Deck 1: What is Social Psychology

Question 1

Which of the following statements about social psychology is false?

A) A goal of social psychology is to develop general principles that describe human behavior.
B) An assumption of social psychology is that only social factors influence human behavior.
C) Social psychology relies on the scientific method to learn about human behavior.
D) Social psychology is concerned with the way in which the imagined presence of others influences individuals.

Answer 1

An assumption of social psychology is that only social factors influence human behavior.

Question 2

Extrapolating from the Walton and Cohen (2011)study of belongingness uncertainty and academic performance, knowing that feeling insecure at the outset of one's freshman year is normal and temporary should help

A) all students perform better throughout all the years of college.
B) African-American, but not Caucasian, students perform better throughout all the years of college.
C) all students perform better during their freshman year, but not much beyond that.
D) African-American, but not Caucasian, students perform better during their freshman year, but not much beyond that.

Answer 2

African-American, but not Caucasian, students perform better throughout all the years of college.

Question 3

Social psychology is primarily concerned with the ways in which

A) group factors contribute to the functioning of social institutions.
B) unconscious forces influence conscious motivations and desires.
C) specific personality characteristics predict behavior across situations.
D) individuals think, feel, and behave with regard to others.

Answer 3

individuals think, feel, and behave with regard to others.

Question 4

Social psychologists do not generally

A) work in settings outside of an academic context.
B) consider the effects of external, nonsocial factors on behavior.
C) study phenomena about which commonsense beliefs are held.
D) pay more attention to group behavior than the behavior of individuals within groups.

Question 5

Which of the following questions would a social psychologist be most likely to study?

A) Are crime rates different among people of higher versus lower socioeconomic status?
B) What risk factors contribute to the onset of schizophrenia?
C) Is there a link between playing violent video games and engaging in aggressive behavior?
D) Do citizens in countries with democratic governments report greater life satisfaction than citizens in countries with autocratic governments?

Question 6

The study conducted by Walton and Cohen (2011)on the impact of insecurity on academic performance focuses on

A) the influence of information on the temporary nature of belonging uncertainty on academic performance in male versus female students.
B) gender differences in academic performance.
C) racial differences in academic performance.
D) the influence of information on the temporary nature of belonging uncertainty on academic performance in African-American versus Caucasian students.

Question 7

Anita wants to spend her career studying the factors that predict whether the members of a couple are satisfied with their marriage.If she chooses to do so as a social psychologist, it is likely that her pursuit will

A) focus more on people's thoughts than on their actual behavior.
B) emphasize the importance of different personality types, such as "fun-loving" and "open to new experiences."
C) examine couples rather than individuals as the unit of analysis.
D) include systematic observation and measurement of couples.

Question 8

Bianca is African American, and she is a new university student.She is feeling quite nervous about being part of a university.Based on research by Walton and Cohen (2011), what can you tell her that will help her succeed?

A) Study hard--it pays off!
B) Get involved so you will have social support.
C) Feeling nervous about school is normal and temporary.
D) Be very organized so that you will be able to do everything on time.

Question 9

Which of the following is a central part of the definition of social psychology?

A) It uses historical events as its primary source of data.
B) It assumes that thoughts and behaviors are influenced by other people.
C) It focuses more on the behavior of groups than on that of individuals.
D) It emphasizes the solitary nature of human behavior.

Question 10

The results of the "belongingness uncertainty" study conducted by Walton and Cohen (2011)indicate that

A) knowing that initial insecurity as a university freshman is normal and temporary improved academic performance through the end of the freshman year for African-American and Caucasian students, but not beyond that year.
B) knowing that initial insecurity as a university freshman is normal and temporary improved academic performance through the end of the freshman year for African-American students, but not beyond that year.
C) knowing that initial insecurity as a university freshman is normal and temporary improved academic performance through the senior year for both African-American and Caucasian students.
D) knowing that initial insecurity as a university freshman is normal and temporary improved academic performance through the senior year for African-American students.

Question 11

A social psychologist would be least likely to conduct a study examining the effect of

A) sleep on concentration ability.
B) temperature on highway shootings.
C) political attitudes on friendship formation.
D) academic performance on self-esteem.

Question 12

Courses in social psychology are often required for students majoring in which of the following fields?

A) Education
B) Journalism
C) Business
D) All of these

Question 13

Which student will be helped most by being given information on how normal it is to feel stress and uncertainty during their freshman year?

A) Jacey, an African-American female.
B) Jorey, a Caucasian female.
C) Liam, a Caucasian male.
D) Xiao-Ping, a Chinese-American female.

Question 14

Sociologists tend to study behavior at the _____ level, whereas social psychologists study behavior at the _____ level.

A) group; individual
B) interpersonal; cultural
C) specific; general
D) social; cognitive

Question 15

How did Walton and Cohen (2011)explain the failure of information on belongingness uncertainty to help Caucasian students improve academic performance, as compared to their African-American counterparts?

A) Caucasian students don't experience belongingness uncertainty at all.
B) Caucasian students have less persistent experience of belongingness uncertainty.
C) Caucasian students have more persistent experience of belongingness uncertainty.
D) Caucasian students did not listen to or process the message on belongingness uncertainty.

Question 16

Social psychology differs from history and philosophy in its

A) attention to the scientific method.
B) concern with human behavior.
C) greater focus on cultural influences.
D) more narrow and refined bandwidth of interest.

Question 17

Sarunas is a social psychologist.Of the following studies, he is probably most interested in reading about one demonstrating the effects of

A) attitude similarity on interpersonal attraction.
B) immigration patterns on stock market activity.
C) distraction on attention to a visual display.
D) narcotic substances on neurotransmitter activity in the brain.

Question 18

Mariano is interested in how the diversity of a group affects its performance.If Mariano is a social psychologist, it is unlikely that he will

A) conduct experiments that compare diverse and non-diverse groups.
B) focus more on the details of recent Supreme Court rulings regarding affirmative action than examining the actual behavior of groups.
C) be interested in the thoughts as well as behaviors of people within those groups.
D) expect the perceived influence of diversity among the members of the groups to be as influential as the actual changes in performance caused by diverse demographics.

Question 19

Which of the following is not considered an important part of the scientific method?

A) Systematic observation
B) Variable definition
C) Intuition
D) Measurement

Question 20

Social psychology is all of the following except

A) a science addressing a diverse array of topics.
B) the study of how people think, feel, and behave.
C) a compilation of anecdotal observations and case studies.
D) an approach applying the scientific method of systematic observation, description, and measurement.

Question 21

Marilyn is interested in whether schizophrenic individuals tend to interpret verbal feedback from others as negative even if it is positive.It might be said that Marilyn is doing research at the intersection of social psychology and

A) evolutionary psychology.
B) sociology.
C) personality psychology.
D) clinical psychology.

Question 22

Astrid has developed a 12-item questionnaire to help her identify individuals who tend to be skeptical of authority figures across different situations.Astrid is most likely a _____ psychologist.

A) cognitive
B) social
C) clinical
D) personality

Question 23

Brad is a social psychologist.Marion is a sociologist.Which of the following research questions is most likely of interest to both of them?

A) How do societal and immediate factors influence racial differences in academic achievement?
B) How does positive and negative feedback impact conceptions of the self?
C) Do different socioeconomic groups express different political attitudes?
D) Can an authority figure influence people to act in ways that they normally would not?

Question 24

Which of the following branches of psychology is most interested in "the power of the situation"?

A) Clinical psychology
B) Cognitive psychology
C) Personality psychology
D) Social psychology

Question 25

Antoine investigates the extent to which depressed individuals have difficulty forming accurate memories of social interactions, particularly when those interactions are stressful.His research is best described as being at the intersection of

A) personality, cognitive, and clinical psychology.
B) cognitive, social, and personality psychology.
C) social, clinical, and cognitive psychology.
D) clinical, personality, and social psychology.

Question 26

What distinguishes social psychology from other specialties in psychology is its

A) use of the scientific method in research design.
B) emphasis on correlational research design.
C) attention to the influence of situational context on behavior.
D) willingness to consider cross-cultural differences in human behavior and cognition.

Question 27

The interaction between individual characteristics and situational constraints on the way people behave best reflects the intersection of

A) cognitive and personality psychology.
B) personality and social psychology.
C) social and clinical psychology.
D) clinical and developmental psychology.

Question 28

Which of the following research questions does not involve the interaction of social and cognitive psychology?

A) What situational factors influence whether someone interprets an event as an emergency and then makes a decision to offer help to a stranger?
B) How does injury to a particular part of the brain influence the ability to form new memories?
C) How does a threat to self-esteem influence people's ability to pay attention to complex stimuli?
D) How do stereotypes influence our memory of social interactions?

Question 29

Which of the following statements concerning social psychology and sociology is false?

A) Sociologists tend to study societal level variables, whereas social psychologists focus on more specific and immediate variables.
B) Social psychology studies human behavior at the level of the individual, whereas sociology studies human behavior at the group level.
C) Social psychologists and sociologists often study the same issues and publish in the same journals.
D) Sociologists are more likely than social psychologists to rely on experimentation to study human behavior.

Question 30

When comparing social psychology to sociology, a major difference is the

A) target populations studied.
B) number of variables explored.
C) focus on the individual or the group.
D) emphasis on how social context affects behavior.

Question 31

Social psychological research is a necessary endeavor because our commonsense intuitions

A) tend to be very unstable.
B) often contradict each other.
C) are not as shared by other people as we think.
D) are generally accurate but are held with little confidence.

Question 32

Sociologists studying the effects of media violence would be more likely than social psychologists to

A) conduct experiments manipulating the amount of media violence viewed by participants.
B) assess changes in television availability and in murder rates over the last 30 years.
C) concern themselves with situational variables that moderate the effects of media violence on its viewers.
D) focus on the types of individuals who choose to view media violence.

Question 33

To examine the relationship between temperature and violence, Priti manipulates the thermostat in her laboratory while participants are engaged in a military simulation game.She then looks at the effect of this manipulation on their aggressive behavior during the game, comparing participants in the "warm" condition to those in the "comfortable" condition.Priti's research best characterizes what field of study?

A) Sociology
B) Social psychology
C) Clinical psychology
D) Personality psychology

Question 34

To examine the relationship between economic conditions and violence, Gunther compares the murder rates for counties with different median incomes.Gunther's research best characterizes what field of study?

A) Social psychology
B) Clinical psychology
C) Personality psychology
D) Sociology

Question 35

It could be argued that social psychology supplements common sense about human behavior in all of the following ways except that

A) social psychology tests commonsense assumptions using scientific methods.
B) social psychology addresses many of the same issues about which people have intuitions.
C) social psychological theories are as broad in scope as common sense.
D) social psychological findings tend to support most intuitive beliefs about human behavior.

Question 36

Which of the following is true regarding social psychology and clinical psychology?

A) Researchers in both fields might conduct studies investigating outcomes such as anxiety or depression.
B) Research in social psychology utilizes the scientific method, whereas research in clinical psychology does not.
C) Both fields are primarily concerned with the underlying causes of atypical behavior.
D) Psychologists in both fields must become certified in therapy aimed toward helping individuals with mental illness.

Question 37

Although related to other fields, social psychology is distinct in that its emphasis is on

A) understanding the immediate situational factors that influence human behavior.
B) classifying and treating psychological disorders.
C) identifying individual characteristics that are relatively stable across time.
D) describing the relationship between human behavior and societal variables.

Question 38

Social psychology differs from common sense in that

A) common sense tends to produce more accurate knowledge about human behavior than social psychology.
B) common sense captures the full complexity of human behavior.
C) social psychology is far more intuitive than common sense.
D) social psychology relies on the scientific method to test its theories.

Question 39

Hyunwoo believes that image-oriented ads will be more persuasive for individuals concerned with the way they appear to others, whereas ads that stress product quality will be more effective for individuals who are less concerned with their public image.This belief represents the intersection of what two fields of study?

A) Social psychology and clinical psychology
B) Social psychology and cognitive psychology
C) Social psychology and personality psychology
D) Social psychology and sociology

Question 40

Diane is interested in whether women with nurturing personalities are more reliable friends both inside and outside the workplace.Rebecca is interested in the hypothesis that women tend to be more nurturing outside the workplace because others expect them to be nurturing.It is likely that Diane is a _____ psychologist and Rebecca is a _____ psychologist.

A) social; personality
B) clinical; personality
C) personality; clinical
D) personality; social

Question 41

Of the following important figures in the history of social psychology, who most explicitly emphasized application of the field to social problems in society?

A) Gordon Allport
B) Fritz Heider
C) Max Ringelmann
D) Muzafer Sherif

Question 42

Which of the following people is credited with publishing the first research article in social psychology?

A) Max Ringelmann
B) Norman Triplett
C) Floyd Allport
D) John Haharwood

Question 43

The work of Muzafer Sherif was important for the development of social psychology because he

A) demonstrated the interaction between personality characteristics and situational factors.
B) developed professional associations for social psychologists.
C) showed that complex social behavior could be examined scientifically.
D) helped to find solutions to the crisis in the field during the 1960s and 1970s.

Question 44

"Founders of social psychology" Norman Triplett and Max Ringelmann both did research examining

A) the influence groups exert on their members.
B) the impact of the presence of others on performance.
C) how behaviors are shaped by perceptions.
D) the impact of different leadership strategies on group performance.

Question 45

Floyd Allport's social psychology textbook, published in 1924, is credited with

A) establishing the field's emphasis on the scientific method.
B) imbuing the field with a cross-cultural orientation.
C) introducing the major theories of social psychology.
D) bridging the "hot" and "cold" perspectives on behavior and cognition.

Question 46

Which of the following people did not author one of social psychology's first textbooks?

A) William McDougall
B) Muzafer Sherif
C) Edward Ross
D) Floyd Allport

Question 47

By stressing both internal differences among individuals and differences among external situations, the interactionist perspective is an approach combining

A) personality psychology with social psychology.
B) social psychology with clinical psychology.
C) cognitive psychology with social psychology.
D) social psychology with sociology.

Question 48

According to your textbook, one of the people who had the greatest impact on the developing field of social psychology was not a psychologist.Who was this person?

A) Plato
B) Charles Lindbergh
C) Adolf Hitler
D) Jackie Robinson

Question 49

Which of the following classic investigations is not thought to have arisen from the researcher's attempt to understand events in Nazi Germany?

A) Sherif's experiments on social influence
B) Triplett's research on performance in groups
C) Milgram's study of destructive obedience
D) Lewin's research on conservation

Question 50

Which of the following events is regarded as having established social psychology as a distinct field of study?

A) The publication of the first three textbooks in social psychology
B) The publication of the first research article in social psychology
C) The formation of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
D) The introduction of the interactionist perspective to the field of psychology

Question 51

Which social psychologist is credited with demonstrating that complex social processes could be studied scientifically?

A) Sherif
B) F. Allport
C) Heider
D) Lewin

Question 52

Ringelmann and Triplett are best labeled as

A) the first researchers to explore conformity.
B) sociologists who established social psychology as a distinct discipline.
C) pioneers in the field of social cognition.
D) the founders of social psychology.

Question 53

According to the interactionist perspective, behavior is a result of the interaction between

A) motivation and cognition.
B) introverts and extraverts.
C) personality and situations.
D) theoretical and practical concerns.

Question 54

Blaine works in a factory producing car stereos.He notices that workers produce more stereos by the end of the day when they work together in the same room than when they work in separate rooms.His observation is consistent with a classic study conducted by which of the following researchers?

A) Lewin
B) Asch
C) Triplett
D) Sherif

Question 55

Muzafer Sherif's research was crucial for the development of social psychology because it

A) introduced the idea of cognitive dissonance.
B) marked the beginning of the pluralistic approach that continues to characterize the field.
C) firmly established the importance of an interactionist perspective.
D) demonstrated the feasibility of studying complex social issues in a rigorous, scientific manner.

Question 56

The phenomenon that makes people question how social psychology is different from common sense is called the _____ phenomenon.

A) "I knew it all along"
B) "science is stupid"
C) "self-superiority"
D) "hale and hearty"

Question 57

Among the following social psychologists, who was one of the original founders of social psychology?

A) Norman Triplett
B) Stanley Milgram
C) Michael Norton
D) Philip Zimbardo

Question 58

Which historical event sparked great interest in and gave shape to the field of social psychology?

A) The Great Depression
B) The use of two atomic bombs by the United States during World War II
C) The Nazi Holocaust during World War II
D) The American Civil Rights Movement

Question 59

If a student wants to find the first source that established social psychology as a separate field with an emphasis on experimentation, he or she should probably read

A) Allport's (1924) text.
B) Ringelmann's (1913) article.
C) McDougall's (1908) text.
D) Triplett's (1897-1898) article.

Question 60

The field of social psychology emerged as a distinct discipline around the end of the

A) 17th century.
B) 18th century.
C) 19th century.
D) 20th century.

Question 61

Phoebe is a graduate student in social psychology who will only agree to conducting research that will help address an ongoing social problem.Phoebe's desire is most consistent with the philosophies of which of the following pairs of individuals?

A) Gordon Allport and Floyd Allport
B) Gordon Allport and Kurt Lewin
C) Kurt Lewin and Leon Festinger
D) Leon Festinger and Gordon Allport

Question 62

Because of his research on practical issues, such as the research he conducted in the 1940s concerning promotion of more economical and nutritious eating habits, Kurt Lewin could be considered one of the founders of

A) evolutionary social psychology.
B) psychoneuroimmunology.
C) "hot" theories of social psychology.
D) applied social psychology.

Question 63

Which of the following represented a critique of social psychology in the 1960s and 1970s?

A) The discipline failed to address topics of social relevance.
B) The discipline failed to distinguish itself from other fields of psychology.
C) Researchers had not yet agreed upon a conventional methodology.
D) The findings were limited to current historical circumstances.

Question 64

Arguably, the most famous research in social psychology focused on the situational factors influencing obedience to authority and was conducted by

A) F. Allport.
B) G. Allport
C) Festinger.
D) None of these

Question 65

Research on the social psychological underpinnings of prejudice might be said to have its roots in research by

A) F. Allport.
B) G. Allport.
C) Asch.
D) Festinger.

Question 66

Which of the following was not a criticism of laboratory experimentation in the 1960s and 1970s?

A) Experiments were sometimes unethical.
B) Experimenters' expectations might influence the results.
C) The theories being tested in the laboratory were often historically and culturally limited.
D) Experiments did not allow researchers to draw conclusions about the causal relationship between variables.

Question 67

Elliot is interested in how people can change their attitudes through their own behavior.He would do best to read the writings of

A) G. Allport.
B) Asch.
C) Festinger.
D) Milgram.

Question 68

Which of the following is true regarding Kurt Lewin?

A) His interactionist perspective argues that human behavior is mostly a function of situational pressures.
B) His push for practical research was met with great resistance in the early days of social psychology.
C) He was the first to test social psychological hypotheses in a scientific manner.
D) He conducted research on what kinds of leaders elicit the best work from group members.

Question 69

During the 1960s and 1970s, social psychologists who favored laboratory experiments rebuffed critics by arguing that

A) critics' concerns regarding experimenter bias were exaggerated and misplaced.
B) it did not matter that some studies were unethical because the benefits of running these experiments outweighed the costs.
C) experimental studies were easier to conduct than non-experimental studies.
D) the theoretical principles being tested in the lab were widely applicable across eras and cultures.

Question 70

Abe subscribes to a psychoanalytic view of human behavior.Abe's view probably differs from that of Kurt Lewin in that Abe is more likely to emphasize the power of

A) external rewards.
B) internal motives.
C) situational factors.
D) interpersonal relationships.

Question 71

Ashraf would like to read about social psychological research on conformity.He should look at the research of

A) Asch.
B) Lewin.
C) Festinger.
D) F. Allport.

Question 72

Social psychologists reacted to critiques of the field in the 1960s and 1970s by doing all of the following except

A) adopting more rigorous and formalized ethical standards.
B) paying more attention to cross-cultural differences in cognition and behavior.
C) denouncing experiments as unacceptably artificial.
D) developing more stringent procedures to avoid the effects of experimenter bias.

Question 73

The reference to social psychology in the 1960s and 1970s as being in the midst of "confidence and crisis" reflects an expansion in the types of issues studied by researchers, as well as increased criticism that largely came from

A) sociologists.
B) fellow social psychologists.
C) the general public.
D) the popular media.

Question 74

Which of the following best illustrates Lewin's interactionist perspective?

A) Sally is a very creative kind of person who likes to build things.
B) Jerry only works because he receives a very large income.
C) Rikki is usually shy, but at work she appears to be quite outgoing.
D) Maury gives money to charities because he wants other people to think he is very generous.

Question 75

Lewin's research concerning both how to promote economical and nutritious eating habits, and what kinds of leaders elicit the best work from group members, was important in establishing which of the following?

A) Different topics require different research strategies.
B) Social psychology could be used to understand and help solve practical problems.
C) Early theories in social psychology were often historically and culturally limited.
D) Social psychologists may unwittingly influence the behavior of research participants.

Question 76

Sarai studies stereotypes and prejudice; Kevin studies how people learn about themselves by comparing themselves to others.Sarai and Kevin probably feel particular gratitude to _____ and _____, respectively, for helping to establish these areas in social psychology.

A) Asch; G. Allport
B) G. Allport, Festinger
C) Festinger; Sherif
D) Sherif; Asch

Question 77

Raynei criticized the field of social psychology during the 1960s and 1970s.It is likely that Raynei despaired about the ability of social psychological researchers to do all of the following except

A) suggest possible solutions to everyday social concerns.
B) acknowledge their role in artificially producing the results of their studies.
C) consider the cultural context in which their findings were obtained.
D) design ethical experimental contexts.

Question 78

An emphasis on experiments addressing the interaction of individuals and their social context is particularly clear in the writings of

A) Rich Petty and John Cacioppo.
B) Max Ringelmann and Norman Triplett.
C) Norman Triplett and Kurt Lewin.
D) Kurt Lewin and Floyd Allport.

Question 79

Mona would like to understand the interactionist perspective.She has enough time to skim two textbooks.She should probably read one textbook in social psychology and one in

A) evolutionary psychology.
B) cognitive psychology.
C) clinical psychology.
D) personality psychology.

Question 80

Much of the debate in social psychology during the period of "confidence and crisis" occurred in reaction to

A) the usefulness of applied research.
B) the use of laboratory experiments.
C) new technological developments in the research lab.
D) Lewin's interactionist perspective.