Deck 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations

Question 1

The social identity theory states that we define ourselves by the groups to which we belong or have an emotional attachment.

Answer 1

True
Explanation: Social identity (also called external self-concept) is the central theme of social identity theory, which says that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment.

Question 2

Training employees is most useful in minimizing stereotyping to a large extent.

Answer 2

False
Explanation: Specialized training can minimize stereotype activation to some extent, but for the most part the process is hardwired in our brain cells.

Question 3

People tend to make an internal attribution about someone's behavior if that person has typically not acted in a similar way either in the past or in other situations.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: Internal attributions are made when the observed individual behaved this way in the past (high consistency), he or she behaves like this toward other people or in different situations (low distinctiveness), and other people do not behave this way in similar situations (low consensus).

Question 4

Selective attention occurs after perceptual organization and interpretation.

Question 5

Most categorical thinking occurs without our awareness.

Question 6

The fundamental attribution error would cause a supervisor to believe that an employee's lateness is due to factors beyond the employee's control rather than to a lack of motivation to attend work.

Question 7

Our emotions influence what we recognize or screen out.

Question 8

The perceptual process begins by attributing behavior to internal or external causes.

Question 9

Categorical thinking is the mostly conscious process of organizing people and objects into categories that are stored in our short-term memory.

Question 10

People who believe that their successful completion of a project is due to their skill and hard work are making an internal attribution.

Question 11

Employees can break out of their existing mental models by working with colleagues from diverse backgrounds that bring different mental models to the workplace.

Question 12

Seeing a trend in a gambling activity or in the winning streak of a sports star includes categorical thinking.

Question 13

Confirmation bias causes us to screen out information that is contrary to our values and assumptions.

Question 14

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to attribute the behavior of other people to internal factors more than external factors.

Question 15

Stereotyping is an extension of social identity theory and a product of our natural process of organizing information through categorical thinking.

Question 16

Homogenization and differentiation are two activities in the process of forming and maintaining our social identity.

Question 17

People rely on mental models to make sense of their environment through perceptual grouping.

Question 18

You are more likely to make an internal attribution about someone's poor performance if you have also observed the person performing that task poorly in the past and have observed other employees performing the task well.

Question 19

When making an internal or external attribution about a person's behavior,we tend to look at whether the person has acted this way in the past and in other situations and whether other people have acted similarly in the same situation.

Question 20

Social identity is a comparative process,and the comparison begins with categorical thinking.

Question 21

Empathy is both cognitive and emotional.

Question 22

Employees who are thinking of quitting their jobs believe that a large percentage of their coworkers are also thinking about quitting.This perceptual error is called the halo effect.

Question 23

When interacting with people from other backgrounds,perceptual biases are more likely to be minimized when these people have equal status during the interaction.

Question 24

The halo effect occurs when one characteristic of a person shapes our general impression of that person which,in turn,biases our perceptions about the other characteristics of that person.

Question 25

The self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for our successes and blame others or the situation for our mistakes.

Question 26

Employees with a high level of self-awareness will have increased perceptual biases of others.

Question 27

Diversity awareness programs mainly educate employees about the value of diversity and the problems with stereotyping.

Question 28

The self-fulfilling prophecy helps supervisors accurately predict the future performance of recently hired employees.

Question 29

The Johari Window is a training program that teaches employees how to change their personality.

Question 30

A person's annual performance evaluation is heavily influenced by performance results of the last month.This is an example of recency effect.

Question 31

Self-fulfilling-prophecy training encourages managers to eliminate self-fulfilling prophecies.

Question 32

According to the Johari Window,the hidden area is reduced through disclosure.

Question 33

The first step in a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when the observer acts differently toward people with whom he or she has high expectations than towards those with whom he or she has low expectations.

Question 34

The primacy effect refers to the phenomenon of forming an opinion of other people based on the first information.

Question 35

According to the halo effect,a supervisor's initial expectations of you influence your behavior so that you are more likely to act consistently with those expectations in the consequent encounters.

Question 36

The contact hypothesis states that the more individuals interact with one another,the less they rely on stereotypes to perceive each other.

Question 37

The self-fulfilling prophecy tends to be stronger when employees are new to the job than when employees have worked in that job for a few years.

Question 38

A manager believes in the philosophy of positive organizational behavior.His self-fulfilling prophecies would improve organizational performance.

Question 39

The primacy effect causes interviewers to ignore information presented at the beginning of the interview and pay more attention to the dominant information presented later in the interview.

Question 40

You are a high achievement-oriented person.You will likely have a stronger self-fulfilling-prophecy effect than the low achievers.

Question 41

Mental models cause us to:

A) perceive events as though people are acting on a theatrical stage.
B) select and organize stimuli in ways that are consistent with our broad world views.
C) believe the behavior of others is caused more by their ability or motivation than the situation.
D) perceive ourselves as members of several groups that are different from people in other groups.
E) change our personality whenever we develop new mental models.

Question 42

In a global mindset,the empathy of an individual from a different culture translates into the effective use of words and behaviors that are compatible with the local culture.

Question 43

People who learn to empathize with others are less likely to engage in fundamental attribution errors.

Question 44

George believes that women have difficulty coping with the stress of executive decisions.Sally is promoted into a senior management position and George soon complains that Sally won't be able to cope with this job.George is exhibiting which of the following perceptual errors?

A) Attribution error
B) Stereotyping
C) Projection bias
D) Halo error
E) Recency error

Question 45

According to the social identity theory,people tend to:

A) receive information and make sense of the world around them.
B) perceive that their own actions are due to the situation, whereas the behaviors of other people are mainly due to their motivation and ability.
C) believe that people in their own groups share common traits.
D) think that they are distinct from people in the social groups to which they have a connection.
E) refer to something about themselves as separate individuals.

Question 46

Systemic discrimination:

A) is not due to a perceptual error.
B) will not result in stereotyping.
C) is completely based on prejudice.
D) creates unintentional stereotypes.
E) is associated with negative attitudes toward others.

Question 47

Generally,the brands placed on the upper shelves of supermarkets receive greater attention than those on the lower shelves.This is an example of _____.

A) selective attention
B) stereotyping
C) halo effect
D) behavior modification
E) recency effect

Question 48

A global mindset excludes the capacity to empathize and act effectively across cultures.

Question 49

Which of the following occurs most likely due to confirmation bias?

A) A company conducts monthly performance reviews to evaluate its employees.
B) A customer demands a proof statement from the salesperson.
C) A manager believes his actions are correct, though they are highly unpopular.
D) A manager considers female workers to be less productive than the male workers.
E) A teacher assigns moderate grades to all her students, though there is a vast difference in performance.

Question 50

Some investors in the stock market become overconfident and ignore evidence that their strategies will lose money.This can be attributed to _____.

A) the primacy effect
B) confirmation bias
C) the recency effect
D) the prophecy effect
E) stereotyping

Question 51

Which of the following refers to the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us?

A) Personalization
B) Motivation
C) Reinforcement theory
D) Perception
E) Social identification

Question 52

_____ is the unconscious process of organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are stored in our long-term memory.

A) Mental model
B) Social identification
C) Categorical thinking
D) Personal identification
E) Reinforcement theory

Question 53

Social perception is influenced by three activities in the process of forming and maintaining our social identity.They are:

A) attribution, acceptance, and modification.
B) categorization, homogenization, and differentiation.
C) perception, personality, and attitude.
D) fundamental attribution, self-serving attribution, and social identity.
E) agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Question 54

A global mindset can be developed through better knowledge of people and cultures solely by formal training.

Question 55

Which of the following is an example of selective attention?

A) You notice that two employees are arguing in the company's quiet library.
B) You conclude that the person near the cash register is a sales clerk.
C) You assume that an employee is lazy because she works in a department with lazy people.
D) You watch only a few television channels based on your interests.
E) You select a few job applicants through structured interviews.

Question 56

Social identity theory says that:

A) we define ourselves in terms of our membership in certain groups and our differences with people who belong to other groups.
B) we tend to believe our own actions are caused by motivation or ability rather than the situation.
C) our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations.
D) we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them.
E) our emotions screen out large blocks of information that threaten our beliefs and values.

Question 57

________ is the process of filtering information received by our senses.

A) Personal identification
B) Social learning
C) Projection
D) Stereotyping
E) Selective attention

Question 58

André is a doctor who is quick to mention that he is a doctor when he first meets other people.He also tends to perceive himself and other physicians in a more favorable way than nurses and non-medical staff.Which concept best explains André's perceptual process?

A) Attribution theory
B) Social identity theory
C) Self-fulfilling prophecy
D) Perceptual defense
E) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Question 59

Mental models are _____ that guide perceptions and behavior.

A) stereotypes
B) forms of punishment
C) self-fulfilling prophecies
D) broad world views
E) action learning practices

Question 60

The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in an identifiable social category is called:

A) the recency effect.
B) the halo effect.
C) projection bias.
D) empathy.
E) stereotyping.

Question 61

The recency effect is most common when:

A) making an evaluation involving complex information.
B) the decision maker has considerable experience in that situation.
C) the decision maker believes most employees are above average.
D) evaluating someone who is easily identified with a visible demographic group.
E) the decision maker has a strong learning orientation.

Question 62

The _____ process involves deciding whether an observed behavior or event is caused mainly by the person or by the environment.

A) attribution
B) stereotyping
C) social identification
D) selective attention
E) self identification

Question 63

Which of the following is an internal factor that affects job performance?

A) Economic conditions
B) Changes in salary
C) Peer-Support
D) Internal competition
E) Motivation to work

Question 64

The self-fulfilling prophecy effect is stronger:

A) at the beginning of a relationship.
B) for experienced employees.
C) when a relationship is saturated.
D) when a relationship is extremely complex.
E) when a relationship is very strong.

Question 65

The statement "First impressions are lasting impressions" best represents the:

A) primacy effect.
B) self-fulfilling prophecy.
C) projection bias.
D) recency effect.
E) extroversion effect.

Question 66

Which of the following is a perceptual error where we tend to believe that other people hold the same beliefs and attitudes as we do?

A) Self-serving bias
B) Recency effect
C) False-consensus effect
D) Self-fulfilling prophecy
E) Personal identity

Question 67

How can a self-serving bias be observed in a corporate annual report?

A) The report would say more about the company's problems and less about its successes.
B) The report would emphasize the role of competition, inflationary pressures and other external causes of problems in the organization's performance.
C) The report would exclude any bad news about the organization's performance.
D) The report would acknowledge that competition, the economy and other external factors should be credited for some of the company's recent success.
E) The report would acknowledge some of management's mistakes, but suggest that management in other companies have been making the same mistakes.

Question 68

If John takes credit for work done on time,but blames his co-workers for his delays,his attitude is reflective of the:

A) fundamental attribution error.
B) primacy effect.
C) self-fulfilling prophecy.
D) self-serving bias.
E) projection bias.

Question 69

Which of the following illustrates one of the steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy process?

A) A supervisor forms an incorrect impression of the employee.
B) A supervisor assigns challenging goals to the employee.
C) A supervisor gives lenient feedback to the employee.
D) A supervisor avoids reinforcement of work done by the employee.
E) A supervisor communicates expectations to the employee.

Question 70

If you form a general negative impression of a person based on one prominent characteristic,and it affects your perception of other characteristics of that person,it is called:

A) a projection bias.
B) the halo effect.
C) selective attention.
D) a self-serving bias.
E) stereotyping.

Question 71

Someone who is new to the job and has a low expectancy is:

A) less likely to engage in stereotyping.
B) more likely to engage in the fundamental attribution error.
C) more likely to have a strong learning orientation.
D) more vulnerable to the supervisor's self-fulfilling prophecies of that employee.
E) more likely to engage in behavior modification.

Question 72

Which of the following describes the fundamental attribution error?

A) People seldom make attributions about their own behavior.
B) The likelihood of making an error attributing the behavior of another person increases with your familiarity of that other person.
C) We tend to believe that other people have the same beliefs and behaviors that we have.
D) We tend to believe the behavior of other people is caused more by their motivation and ability than by factors beyond their control.
E) We tend to believe that colleagues perform their jobs better than we perform our job.

Question 73

Which of the following perceptual processes cause self-serving bias?

A) Attribution
B) Halo effect
C) Social identification
D) Stereotyping
E) Self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 74

Which perceptual error occurs when a supervisor incorrectly rates an employee at a similar level across all performance dimensions based on an overall impression of that employee?

A) Attribution error
B) Stereotyping
C) Projection bias
D) Halo effect
E) Recency effect

Question 75

The tendency to attribute the behavior of other people to internal factors more than external factors is called the:

A) recency bias.
B) projection bias.
C) fundamental attribution error.
D) primacy effect.
E) self-serving bias.

Question 76

Which of the following illustrates the first step in the self-fulfilling prophecy?

A) An employee behaves in a way consistent with the supervisor's expectations.
B) A supervisor treats the employee in a manner consistent with the supervisor's expectations.
C) A supervisor forms certain expectations of the employee.
D) A supervisor attributes employee's good performance to external causes.
E) An employee demonstrates his or her true abilities to the supervisor.

Question 77

Consistency,consensus and distinctiveness are the:

A) three elements of behavior modification.
B) three elements of the selective attention process.
C) three rules that determine whether to make an internal or external attribution.
D) three of the four quadrants in the Johari Window.
E) the main causes of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 78

The philosophy of positive organizational behavior states that:

A) employees are more effective when they experience extinction more than other contingencies of reinforcement.
B) employees are, by nature, good rather than bad in terms of their ethics and care for others in the world.
C) focusing on the positive rather than negative aspects of life will improve organizational success and individual well-being.
D) training programs that make leaders aware of the power of positive expectations have the maximum effect.
E) employees process positive information more quickly than negative information.

Question 79

Implicit Association Test are used to:

A) study the tacit knowledge available to employees.
B) find out the relationship between skills and performance.
C) detect subtle race, age, and gender bias with specific demographic groups.
D) assess the hidden skills and abilities of individuals.
E) study the perceptual organization process of individuals.

Question 80

Which of the following concepts is most closely linked to discriminatory attitudes and behaviors?

A) Halo effect
B) Primacy effect
C) Attribution theory
D) Recency effect
E) Stereotyping