Deck 9: Social Exchange and Cooperation

Question 1

Which of the following conditions served as a driving force for social exchange among early humans?

A) Need for protection and self-defense
B) Climate change
C) The extinction of the woolly mammoth
D) The evolution from hunter-gatherer to agrarian societies

Answer 1

Need for protection and self-defense

Question 2

Utilitarianism, as theorized by John Stuart Mill, predicts that human behavior will be driven by which factor?

A) The promotion of shared moral values
B) Fundamental political, civil, and economic rights
C) Equal opportunities for all of mankind
D) Increased happiness for oneself

Answer 2

Increased happiness for oneself

Question 3

The role of both field observations and laboratory evidence to understand social exchange was presented by which theorist?

A) John Rawls
B) Robert Trivers
C) George Homans
D) John Stuart Mills

Answer 3

George Homans

Question 4

Internal emotions impact social exchanges, but their outward expressions are restrained by what factor(s)?

A) Cognitions
B) Prevailing social norms
C) Neither A nor B; internal emotions are not restrained
D) Both A and B restrain the outward expression of internal emotions

Question 5

Studies examining people's sense of fairness would not support which of the following statements?

A) John is known throughout his community as a hard-working individual. In the midst of the recession, however, he was laid off when the local factory closed down. His community members help him file for unemployment and seek other welfare benefits to support his family.
B) Angela is living at a homeless shelter in Smalltown, Alabama. She is not a resident of the town, nor does she have any prior relationships with anyone in the town. Although the residents of Smalltown do not know her history, they help her pay for an apartment because she cannot afford her own.
C) Susie finds $10 on the ground. Her mother will let her keep the money if she shares the money with her brother in a portion agreed on by both, or else neither will get the money. Susie offers her brother $2, which he rejects, and her mother donates the money instead to a local charity.
D) Andersonville High School hires a live band for their high school prom. A local resident sneaks into the prom without a ticket so he can hear the band. Although he is sitting in a corner not bothering anyone, an adult chaperone has him kicked out of the prom because he did not pay for a ticket.

Question 6

The use of oxytocin during social interactions was found to increase what among humans?

A) Trust
B) Risk taking
C) Risk aversion
D) Competition

Question 7

When one person has a resource you need, which of the following strategies would NOT be used to counter the power differential?

A) Find alternative sources to the needed resource
B) Get along without the resource
C) Force the person to give you what you need
D) All of the above are strategies to counter the power differential

Question 8

What is altruism?

A) Behavior benefiting another organism while being apparently detrimental to the organism performing the behavior
B) Behavior benefiting another organism while also being materially beneficial to the organism performing the behavior
C) Behavior that is detrimental to another organism while being materially beneficial to the organism performing the behavior
D) Behavior that is both detrimental to another organism and the organism performing the behavior

Question 9

Assuming all other conditions to be equal, during difficult circumstances a group with which of the following characteristics would outperform the rest?

A) Members are low on strong reciprocity
B) Members are high on strong reciprocity
C) Members are low on cooperation, but high on competition
D) All groups would perform equally

Question 10

Based on findings by a 1981 study, strong self-reported altruistic behaviors would be correlated with which other strong behaviors?

A) Moral judgment
B) Empathy
C) Prosocial
D) All of the above

Question 11

Feeling another person's state of need and trying to make things better is a form of empathy known as what?

A) Perspective taking
B) Sympathetic concern
C) Cognitive empathy
D) None of the above

Question 12

What is the objective of game theory?

A) To understand the rationality behind decision making
B) To understand the irrational behaviors that influence decision making
C) To understand the interaction of rational and irrational behaviors that influence decision making
D) To understand the individual nature of decision making

Question 13

In tournaments simulating the prisoner's dilemma, what is most often the winning strategy?

A) Pleading guilty and ratting out your opponent
B) Pleading innocent and not ratting out your opponent
C) Pleading innocent and not ratting out your opponent; then adjusting your stance to whatever your opponent does
D) All of the above are equally successful strategies

Question 14

Increased interactions with peers, over family members, contribute to the formation of altruistic and cooperative behavior during which life stage?

A) Fetal environment and infancy
B) Childhood
C) Adolescence
D) Adulthood

Question 15

Play and observational learning has the largest impact on building cooperative skills during which life stage?

A) Fetal environment and infancy
B) Childhood
C) Adolescence
D) Adulthood

Question 16

The behavioral ecology necessary for social exchange began evolving in the late 1500s.

Question 17

Homans's elementary forms of social behavior overlook the role of irrational behavior in human decision making.

Question 18

A study examining public support for social welfare programs found that 70% of Americans were concerned about the cost of welfare programs, whereas a smaller percentage believed that welfare is unfair to working people.

Question 19

During difficult conditions, human groups that have a strong reciprocity constituency outperform groups that are low on strong reciprocity.

Question 20

Race and ethnicity always serve as moderating influences on altruistic behavior.
Multiple Choice Answers

Question 21

What is altruism? Explain the relationships between altruism and charitable giving, altruism and race, and altruism and emotions.

Question 22

Describe the development of cooperation and social exchange behaviors throughout the life cycles (fetal environment and infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood).