the autokinetic effect, he found that:

A) participants' estimates of light movement become increasingly similar
B) no participants conformed
C) participants' estimates of light movement diverged from each other
D) confederates' judgments under this ambiguous condition had no effect on the participants
E) none of the above

Question 28

The difference between the Sherif autokinetic research and the Asch line-comparison studies of conformity is that in Sherif's technique:

A) the situation is more concrete
B) participants are merely aware of others' judgments and the influence is mutual
C) the norms are already well established
D) it is more difficult for participants to understand
E) there is direct pressure on the participants to modify their behaviour

Question 29

In Asch's (1951) study of 'perceptual' judgment involving the length of lines, naive participants made at least one error __________ of the time.

A) 28 per cent
B) 37 per cent
C) 76 per cent
D) 95 per cent
E) 86 per cent

Question 30

The autokinetic effect represents an example of the ________ of conformity.

A) informational influence
B) normative influence
C) compliance influence
D) mirror neuron
E) none of the above

Question 31

Sherif proposed a model of conformity in which individuals arrive at a common form of behaviour without any direct pressure. This 'standard' behaviour is called:

A) implicit conformity
B) the bandwagon effect
C) a social norm
D) explicit conformity
E) none of the above

Question 32

The phenomenon that individuals tend to agree with the perceived opinion of the majority is know as:

A) the social norm
B) the bandwagon effect
C) explicit conformity
D) the autokinetic effect
E) implicit conformity

Question 33

Soloman Asch is famous for his experiments on:

A) compliance
B) obedience
C) coaction
D) conformity
E) social psychology

Question 34

In their meta-analysis of Asch-type research in 17 nations, Bond and Smith (1996) found:

A) people in collectivist cultures conformed more
B) people in individualist cultures conformed more
C) people in most cultures conformed equally
D) people in society conformed more
E) people conformed only with curved lines

Question 35

Which of the following is not listed in the text as a factor that might influence the results obtained from the Asch-type studies?

A) the historical context in which the research takes place
B) the cultural context in which the research takes place
C) the social and political climate at the time of research
D) the age of the participants
E) the nature of response patterns such as written versus oral

Question 36

The difference between compliance and conformity is that:

A) conformity is an aspect of social influence while compliance is an aspect of obedience
B) conformity is induced only under experimental conditions whereas compliance is more of a real life phenomenon
C) with conformity, individuals are influenced through a direct request whereas with compliance, influence is not directly sought
D) in compliance a person goes along with a request whereas in conformity, a person goes along with other people even though no direct request has been made
E) there is no difference, conformity is just another term for compliance

Question 37

What is meant by the 'bandwagon effect'?

A) the phenomenon whereby minorities become majorities
B) the phenomenon whereby a behaviour or opinion that everyone shares loses status because of its commonality
C) the phenomenon that individuals tend to agree with the perceived opinion of the majority
D) the phenomenon that people attempt to maintain their individuality by taking a stand on issues that they perceive to be different from that of the majority of people
E) the hearing impairment that occurs if a parade passes too closely to your living room

Question 38

Julia has just seen the movie Twelve Years a Slave with some friends. After leaving the theatre, she enthusiastically says that it's the best movie he's seen this year. Her friends counter with a lot of criticism of the acting, the sets, and the plot itself. Julia then agrees that, on second thought, it wasn't really such a good movie after all. Her behaviour demonstrates:

A) normative social influence
B) informational social influence
C) conflicting social norms
D) mirror neuron system
E) all of the above

Question 39

Some individuals are given more leeway to deviate than others due to their past contributions to the effectiveness of the group. This phenomenon is ascribed to:

A) the flexibility of group functioning
B) the relativity of social norms
C) idiosyncrasy credits earned by these members
D) divergent actions of most groups
E) social comparison within the group

Question 40

__________ is based on a person's desire to be correct.

A) Direct influence
B) Indirect influence
C) Nominal influence
D) Informational social influence
E) Minority influence

Question 41

Who are most likely to conform with opinions/behaviours of the majority?

A) individuals low in self-esteem
B) individuals of low status
C) individuals in highly cohesive groups
D) individuals with no supporters in the group
E) all of the above

Question 42

Social validation refers to:

A) a basic drive to evaluate our abilities and opinions
B) a need to have others agree with us
C) the ability to detect deception
D) both a and b
E) none of the above

Question 43

Studies investigating the effect of group size have shown that generally:

A) conformity occurs even when one person voices a discrepant opinion
B) the greater the number of those voicing discrepant opinions the more the conformity
C) majorities larger than 15 have considerable impact
D) the pressure to conform continues to accumulate as the size of the group increases
E) the pressure to conform continues to accumulate as the size of the group increases up to three to six people, beyond which no additional impact is noticed

Question 44

Who are the least likely to conform with opinions/behaviours of the majority?

A) individuals with low self-esteem
B) individuals in non-cohesive groups
C) individuals of low status
D) individuals with no supporters in the group
E) individuals in ambiguous situations

Question 45

Increasing the size of the group from __________ to __________ is likely to produce the greatest increase in conformity.

A) 500 to 1000
B) 50 to 100
C) 2 to 6
D) 6 to 15
E) 20 to 40

Question 46

People are more influenced by the expected negative consequences of non-conformity than by the expected positive consequences of conformity. Which theory best explains this hypothesis?

A) normative regulation
B) informational expectancies
C) idiosyncrasy credit
D) mirror neuron
E) deviance regulation

Question 47

You are in charge of designing a program to get people to cover their mouths when they cough. According to deviance regulation theory, you would be most successful by stressing the irresponsibility of people who fail to cover up when:

A) the norms are not to cover up
B) the norms state that one should cover up
C) the norms stress that it is deviant to put your hand over your mouth
D) the norms stress the common good in all cases
E) none of the above

Question 48

According to Latané's social impact theory, there are several factors that determine when a person will be influenced by others. They include:

A) the strength or importance of the influence
B) the immediacy of the influence
C) the number of people in the group who try to influence you
D) all of the above
E) b and c, not a

Question 49

Which of the following is not listed in the text as one of the reasons why people conform?

A) individuals use the judgment of the majority to answer social questions not amenable to empirical verification
B) groups tend to be intolerant of non-conformists
C) individuals use the group to attain selfish goals
D) many situations are ambiguous and individuals allow the group to structure and define these situations for them
E) conformity may be used as an impression management tactic

Question 50

Stallen et al (2012) suggest, on the basis of their research that a certain brain chemical may facilitate conforming behavior. Which of the following is that chemical?

A) dopamine
B) serotonin
C) mirror neuron
D) oxytocin
E) placebo

Question 51

According to the dual processing model of conformity, there are two motivations to conform. They are:

A) positive and negative
B) social norms and culture
C) normative and informational
D) normative and deviant
E) conformity and compliance

Question 52

When Perrin and Spencer (1981) placed their participants in an Asch-type situation, very few of them conformed. In contrast with Asch's participants in the USA, these people did not conform because they did not want to look 'weak, ridiculous, stupid'. Where did these participants live?

A) Canada
B) Netherlands
C) Chile
D) United Kingdom
E) Australia

Question 53

According to the text, what is most critical for the opinion of the minority to influence the majority?

A) the minority must be consistent in its view
B) this consistency cannot to be carried to extremes
C) minority must contain at least one third of the group members
D) the minority must consist of well-liked individuals
E) both a and b

Question 54

Minority influences are more likely to be effective if the minority is:

A) forceful
B) similar to the majority
C) not seen to have a vested interest in the views they are propagating
D) consistent
E) emotionally appealing

Question 55

Research on the manner in which a minority presents its views indicates that the minority is most effective if it is:

A) consistent on major points
B) flexible rather than rigid
C) consistent on major and minor points
D) rigid and dogmatic
E) a and b

Question 56

Research has shown that minority opinion that is stated with consistency and confidence will produce:

A) convergent thinking
B) unstable decisions
C) superficial thinking
D) divergent thinking
E) excessively simplistic decisions

Question 57

In the experiment by Buehler and Griffin (1994) where participants were required to decide whether the white police officer or a black teenager driving a stolen car were responsible for the officer shooting the teenager,:

A) participants' interpretations of the roles of the victims and the police became less extreme as they reconsidered the evidence
B) participants made the same decision they thought other group members were making
C) the researcher concluded that participants reconstructed the facts to support their decisions
D) all of the above
E) b and c

Question 58

There is evidence that majority influence most often leads to changes in:

A) attitudes
B) affect
C) overt behaviour
D) private opinion
E) all of the above

Question 59

With regard to compliance, a person:

A) follows the directive of an authority
B) goes along with a request
C) changes the attitudes, feelings or actions of another person
D) goes along with other people when no direct request is made
E) changes behaviour in line with others just because everyone else is doing it

Question 60

The foot-in-the-door technique involves:

A) obeying an authority only to be punished later
B) a sting operation
C) a big request followed by a smaller one
D) a small request followed by a bigger request
E) the belief that minorities should not have privacy

Question 61

Reciprocal concessions have been suggested to account for the success of the __________ technique.

A) low-ball
B) door-in-the-face
C) foot-in-the-door
D) prior commitment
E) guilt-induced

Question 62

Patricia wants her brother Mike to look after her children for a weekend. First she asks him if he will take them up to his cottage when he goes there for two weeks in August. When he refuses, she asks if he will look after them for a weekend in August instead, and he agrees to do so. This is an example of:

A) the foot-in-the-door technique
B) the low-ball technique
C) the door-in-the-face technique
D) the that's-not-all technique
E) the indirect influence technique

Question 63

In the door-in-the-face technique:

A) an individual who agrees to carry out a small request is subsequently asked to carry out a larger request
B) an individual is asked to comply with an ostensibly simple request after which an additional aspect of the request is revealed
C) the first request made to an individual is so extreme that they are likely to refuse to comply, after which the target request is made
D) an individual is made to feel indebted in some way to the person making the request thereby increasing their likelihood of complying
E) the person interested in inducing compliance goes from door-to-door in the effort to achieve this aim

Question 64

The results of the Freedman and Fraser (1966) study support the effectiveness of:

A) the low-ball technique
B) generating guilt
C) the foot-in-the-door technique
D) obedient aggression
E) the that's-not-all technique

Question 65

The door-in-the-face technique assumes that:

A) people are more likely to comply with a large request if they have already complied with a smaller one
B) people are more likely to comply with a target request if they have already refused to comply with a larger request
C) once having agreed to an action, people are likely to follow through with this action even when the costs of the action have increased
D) people are more likely to comply with a request if they are made to feel guilty
E) people are more likely to comply with an action if the benefits of the action are increased before the person is allowed to respond to the original offer

Question 66

Cialdini and his colleagues (1975) conducted a number of experiments in which compliance with a target request was increased by preceding this request with an extreme request that all participants were expected to refuse. What is this technique?

A) door-in-the-face technique
B) low-ball technique
C) guilt-induced technique
D) foot-in-the-door technique
E) prior commitment technique

Question 67

What explanation(s) have been suggested for the success of the door-in-the-face technique for inducing compliance?

A) reciprocal concessions
B) self-perception
C) self-presentation
D) a and c
E) all of the above

Question 68

The explanation suggested for the success of the low-ball technique for inducing compliance is:

A) commitment
B) self-presentation
C) reciprocal concessions
D) self-perception
E) none of the above

Question 69

Self-presentation norms and the norm of reciprocity have been used to explain the effectiveness of the __________ technique.

A) door-in-the-face
B) that's-not-all
C) foot-in-the-door
D) low-ball
E) reciprocal concessions

Question 70

Inducing compliance by increasing the benefits of the action before a person is allowed to respond is referred to as:

A) the low-ball technique
B) the door-in-the-face technique
C) the that's-not-all technique
D) the foot-in-the-door technique
E) the commitment technique

Question 71

The that's-not-all technique of inducing compliance has been explained by Burger (1986) as a result of:

A) self-presentation norms
B) norms of reciprocity
C) effects of differing anchoring points in attributional judgments
D) a and b
E) b and c

Question 72

A male confederate asks female shoppers to take a picture of him with his camera. When they try, the camera doesn't work. Some participants are made to feel it was their fault, others were assured that they are not to blame. Shortly after, a second confederate appears with a bag of groceries which bursts, and the contents spill out. Who are more likely to help?

A) men
B) women
C) those who feel to blame about the faulty camera
D) those assured that they are not to blame for the faulty camera
E) nobody, the second confederate is on his own

Question 73

What is the Reid technique about?

A) interrogation to ferret out the truth
B) interrogation to induce a person to confess falsely
C) an interrogation technique of mild torture to induce a confession
D) a method of compliance to induce helping
E) none of the above

Question 74

In the Milgram obedience experiment in which participants acted as 'teachers' who delivered electric shocks to 'learners', why did the participants administer the shocks?

A) they misunderstood their instructions
B) the 'learner' had insulted them
C) the experimenter had instructed them to
D) they were naturally highly aggressive
E) both a and b

Question 75

In the classic Milgram (1963) study on obedience to an authority figure the real participant was:

A) always the learner
B) always the teacher
C) the one who received shocks
D) either the teacher or the learner
E) a confederate informed about the research and who then administered the shocks

Question 76

In Milgram's classic experiments on obedience, forty psychiatrists were asked to predict how far the participants would go. The psychiatrists predicted that:

A) only 10 per cent of participants would administer the highest shock
B) only 4 per cent of the participants would administer the highest shock
C) most participants would not go beyond 150 volts
D) only 4 per cent would reach 300 volts
E) both c and d

Question 77

People are less likely to follow destructive orders:

A) the closer they are to the victim
B) when they are told that they are responsible for their actions
C) if the person giving the orders is not physically present
D) both a and b
E) all of the above

Question 78

In most research on obedience:

A) ethical issues have not been considered by the researchers
B) participants typically are not asked to do anything contrary to their ethical standards
C) an authority figure asks someone to do something harmful to another person
D) researchers are interested primarily in whether group pressure can make participants do something they usually would not do
E) researchers are interested primarily in the personality traits of those who obey commands resulting in harmful behaviour

Question 79

In one of Milgram's experiments, in which the subject was required to hold the victim's hand on the shock plate, what percentage of participants were willing to administer the shocks?

A) 30 per cent
B) 5 per cent
C) 20 per cent
D) 15 per cent
E) 62 per cent

Question 80

What factor(s) increased the number of participants in Milgram's obedience research who were willing to administer dangerous shocks to a victim?

A) having the experimenter physically absent from the laboratory
B) increasing the physical distance between the 'learner' and the 'teacher'
C) making the authority figure responsible for the participants' actions
D) both a and b
E) both b and c