Deck 1: Theories and Methods in Social Psychology

Question 1

Social psychology is the scientific study of

A) unconscious motives and drive
B) personality traits and individual differences
C) how people relate to and are changed by other people
D) abnormal or dysfunctional behavior

Answer 1

how people relate to and are changed by other people

Question 2

A possible topic studied by a social psychologist is

A) attitudes about drug use
B) perceptions of political figures
C) road rage
D) all of the above

Answer 2

all of the above

Question 3

A clinical psychologist using the _____________ level of analysis could explain a client's behavior in terms of her childhood history of physical abuse.

A) interpersonal
B) social
C) individual
D) societal

Answer 3

individual

Question 4

The level of analysis most often used by social psychologists could best be described as

A) societal
B) interpersonal
C) individual
D) cultural

Question 5

Which factor would a social psychologist emphasize in explaining why a person commits a violent crime?

A) a history of childhood physical abuse
B) poverty and urban decay
C) mental illness
D) having recently experienced a frustrating situation

Question 6

Steve is waiting in line for three hours in order to register for a course. He is tired of waiting and needs one specific course to graduate. When he gets to the front of the line he is told that all of the courses he chose are full. Steve becomes very angry and yells at the person who gives him this information. Steve's yelling may be explained best by the

A) interpersonal theory
B) frustration-aggression hypothesis
C) educational hardship hypothesis
D) psychoanalytic theory

Question 7

Which school of psychology was NOT discussed as a major influence on social psychology?

A) psychoanalytic theory
B) existentialism
C) gestalt psychology
D) behaviorism

Question 8

The belief that adult behavior can be traced to unresolved psychological conflicts from one's childhood is a hallmark of

A) behaviorism
B) gestalt psychology
C) psychoanalytic theory
D) cognitive dissonance theory

Question 9

Although much of their research was conducted with rats and pigeons, _____________ believed that the same principles applied to humans.

A) psychoanalytic psychologists
B) behaviorists
C) gestalt psychologists
D) motivational psychologists

Question 10

Which name is most associated with the theory of behaviorism?

A) B.F. Skinner
B) Kurt Koffka
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Kurt Lewin

Question 11

Which type of theorist would argue that people perceive situations or events as "dynamic wholes"?

A) a behaviorist
B) a gestalt psychologist
C) a psychoanalyst
D) an interdependence theorist

Question 12

Alana is thrown out of a basketball game because of her aggressive behavior. Which type of theorist would explain her behavior as a result of powerful inborn impulses or drives?

A) a behavioral theorist
B) a psychoanalytic theorist
C) a motivational theorist
D) a learning theorist

Question 13

Whenever Carlos asks a question in his psychology class, his professor nods her head and smiles at him in response. Carlos' frequent questions can be explained as a result of

A) observational learning
B) association
C) modeling
D) reinforcement

Question 14

According to learning theories, which of the following is NOT a mechanism by which learning occurs?

A) imitation
B) association
C) categorization
D) reinforcement

Question 15

Drew watches others as they use the "do it yourself" checkout station at the grocery store. He learns how to use the station through watching others and begins to use these checkout stations habitually. This can be explained by

A) social-learning theory
B) gestalt psychology
C) association
D) praise

Question 16

Marc is ten years old, and he tells you that at school today there was a "mock election" and he voted for George Bush. Marc tells you he did this because "the other guy does not know what he's talking about." Marc's mom is a strong Bush supporter as well. Marc most likely learned his attitude toward Bush from

A) motivation
B) observational learning
C) independent variables
D) behaviorism

Question 17

The fact that we tend to spontaneously group or categorize the things we perceive is a basic principle of

A) the sociocultural perspective
B) learning theories
C) interdependence theories
D) cognitive theories

Question 18

According to a basic principle of the cognitive perspective, which person are you most likely to notice at a party?

A) the host, because he is the person you know the best
B) the shy person, because she is the most similar to you
C) the person wearing a lampshade on his head and dancing on the coffee table,
Because he is unique and noisy
D) your best friend, because she is familiar and predictable

Question 19

Decision-making theories assume that people are

A) logical and rational
B) motivated by a desire for love and comfort
C) motivated to take risks
D) lazy and prone to making errors

Question 20

David is choosing between two computer programs to buy for his company. He makes lists of the pros and cons of each and buys the one that has the most pros and the fewest cons. Social psychologists would explain this as a use of a

A) cohort
B) modeling theory
C) positive/negative theory
D) decision-making theory

Question 21

Which is NOT a factor involved in decision-making, according to expectancy-value theory?

A) the value of each possible outcome
B) the ability to control a situation
C) the probability of each outcome
D) all of the above ARE decision-making factors

Question 22

Interdependence refers to

A) the ability of people who are similar to predict each other's thoughts and
Behavior
B) the tendency for people to compete rather than cooperate
C) the pairing of two stimuli, resulting in a learned association
D) the extent to which one person's outcomes depend on the behavior of another, and vice-versa

Question 23

Social exchange theory is an example of

A) a decision-making approach
B) an interdependence approach
C) a learning approach
D) a sociocultural approach

Question 24

Sarah decides that after four years of a non-reciprocal friendship with Shannon she does not want to continue her friendship with Shannon because Shannon does not contribute to the relationship and only takes from it. Sarah's decision may be based on

A) social exchange theory
B) friendship theory
C) interest theory
D) altruism theory

Question 25

A social exchange theorist would probably try to explain George and Martha's disagreements about money as

A) a function of their conflicting interests
B) a result of their childhood experiences with money
C) their cultural backgrounds
D) their individual personality characteristics

Question 26

The shared beliefs, values, and traditions of a sorority are part of its

A) organization
B) rules
C) culture
D) differences

Question 27

Levine (1988) found that people in different countries have a different pace of life. This finding demonstrates the value of the _______________ perspective.

A) interdependence
B) social exchange
C) sociocultural
D) learning

Question 28

The unspoken rules about the use of time that are unique to each culture are an example of

A) social roles
B) social norms
C) learned associations
D) collectivism

Question 29

The term social role refers to

A) rules and expectations about how group members should behave
B) the process by which culture is passed from one generation to the next
C) the set of norms that apply to people in a particular position
D) beliefs about how group members typically behave

Question 30

In a classroom, the professor usually lectures from the front of the class and gives information, while the students take notes and ask questions. These behaviors are part of their

A) social roles
B) individualism
C) social theory
D) collectivism

Question 31

Which type of culture emphasizes loyalty to the family, adherence to group norms, and the preservation of harmony in social relations?

A) communist
B) individualistic
C) collectivist
D) secular

Question 32

Bradley is trying to choose a major in college, and his family tells him to choose something that makes him happy and he wants to do. Bradley most likely comes from a _____________ society.

A) social
B) collectivist
C) individualist
D) psychoanalytic

Question 33

In an individualistic culture, a person's sense of self is based largely on

A) a person's memberships in social groups
B) a person's attributes and accomplishments
C) a person's close relationships with family members
D) a person's political or religious values

Question 34

Which statement would be consistent with the beliefs of a collectivist culture?

A) A penny saved is a penny earned.
B) The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
C) A rolling stone gathers no moss.
D) The nail that stands out gets pounded down.

Question 35

According to evolutionary psychology, which behavior can be explained by evolutionary principles?

A) being afraid of snakes
B) liking foods rich in protein and sugar
C) forming emotional bonds with parents
D) all of the above

Question 36

Which of the following is NOT a central idea of evolutionary social psychology?

A) Both biological and social influences on behavior are important.
B) Individual differences in behavior reveal the influence of evolutionary
Adaptation.
C) Many evolved psychological mechanisms involve our ability to
Relate in a group.
D) Many human tendencies are adaptive responses to specific problems
Faced by our ancestors.

Question 37

Which of the following is a trend in social psychological theories today?

A) developing theories that can account for a limited range of phenomena
B) relying on a single general theory to explain most human behavior
C) making untestable claims about human behavior
D) all of the above are trends in social psychological theories today

Question 38

Many social psychological theories are "middle-range theories."
This means that

A) most theories in social psychology account for interpersonal, rather than
Individual or group-level, phenomena
B) most theories in social psychology don't try to account for all of social life, but
Focus instead on a limited range of social behavior
C) most theories in social psychology have a moderate amount of support, but have
Not been thoroughly and exhaustively researched
D) most theories in social psychology focus on the obvious, or predictable, aspects
Of social interaction

Question 39

Which theory is a good example of a middle-range theory?

A) psychoanalytic theory
B) behaviorism
C) interdependence theory
D) frustration-aggression hypothesis

Question 40

Why might our informal observations of social life lead us to wrong conclusions?

A) our experiences are not representative of everyone
B) sometimes we are biased and misinterpret what happens
C) sometimes we remember things incorrectly
D) all of the above

Question 41

Which is NOT a goal of social psychological research?

A) description
B) causal analysis
C) evaluation
D) application

Question 42

A descriptive research question is one that

A) begins with a prediction derived from theory
B) is designed to assess how people behave in a particular social setting
C) asks how to change people's behavior
D) has never been asked before

Question 43

Dr. Lewis wants to create research that asks if learning about the scientific method makes students more critical about what they read. The goal of this research would be

A) application
B) theory building
C) description
D) causal analysis

Question 44

A random sample means that

A) each person in the population has an equal chance of being included in the study
B) people are assigned to conditions by random chance
C) participants have responded to an advertisement or request for participation
D) the sample is not representative

Question 45

About _____ percent of all published articles in social psychology use undergraduate college students as subjects.

A) 25
B) 50
C) 75
D) 95

Question 46

In the last 20 years, social psychologists have improved the representativeness of their research samples in which of the following ways?

A) by including many more members of ethnic minority groups in their samples
B) by decreasing their reliance on older adults as research participants
C) by improving the gender balance of their samples
D) all of the above

Question 47

Social psychologists who want to do research that represents the increasingly diverse American population will be aware of

A) decreasing percentages of Hispanics/Latinos
B) decreasing numbers of older adults
C) greater percentages of European immigrants
D) the proportion of the population with severe disabling conditions

Question 48

The hallmark of an experimental design is

A) intervention
B) correlation
C) laboratory
D) confederate

Question 49

Dr. Shea finds that as age increases, understanding of math does as well. This is a ______________ relationship.

A) negative
B) age
C) positive
D) experimental

Question 50

Huesmann (1982) found that school children who watched violent programs the most were described by their peers as the most aggressive. This is an example of

A) a lab study
B) a correlational study
C) an experiment
D) a case study

Question 51

Dr. Nicholas wants to study how earthquakes affect our anxiety level. What is the method he should choose to study this?

A) experiment
B) correlational research
C) reverse causality
D) random assignment

Question 52

Which is NOT an advantage of correlational research compared to experimental research?

A) Some problems cannot be studied using an experimental design.
B) Researchers can collect more information in a correlational study.
C) Correlational studies allow the researcher to draw causal conclusions.
D) Researchers can test more relationships between variables than they
Can in experiments.

Question 53

If we know that variables A and B are related, but we cannot determine whether A causes B or vice versa, we have a ________ problem.

A) reverse-causality
B) sampling
C) theoretical
D) third-variable

Question 54

Ann is conducting a study about genes and their relation to height. She thinks genes are important when it comes to height, but she also thinks that nutrition may play a part. If this is true, nutrition would be a ____________ in her study.

A) reverse-causality
B) random variable
C) third-variable
D) dependent variable

Question 55

A researcher wants to study the link between test difficulty and self esteem by giving some people an easy test and others a hard test and then assessing whether these groups differ in self esteem. This researcher is using which of the following approaches?

A) experimental
B) correlational
C) observational
D) case study

Question 56

Suppose you believe that audiences are more likely to be influenced by an attractive than by an unattractive person. So you have someone give a speech in favor of welfare reform to two randomly assigned groups of subjects. For one group, the speaker is made to look very clean-cut and attractive. For the other group, the same speaker is made to look shabby and unattractive. Afterwards, participants report their views on welfare reform. This study is an example of

A) an observational study
B) a case study
C) a correlational study
D) an experiment

Question 57

In an experiment, the factor controlled by the researcher (the "cause") is called the

A) dependent variable
B) independent variable
C) operational definition
D) third variable

Question 58

Travis conducts a study in which half the participants listen to a speech about immigration policy from a credible communicator and the other half hears the same speech from a less credible source. The participants then indicate their attitudes about immigration. The audience's attitudes are the

A) dependent variable
B) independent variable
C) operational definition
D) demand characteristic

Question 59

If a reality TV show were an experiment, the manipulation of which people are on the show would be the independent variable, and the behaviors of the show's participants (what we watch) would be the _______________.

A) random assignment
B) TV effect
C) operational definition
D) dependent variable

Question 60

A(n) ____________ is the specific procedure that is used to manipulate or measure a variable in an experiment.

A) independent variable
B) operational definition
C) self-report variable
D) theoretical definition

Question 61

Which of the following would be an operational definition of aggressive behavior?

A) the number of times a child hits a doll
B) the number of seconds that a person administers electric shock to another person
C) the physical force with which a parent hits a child
D) all of the above are possible operational definitions of aggressive behavior

Question 62

Which is NOT a necessary element of experimental research?

A) random assignment
B) independent variable
C) testing a real-world problem
D) intervention

Question 63

When a researcher can be confident that experimental effects are actually caused by the
Independent variables and not some other uncontrolled factors, we say the experiment is high in

A) internal validity
B) random assignment
C) external validity
D) real-world applicability

Question 64

Which is NOT an advantage of field research, compared to laboratory research?

A) research participants are likely to be less suspicious and biased
B) greater control over the variables of interest
C) more ability to generalize the results of a study to other settings
D) can study the impact of more powerful variables and situations

Question 65

Which is NOT an advantage of laboratory research, compared to field research?

A) greater control over the research situation
B) easier to randomly assign participants to conditions
C) greater real-world applicability
D) usually easier and cheaper

Question 66

External validity refers to

A) the ability to draw causal conclusions from research
B) the advantage that results from random assignment
C) the conclusion by experts that a study was well designed
D) the ability to generalize the results of a study to other settings

Question 67

A significant advantage of self-report data is that

A) people can be relied upon to be honest in their reports
B) there is no risk of demand characteristics affecting the results
C) they are high in external validity
D) they allow us to measure subjective states that can't be observed

Question 68

Which is NOT a method of data collection?

A) self-report
B) archival research
C) observational research
D) debriefing

Question 69

A researcher wants to learn about changes in divorce patterns over the last fifty years. She uses U.S. Census data to examine this issue. She is conducting

A) observational research
B) experimental research
C) archival research
D) laboratory research

Question 70

A researcher hypothesizes that women will display greater willingness to help than men in certain situations. While conducting the study, she unconsciously encourages women to be helpful by smiling, nodding, and making more eye contact with them than with men. This is an example of

A) demand characteristics
B) the reverse-causality problem
C) experimenter bias
D) low external validity

Question 71

Demand characteristics are

A) the factors that promote good internal validity
B) behaviors of research participants that are based on their awareness of
Participating in an experiment
C) ethical procedures such as informed consent and debriefing
D) only a factor in correlational research designs

Question 72

A researcher reads about a study that found a relationship between helping behavior and a person's mood. He decides to test this same relationship using different research procedures. This is an example of

A) conceptual replication
B) meta-analysis
C) archival research
D) unethical research

Question 73

Meta-analysis is

A) a way of summarizing research findings on a particular topic
B) a relatively recent statistical technique
C) a statistical technique that gives an overall estimate of the size of a statistical
Finding
D) all of the above

Question 74

Which is NOT an important component of the ethical principles developed for psychological research?

A) participant compensation
B) informed consent
C) minimal risk
D) debriefing

Question 75

What percentage of students surveyed at the University of Georgia reported having experienced a negative consequence of their participation in psychological research, such as feeling physical or emotional discomfort?

A) 5%
B) 20%
C) 60%
D) 95%

Question 76

Social psychology studies how people think about, influence, and relate to others.

Question 77

Social psychologists most often utilize an individual level of analysis.

Question 78

Behaviorism has been a major influence on contemporary social psychology.

Question 79

Association and reinforcement are basic principles of motivational theories in social psychology.

Question 80

To enhance our self-esteem and satisfy a need to feel good about ourselves, we may blame others for our failures and take personal credit for successes.