Deck 14: Social Behavior

Question 1

The effects of the real or imagined presence of others on people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are studied by ____________ psychologists.

A) behavioral
B) social
C) biological
D) cognitive

Answer 1

social

Question 2

Evolutionary theorists describe the primary function of social behavior as __________.

A) ensuring safety and cooperation
B) increasing self-esteem
C) the means to a financial end
D) the random misfiring of neurons

Answer 2

ensuring safety and cooperation

Question 3

Social facilitation is a phenomenon whereby __________.

A) peers urge children to engage in deviant behavior
B) others offer rewards for the completion of a task
C) the presence of others improves performance
D) parents pass on to children the genetic foundations of social behavior

Answer 3

the presence of others improves performance

Question 4

Zajonc (1965) showed that social facilitation occurs most frequently when we are performing tasks that
__________.

A) we usually perform well
B) we are unfamiliar with
C) others do not want us to perform
D) groups will reward us for doing

Question 5

Social psychologists argue that social loafing occurs most likely as a result of __________.

A) diffusion of responsibility
B) fundamental attribution
C) laziness
D) obedience

Question 6

When he enters a building, Troy does not hold the door for the next person coming in. He is said to be violating __________.

A) a social norm
B) a rule
C) a sanction
D) an institution

Question 7

Jackie buys pink and green shoes because everyone in her school is wearing them. Jackie's behavior is an example of __________.

A) obedience
B) compliance
C) conformity
D) social loafing

Question 8

Paolo sees that no one else taking his psychology course brings their textbooks to class, so he stops bringing his. This type of conformity is based on __________.

A) downward comparison
B) attribution error
C) explicit obedience
D) informational social influence

Question 9

An example of informational social influence would be __________.

A) chimpanzees looking to other chimpanzees to learn to use new tools
B) babies preferring pictures of other babies laughing versus crying
C) people in large groups tending not to help someone experiencing a crisis
D) adolescents not considering consequences as much as adults do

Question 10

Joanie goes to a wild fraternity party even though she doesn't really want to go, because she wants the other college students to think highly of her. Joanie's behavior reflects ____________ social influence.

A) upward
B) informational
C) normative
D) none of these

Question 11

Solomon Asch's classic study on conformity pressure showed that __________.

A) the majority of people went along with group answers that were clearly wrong
B) most people would shock a harmless victim if given a command to do so
C) people do not adapt to social roles very quickly, especially if they change residence
D) diffusion of responsibility would keep a victim from receiving bystanders' help

Question 12

Who conducted the classic study on conformity pressure using a line-length judgment task?

A) Stanley Milgram
B) Solomon Asch
C) Philip Zimbardo
D) Donn Byrne

Question 13

In psychological research, what is a confederate?

A) an experimenter who has prior knowledge that conditions unaccounted for in the study's design will affect the study's outcome
B) any variable that is held constant throughout the study and measured at the end
C) someone who pretends to be a participant in a research experiment but actually works for the experimenter
D) an assigned group of participants who experience all aspects of the study except the independent variable

Question 14

Research shows that the likelihood with which someone will conform to group behavior is affected by __________.

A) unanimity
B) culture
C) group size
D) all of these

Question 15

A single person or small group within a larger group is called a __________.

A) prejudice
B) stereotype
C) minority
D) majority

Question 16

For the minority to influence the attitudes of the majority, which of the following must occur?

A) The majority must be consistent in their attitudes.
B) The minority must be consistent in their attitudes.
C) The minority must use normative social influence.
D) all of these.

Question 17

The term obedience refers to __________.

A) changing behavior to be accepted by a group
B) compliance with an authority figure's demands
C) dissimilar attitudes creating a negative effect
D) carefully considering the details of a message

Question 18

Social psychologists' interest in studying obedience emerged in response to __________.

A) Nazi soldiers blindly following orders in World War II
B) sexual repression of women in the Victorian era
C) a high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Viet Nam veterans
D) an increased incidence of juvenile delinquency in the 1980s and 1990s

Question 19

The psychologist who conducted the classic experiment on obedience wherein a "teacher" was given orders to electrically shock a "learner"
Was __________.

A) Erik Erikson
B) Stanley Milgram
C) Charles Brewer
D) Mary Ainsworth

Question 20

In Milgram's classic study on obedience, when a participant showed resistance to the idea of harming someone, how did the experimenter make him continue?

A) The experimenter bribed him to keep going.
B) The experimenter threatened to revoke his payment for participation.
C) The experimenter told him he was required to continue.
D) The experimenter threatened to harm his family.

Question 21

What percentage of participants completed Milgram's famous obedience experiment-following orders and believing they were delivering a deadly shock to another person?

A) None
B) 15 percent
C) 35 percent
D) 65 percent

Question 22

Social psychologists speculate that one reason soldiers blindly follow orders to harm or kill people is that they __________.

A) view the authority figure as weak and undeserving of his or her superior position
B) feel a personal closeness to and empathy for the victim
C) feel relatively guiltless because the authority figure is ultimately responsible
D) view the authority figure as incompetent and ineffective

Question 23

Although the ethics of Milgram's classic obedience experiment is often questioned, what percentage of participants from the study reported afterward that they regretted participating?

A) 2 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 65 percent
D) 100 percent

Question 24

______________ are the inferences we make about the causes of other people's behavior.

A) Social comparisons
B) Attitudes
C) Attributions
D) Biases

Question 25

Which of the following individuals is making an external or situational attribution?

A) Randy finds dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and comments that his daughter was just too lazy to wash them after she ate.
B) Maureen tells her friends that her boyfriend could not choose a nice shirt to wear if it came out of the drawer and bit him.
C) Marissa sees Chris trip and notes how clumsy he must be; she didn't see that the concrete of the sidewalk was crumbling.
D) Ted's girlfriend is late meeting his friends and him for dinner, and he tells the group that she is probably stuck in traffic.

Question 26

Roscoe says he got an A on the psychology test because he is smart, but he got a D on the English test because the professor is mean and gave an unfair exam. Roscoe is most likely committing __________.

A) a self-serving bias
B) an actor-observer bias
C) the ultimate attribution error
D) the fundamental attribution error

Question 27

The tendency to make dispositional attributions about others' behavior and ignore the context of or situation surrounding the behavior is called __________.

A) cognitive dissonance
B) the fundamental attribution error
C) out-group bias
D) informational social influence

Question 28

Which of the following individuals is committing the fundamental attribution error?

A) Nadia says that Claude gets bad grades because he is not intelligent enough to be in college.
B) Monique defends Claude's bad academic performance, noting that he works 50 hours a week at his job
And still attends school.
C) Claude states that Nadia must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed today because she is so nasty and grumpy.
D) Carl asks Claude to go with him to the cafeteria to eat, and they both comment that the food will be really bad.

Question 29

Someone from which of the following countries is most likely to commit the fundamental attribution error?

A) India
B) Japan
C) the United States
D) China

Question 30

Which of the following appears to be a reason that we are not very good at detecting whether or not someone is lying?

A) We do not pay enough attention to cues of nervousness.
B) We pay too much attention to someone's tone of voice.
C) We are too suspicious when someone is warm and friendly.
D) We put too much weight on what someone is saying.

Question 31

In a test of detecting deception, which of the following "experts" were the best lie detectors?

A) police officers
B) CIA agents
C) Secret Service agents
D) psychiatrists

Question 32

Our schemas for how we anticipate that a member of a group ought to behave may give rise to__________ thinking.

A) stereotypical
B) consequential
C) external
D) fundamental

Question 33

When one relies on a stereotype to provide information about a person based solely on his or her group membership, one is __________.

A) forming quick but often accurate portrayals of someone's personality
B) committing a situational attribution that is usually incorrect
C) not using a heuristic
D) not using the parts of one's brain involved in careful thought

Question 34

Prejudice is __________.

A) an unfair attitude about someone based solely on his or her group membership
B) unfair treatment of someone due to his or her group membership
C) assuming that all members of a particular group behave the same way
D) all of these

Question 35

Which of the following is not an example of prejudice?

A) Deborah will not hire members of a certain ethnic group.
B) Steve thinks people of a certain ethnicity are not trustworthy.
C) Nikki cannot afford to live in a higher-income neighborhood.
D) Manuel says that all women should be able to cook.

Question 36

Milton thinks that women should not be promoted to executive positions. He is demonstrating__________.

A) sexism
B) ageism
C) racism
D) classism

Question 37

Which of the following people is discriminating?

A) Katia, who doesn't let men into her club
B) Melvin, who can't stand women
C) Marta, who thinks all Italians can cook well
D) LeBron, who paid for his mother's dinner

Question 38

People can learn prejudicial attitudes in which of the following ways?

A) classical conditioning
B) instrumental conditioning
C) observational learning
D) all of these

Question 39

The effect of prior exposure to information on subsequent behaviors is known as __________.

A) referencing
B) priming
C) stereotyping
D) miming

Question 40

Beliefs or opinions about objects, ideas, or people are known as __________.

A) internal attributions
B) attitudes
C) external attributions
D) primes

Question 41

The ___________ component of an attitude includes the feelings or emotions associated with it.

A) affective
B) cognitive
C) behavioral
D) all of these

Question 42

Where do human attitudes come from?

A) They have been conveyed to us.
B) They have evolved.
C) They are learned by watching others.
D) all of these.

Question 43

The more Tanya hears a new song, the more she likes it. Zajonc's theory would say that Tanya's liking is a result of _________.

A) internal attribution
B) excitation transfer
C) mere exposure
D) self-serving bias

Question 44

A company that produces a sports drink hires a popular, successful tennis player to promote its product. It runs television, radio, and Web commercials featuring the athlete winning tennis matches, smiling, and consuming the sports drink. According to social psychological research, which of the following is the most likely reason this sales tactic will work?

A) We will become operantly conditioned to pair the drink's taste with social and biological reinforcers.
B) We will associate the drink with the skill and popularity of the athlete and evaluate it positively.
C) We will probably be punished by our in-group for not buying the sports drink.
D) We will see others buying the sports drink and feel peer pressure to buy it.

Question 45

Making Connections in Social Behavior: A company that produces a sports drink hires a popular, successful tennis player to promote its product. It runs television, radio, and Web commercials featuring the athlete winning tennis matches, smiling, and consuming the sports drink. The advertisers in this situation are relying on the learning principles of ________________ to promote their product.

A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) the bystander effect
D) reciprocal altruism

Question 46

The feeling of discomfort caused by holding two contrary attitudes and acknowledging the validity of both arguments is called __________.

A) self-serving bias
B) reactance
C) cognitive dissonance
D) persuasion

Question 47

Brett often takes illicit drugs recreationally. Even though he knows it is illegal and potentially deadly, he says to himself, "I only do it once in a while, and I won't get caught or become addicted!" Brett is engaging in __________.

A) dissonance
B) rationalization
C) sublimation
D) behavior modification

Question 48

Someone attempting to change our attitude is engaged in __________.

A) aggression
B) frustration
C) sublimation
D) persuasion

Question 49

An individual will be more persuasive if he is __________.

A) not prestigious
B) attractive
C) unfamiliar
D) not credible

Question 50

For a behavior to be considered aggressive, it must be __________.

A) irrational
B) painful
C) intentional
D) violent

Question 51

Caspi and colleagues (2002) found a particular gene that is associated with violent tendencies if the individual was subjected to __________ early in life.

A) relationship failure
B) childhood abuse
C) environmental toxins
D) all of these

Question 52

The part of the brain responsible for _____________ is often malfunctioning in aggressive people.

A) temperature moderation
B) physical sensation
C) peripheral vision
D) impulse control

Question 53

Which of the following factors make aggression more likely?

A) being male
B) high levels of testosterone
C) low levels of serotonin
D) all of these

Question 54

Albert Bandura's Bobo doll study demonstrated which of the following with respect to aggression?

A) Organisms can be trained to associate neutral stimuli with aggressive stimuli.
B) Children can learn aggression through exposure to aggressive models.
C) Aggressive parenting styles create aggressive children.
D) People will conform to the behavior of others to avoid rejection.

Question 55

Which type of research will demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between viewing violent media programs and acting aggressively?

A) correlational
B) observational
C) meta-analysis experiments
D) all of these

Question 56

Some psychologists theorize that viewing violent programming leads to aggression due to

A) desensitization to violence
B) stimulation of the somatosensory cortex
C) feeling fearful of violence
D) all of these

Question 57

Prosocial behavior is that which __________.

A) raises the self-esteem of the actor
B) is taught by a professional
C) is beneficial to others
D) is rewarded financially

Question 58

In the famous case of murder victim Kitty Genovese, psychologists speculate that no one came to her aid because of __________.

A) a perceived inability to overcome the perpetrator
B) failure to recognize the crime
C) the callousness of big-city residents
D) diffusion of responsibility

Question 59

John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) described the bystander effect as __________.

A) the larger the group size, the more likely someone is to conform to group thinking and behavior
B) the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help
C) the larger the proportion of similar attitudes we share with someone, the more likely we are to be attracted to him or her
D) the tendency to attribute one's successes to internal causes and one's failures to external causes

Question 60

The first step in helping someone in the event of an emergency is __________.

A) assessing whether one has the skills to help
B) deciding it is one's responsibility to assist the victim
C) realizing that the situation is an emergency
D) weighing the consequences of helping versus not helping

Question 61

_____________ is selfless concern for and helping of others.

A) Altruism
B) Kin selection
C) Attribution
D) In-group bias

Question 62

The evolved predisposition to provide assistance to one's relatives over nonrelatives is called__________.

A) altruism
B) out-group bias
C) kin selection
D) prejudice

Question 63

Evolutionary psychologists who argue against the existence of pure altruism explain that helping others increases the chance one will be helped in the future, aphenomenon labeled __________.

A) kin selection
B) reciprocal altruism
C) actor-observer bias
D) normative social influence

Question 64

The ability to put yourself "in someone else's shoes"-to understand a person's attitudes and feelings - is called __________.

A) altruism
B) sympathy
C) empathy
D) all of these

Question 65

Research by Singer and colleagues (2004) reported that when women witnessed their partners feeling pain, their brains showed activation in the __________.

A) somatosensory cortex and visual cortex
B) insula and brain stem
C) thalamus and cerebellum
D) anterior cingulate cortex and insula

Question 66

People are attracted to others who are __________.

A) more physically attractive
B) less physically attractive
C) similarly attractive
D) none of these

Question 67

Which of the following people are most likely to become friends?

A) Anna and Joanne, who are both Republican
B) Karen, who is a political science major, and Meg, who is a math major
C) Gina, who is from Hawaii, and Yolanda, who is from Ohio
D) Louise, who believes in God, and Marta, who does not

Question 68

Research shows that both infants and adults prefer faces that are more ____________ than others.

A) masculine
B) feminine
C) symmetrical
D) diverse

Question 69

When evaluating a short-term sexual partner, men tend to place the most emphasis on which of the following?

A) intelligence
B) breasts
C) sense of humor
D) legs

Question 70

Which of the following components of Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love refers to the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual involvement?

A) commitment
B) intimacy
C) passion
D) liking

Question 71

In Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love, close connectedness, interpersonal trust, and a strong bond between two people constitute the component of__________.

A) passion
B) commitment
C) intimacy
D) none of these

Question 72

Robert Sternberg's theory of love contends which of the following?

A) We are most attracted to the people who are closest to us in proximity, like neighbors.
B) We must have intimacy, commitment, and passion to have a complete, consummate love.
C) We need to have only a strong sexual attraction and commitment to have complete love.
D) We are incapable of committed love for any length of time; thus passion is most important.

Question 73

Those who were securely attached as infants demonstrated which of the following in adulthood?

A) fear of abandonment
B) less satisfying relationships
C) more trust in others
D) obsession with a partner

Question 74

____________ is an extremist group led by a charismatic, totalitarian authority figure in which coercive methods are used to retain group members.

A) A cult
B) A team
C) An in-group
D) An out-group

Question 75

The ___________ technique is a method of gaining compliance whereby a person is more likely to agree to a large request if they first agree to a smaller request.

A) lowball
B) door-in-the-face
C) foot-in-the-door
D) scarcity
Ch14 Key