Deck 20: Social Cognition

Question 1

According to social psychologists, each person's subjective awareness of, and ideas about, his or her own individual nature, characteristics, and very existence, is called

A) the ego
B) the self
C) consciousness
D) social awareness

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The human tendency to make judgment errors that are in favour of your own self is called the

A) fundamental attribution error
B) confidence bias
C) self-serving bias
D) social comparison error

Answer 2

C

Question 3

All of the following are aspects of the self-serving bias, EXCEPT:

A) overestimating your own contributions
B) seeing yourself as better than average
C) attributing your failures to your own efforts
D) attributing your bad deeds to circumstances or bad luck

Answer 3

C

Question 4

These psychological defence mechanisms lead people to experience more positive moods and feelings of well-being, to persist in their efforts to a greater extent, and to effectively achieve goals.

A) self-serving biases
B) fundamental attribution errors
C) self-serving attitudes
D) positive illusions

Question 5

All of the following are examples of positive illusions described by Taylor and Brown, EXCEPT:

A) People's ratings of their own personalities are more positive than the evaluations of unbiased raters who observe them interacting with others.
B) People will explain events in terms of their own skill that could not possibly be due to skill.
C) People tend to view the future with unrealistic optimism.
D) People tend to view the failures of others as caused by internal forces.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT a hypothesized motive for social comparison?

A) self-evaluation
B) self-defence
C) self-loathing
D) self-enhancement

Question 7

The anxiety we perceive when we become aware of the conflict between our behaviour and our attitudes is called

A) cognitive dissonance
B) self-serving bias
C) attribution syndrome
D) fundamental attribution anxiety

Question 8

An evaluative response to some person, idea, object, or event, or a feeling about one of those things, is called a(n)

A) attitude
B) behaviour
C) belief
D) attribution

Question 9

This type of cognitive experience indicates what we think is true or untrue in the world.

A) attitude
B) behaviour
C) belief
D) attribution

Question 10

An attitude is more likely to predict your behaviour if

A) the attitude is in contrast with your beliefs
B) the attitude emerges from personal experience
C) the attitude is learned from your peers
D) the attitude is learned from your parents

Question 11

Laying aside a powerful, immediate desire, response, or goal in the service of more important, overriding long-term goals is called

A) self-control
B) self-regulation
C) self-efficacy
D) self-esteem

Question 12

The study of how individuals perceive, judge, and think about themselves and others is known as

A) Social psychology
B) Social cognition
C) Social comparison
D) Social attribution

Question 13

The fact that people who exhibit self-control in one situation often exhibit self-control in other situation is evidence that self-control is

A) learned through experience
B) present from birth
C) a human trait
D) a pattern of learning

Question 14

All of the following are results from longitudinal studies of studies of self-control, EXCEPT:

A) High self-control children scored higher on SATs.
B) High self-control children were less likely to become bullies.
C) High self-control children were less likely to become obese.
D) Low self-control children are generally healthier and happier.

Question 15

Baumeister and colleagues used this analogy to describe the ability for one to exert self-control

A) telepathic ability
B) physical strength
C) mental model
D) physical attractiveness

Question 16

According to the strength model of self-control,

A) self-control exists in a limited quantity that differs among people
B) self-control is learned mainly through modelling
C) self-control exists in moderate qualities among all people
D) self-control is related to the development of the self-concept

Question 17

When researchers asked participants to refrain from eating sweet-smelling cookies presented to them in a room, the participants later exhibited

A) more effort in solving difficult logic problems
B) less time and effort attempting to solve difficult puzzles
C) more effort and time to solve simple arithmetic problems
D) increased self-control in a separate cookie task

Question 18

The process of explaining the cause of your own or another's behaviour is known as

A) attitude formation
B) attribution
C) dispositional cause
D) situational cause

Question 19

The tendency to attribute other people's behaviour to dispositional factors while ignoring or underestimating the possibility situational factors is called

A) the self-serving bias
B) the fundamental attribution error
C) the self-observer effect
D) the framing effect

Question 20

Members of this part of the world tend not to exhibit the fundamental attribution error when explaining the causes of others' behaviour

A) Northern Europe
B) North America
C) South America
D) East Asia

Question 21

Studies that illustrate that members of East Asian cultures tend not to commit the fundamental attribution error (FAE) is most troublesome for

A) an evolutionary explanation for the FAE
B) a cognitive explanation for the FAE
C) a developmental explanation for the FAE
D) a cultural explanation for the FAE

Question 22

The main problem with research on the fundamental attribution error is that

A) most behaviour is the result of situational causes
B) it is very difficult to define where a situation ends and a person begins
C) people often are not honest in attributing causes to their own behavior
D) situational causes are merely illusions

Question 23

This social psychological phenomenon is in effect when you judge your own poor driving as justified, but view the poor driving of others on the road as evidence of their incompetence

A) fundamental attribution error
B) actor-observer bias
C) self-serving bias
D) cognitive dissonance

Question 24

People often make different judgments of the same behaviour depending on whether they performed the behaviour or observed the behaviour in others. This is referred to as the

A) fundamental attribution error
B) actor-observer bias
C) self-serving bias
D) cognitive dissonance

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT a form of self-serving bias

A) Attributing your successes to your own effort
B) Overestimating your own contributions
C) Going out of your way to help others
D) Overestimating your positive attributes relative to others

Question 26

Harry performed more poorly on the exam than his peers and attributes his mark to the clarity of his teacher. This is an example of

A) poor teaching
B) self-serving bias
C) jealousy
D) self-control

Question 27

Most people believe they have more control over events in their lives than is actually the case, this is an example of

A) Illusions of control
B) Uncritically positive views of the self
C) Unrealistic optimism
D) Self-control

Question 28

Baker and Emery (1993) surveys American couples applying for marriage licenses and asked them to estimate the percentage of marriages that end in divorce and the probability that their own marriage would fail. Which of the following statements is NOT true

A) Couples underestimated the probability that their own marriage would fail
B) Couples correctly estimated the percentage of marriages that end in divorce
C) Couples correctly estimated the probability that their own marriage would fail
D) Participants showed unrealistic optimism in this study

Question 29

Leon Festinger (1954) is best know for his theory of

A) Aggression
B) altruism
C) Social comparison
D) Attribution

Question 30

This term refers to all of the ways that the self-monitors and exerts control over its responses so as to accomplish goals and live up to personal standards

A) Self-control
B) Self-regulation
C) Social comparison
D) Upward comparison

Question 31

The well-known Marshmallow study assesses

A) Prejudice and attitudes in adolescents
B) Social comparison and effortful control in childhood
C) Attitude strength in adults
D) Attention and delay gratification in children

Question 32

Jones and Davis (1965) believed that the key to understanding disposition was

A) action
B) aggression
C) intention
D) temperment

Question 33

Which of the following statements is NOT a criteria that has to be met before we can attribute actions to intensions, according to Jones and Davis (1965)

A) The actor must be capable of performing the action
B) The actor must be unaware of the consequence of their actions
C) The actor must be acting deliberately
D) The actor must be aware of the consequence of their actions

Question 34

Which of the following describes when we infer than an action corresponds to the actions intensions

A) attribution
B) correspondent inference
C) judgemental inference
D) informed inference

Question 35

Which of these was the first major challenge to the FAE

A) FAE could not be tested empirically
B) FAE was must weaker and sometimes non-exist when tested among East Asians
C) FAE was often confused with correspondence bias
D) The research on FAE only used undergraduate students

Question 36

Which of the following is a cognitive bias towards attributing our own behaviour to situational factors, but others' behaviour to dispositional factors

A) Experimenter-observer bias
B) Attribution bias
C) Actor-observer bias
D) Negativity bias

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT a component of an attitude according to Allport (1935)

A) The affective component
B) The conative component
C) The cognitive component
D) The outcome component

Question 38

Allport (1935) model of attitudes is known as the

A) Three-factor model
B) Attributional model
C) Triparitie model
D) Behavioural model

Question 39

Which of the following describes how strongly we hold an attitude

A) Attitude productivity
B) Attitude endurance
C) Attitude expertise
D) Attitude strength

Question 40

There are various factors that affect attitude strength including

A) Valence, expertise, accessibility
B) Expertise, experience, exposure
C) Gender, valence, age
D) Self-regulation, self-control, self-serving bias

Question 41

Identity signalling involves

A) displaying pro-social attitudes, again through on-line posts or traditional media
B) revealing membership of social groups
C) automatically responding to something based on our attitude
D) attributing other people's behaviour to those individuals' dispositions, while ignoring or underestimating the possibility that situational factors may have played an important or determining role

Question 42

Virtue signalling involves

A) displaying pro-social attitudes, again through on-line posts or traditional media
B) revealing membership of social groups
C) automatically responding to something based on our attitude
D) attributing other people's behaviour to those individuals' dispositions, while ignoring or underestimating the possibility that situational factors may have played an important or determining role

Question 43

Attitudes make the world safer and easier to understand. They are therefore considered to have a

A) Utilitarian function
B) Symbolic function
C) Safety function
D) Educational function

Question 44

_ can lead us to wish to engage in a process of self- change, often involving development of self-regulation

A) Impression management
B) Social comparison
C) Delay gratification
D) Self-evaluation

Question 45

Members of a work group, typically overestimate the amount they contribute to the total group effort. This is an example of

A) Attribution bias
B) Self-serving bias
C) Leadership bias
D) Positivity bias

Question 46

In a three year longitudinal study, Murray et al (2011) found that

A) Positive illusions may benefit friendships but not romantic relations
B) Positive illusions may be detrimental to romantic and marital relations
C) Positive illusions is not associated with romantic and marital relations
D) Positive illusions may benefit romantic and martial relations

Question 47

Dufner et al (2018) found that the relationship between self-serving bias and psychological adjustment was

A) Negative - self-serving bias was negatively associated with psychological adjustment
B) Positive - self-serving bias was positively associated with psychological adjustment
C) Dependent on sex - self-serving bias was negatively associated with psychological adjustment for males, but positively associated with psychological adjustment for females
D) Dependent on sex - self-serving bias was negatively associated with psychological adjustment for females, but positively associated with psychological adjustment for males

Question 48

Researchers during the 1980s observed that people do NOT

A) only compare themselves to similar others
B) always compare them to similar others
C) only compare themselves to dissimilar others
D) make social comparisons

Question 49

In some instances individuals may choose to compare themselves to those who are less capable, reasons for this may include all EXCEPT:

A) Make them feel inferior
B) Boost one's own feelings of self-worth
C) Lead to a sense of competence
D) Lead to a sense of superiority

Question 50

Kelley (1973) developed a model of attribution based on the idea that much of the time we have additional information to make an attribution. Which one of these is NOT a source of evidence identified by Kelley?

A) intention
B) consensus
C) consistency
D) distinctiveness

Question 51

According to research on the self-serving bias, people tend to believe themselves to be smarter, more athletic, more attractive, more ethical, and less prejudiced than others.

Question 52

Leon Festinger believed that humans were motivated to compare themselves with others in order to enhance their own self-images.

Question 53

An attitude is a "feeling" experience, because it indicates like or dislike. A belief, in contrast, is a cognitive experience.

Question 54

Mischel and colleagues found that children who were able to exert self-control in the laboratory went on to earn high SAT scores in high school and went on to higher academic achievements.

Question 55

Cross-cultural researchers found that the fundamental attribution error (FAE) was much weaker and sometimes non-existent when tested among East Asians such as Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese

Question 56

A correspondent inference takes place when we infer that an action corresponds to the actor's intentions and hence we can make a judgment about their disposition.

Question 57

If an immediate attribution is required, it is easier and makes sense to attribute people's behaviour to internal, dispositional causes.

Question 58

Social psychology is the scientific study of the influence of social situations on individuals, and the influence of individuals on social situations.

Question 59

According to Baumeister's strength model, self- control works like our muscles, varying between individuals and subject to fatigue and training effects.

Question 60

Identity signalling involves displaying pro-social attitudes, again through on-line posts or traditional media.

Question 61

The ___includes overestimation of your own contributions, and your positive attributions

Question 62

A(n) _________is a "feeling" experience, because it indicates like or dislike. A(n) ______, in contrast, is a cognitive experience.

Question 63

Researchers that study the limits of our understanding of the ___________point to the fact that "dispositions" and "situations" are so intricately interwoven that it may be scientifically useless to separate them.

Question 64

__________is the aspect of self-regulation which involves suppressing a powerful immediate desire or goal in the service of a more important overriding long-term goal.

Question 65

A __________takes place when we infer that an action corresponds to the actor's intentions and hence we can make a judgement about their disposition.

Question 66

Attitude _________means how strongly we hold an attitude, whereas _________refers to the intensiveness of its positivity or negativity.

Question 67

Consensus is high when most people would behave in the same way in the same situation, whereas _________is high when the person regularly behaves in the same way when in that kind of situation.

Question 68

The cognitive bias towards attributing our own behaviour primarily to situational factors, but others' behaviour to dispositional factors is known as the ___.

Question 69

According to Allport (1935) attitudes consist of three components, the _________component (i.e. what we think about something), the _________component (i.e. what we feel about something) and the _________(i.e. how we act towards something).

Question 70

__________involves displaying pro-social attitudes through online posts or traditional media.

Question 71

Many aspects of social psychology involve psychological defence of the self. Describe psychological self-defence in cases of the self-serving bias and in terms of social comparison theory and cognitive dissonance.

Question 72

Explain what is meant by attribution. In your answer discuss the distinction between situational and dispositional attributions and between personal and impersonal attributions.

Question 73

Outline the tripartite model of attitude components and factors affecting attitude strength, including valence, expertise and accessibility

Question 74

Describe the evidence base for the existence and universality of the fundamental attribution error and for the actor-observer bias.