Question 1

From MyPsychLab EXPLORE: "Conformity Factors"
(To access this asset go to MyPsychLab and click on "Course Documents." Under the heading "Index of Multimedia," click on the "here" link.Select Chapter 5,Attitudes: Evaluating and Responding to the Social World,and click on "Find Now." For the Chapter 5 items,click on the "Explore" item called "Conformity Factors.")
This exercise is about types of persuasive messages.What are the two routes for persuasive messages,and how do they work? Describe the exercise in general and say something about the advertisements shown.Was the exercise itself a learning experience,and given the rewarding bell for right answers and the punishing buzzer for wrong answers,what type of learning process is going on here? Give your opinion about the effectiveness of messages that ask you to think.

Accepted Answer

The two routes are central and peripheral.The central route is for thinking more effortfully about an ad's message,whereas the peripheral route is more about appealing to more "unthinking" concerns,"if it looks good,then it probably is good." The exercise itself appears to be using instrumental conditioning to reward correct answers and punish wrong answers.The attitude objects would be correct answers (rewarded,pleasant,and therefore desirable)and wrong answers (punished,unpleasant,and therefore to be avoided).The ads in the exercise showed that ads do make an attempt to get you to think,but,even so,there is not much to read or to think about in most ads.

Question 2

The mechanism by which we compare ourselves to other people to determine whether or not our perception of social reality is correct is known as ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  reality checking
B)  impression manifestation
C)  social comparison
D)  societal comparison
E)  other comparison C

Question 3

An attitude is more likely to influence a person's behavior if ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  an important group the individual identifies with is opposed to the behavior supported by the attitude
B)  the object of the attitude is relatively trivial or unimportant to the individual
C)  the behavior supported by the attitude is particularly dramatic or drastic
D)  the individual has had no prior personal experiences with the object of the attitude
E)  the object of the attitude has important consequences for the individual E

Question 4

Messages that arouse strong levels of fear are ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  ineffective at stimulating the third person effect
B)  effective at changing behavior
C)  effective at stimulating the third person effect
D)  ineffective at changing behavior
E)  counterproductive when immediate action is needed

Question 5

Initial evaluation of a stimulus generally refers to ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  an explicit self-conscious process
B)  an inferential thought process
C)  a tendency to avoid a close examination of stimulus detail
D)  a reaction of liking or disliking
E)  the employment of several possible attitudes

Question 6

When attitude-behavior discrepancy involves important attitudes and/or self-belief,________ isn't feasible as a means of reducing cognitive dissonance.

Accepted Answer

The answer of When attitude-behavior discrepancy involves important attitudes and/or...

Question 7

Briefly describe Fazio's attitude-to-behavior process model.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Briefly describe Fazio's attitude-to-behavior process model....

Question 8

When direct rewards are not present,nor any social approval or other motivations,we may develop attitudes by merely viewing others' behaviors,a process called ________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of When direct rewards are not present,nor any...

Question 9

Small rewards produce greater attitude change than do large rewards when people believe they are personally responsible for the action and ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  when the behavior is relatively trivial
B)  that they are responsible for any positive effects the action produced
C)  that they are responsible for any negative effects the action produced
D)  when the justification for the behavior is large
E)  when there is little difference between the size of the rewards

Question 10

Fazio's attitude-to-behavior process model suggests that an event may activate an attitude,which influences our ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  spreading of alternatives
B)  social norms
C)  perceived behavioral control
D)  perceptions of the attitude object
E)  motives to behave in a particular way

Question 11

Our attitudes tend to be strongest and hardest to modify when they are based on direct personal experience with the ________ of the attitudes.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Our attitudes tend to be strongest and...

Question 12

Some universities have run public service ads in which they give the results of a careful survey of their students with what students say is the average number of beers or drinks they are likely to consume in a given evening.Apart from establishing a drinking social norm,why be so explicit about the actual number of drinks? That is,what psychological tendency might the ads be attempting to thwart?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Some universities have run public service ads...

Question 13

We hold values similar to,and identify with,________.

Accepted Answer

A)  members of our reference group(s) 
B)  members of our age group
C)  people who dress similar to ourselves
D)  people with similar tastes in homes/cars
E)  We base our choices strictly on individuating cues.

Question 14

The fewer rewards or reasons a person has for engaging in a behavior the more likely there will be attitude change.This is called __________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The fewer rewards or reasons a person...

Question 15

An advertising company has been hired by the Centers for Disease Control to produce TV commercials to increase awareness of breast cancer in males.Advertising executives are considering three different commercials.The first features actual patients who describe the pain they experienced from the disease.The second focuses on medical doctors discussing early detection strategies and treatment options.The third shows grieving family members surrounding a grave.Which is likely to be more effective at changing men's behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)  The first,focusing on actual patients and their negative outcomes
B)  The second,focusing on specific information that will reduce fear
C)  The third,focusing on the ultimate outcome of ignoring the potential problem
D)  None of these will be effective.
E)  All of these will be equally effective.

Question 16

Cognitive dissonance arises when we notice a discrepancy between our attitudes and our behaviors.One way we can reduce the dissonance is by ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  trivializing the inconsistency by concluding that the attitude or the behavior is not important,so the inconsistency is also unimportant
B)  focusing more of our attention on the discrepancy to determine whether the attitude or the behavior is more important to us
C)  strengthening the attitude and the behavior and ignoring the discrepancy
D)  modifying either the attitude or the behavior to be more extremely inconsistent with each other
E)  describing the dissonant attitude and behavior to a significant other person to seek their support

Question 17

Tony disagrees with a certain political commercial.When the commercial comes on,he immediately switches the television channel.This is an example of ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  formulating counterarguments
B)  attitude polarization
C)  selective avoidance
D)  selective attention
E)  reactance

Question 18

The source of a message influences its effectiveness.To increase the effectiveness of a message,the communicator should be attractive and ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  intelligent
B)  credible
C)  short
D)  distracting
E)  ambiguous

Question 19

People may employ two strategies when resisting persuasive attempts.Which of the following accurately lists these two strategies?

Accepted Answer

A)  Bolstering one's own view and counter-arguing.
B)  Engaging in cognitive dissonance and public commitment
C)  Taking the other person's perspective and monitoring one's self-esteem
D)  Just saying no and heuristically processing
E)  Walk away and turn down the volume

Question 20

Cognitive dissonance arises when we notice a discrepancy between our attitudes and our behaviors.One way we can reduce the dissonance is by ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  modifying either the attitude or the behavior to be more extremely inconsistent with each other
B)  focusing more of our attention on the discrepancy to determine whether the attitude or the behavior is more important to us
C)  describing the dissonant attitude and behavior to a significant other person to seek their support
D)  using self-affirmation,whereby we restore positive self-evaluations by focusing our attention on positive self-attributes
E)  strengthening the attitude and the behavior and ignoring the discrepancy

Exam 5: Attitudes: Evaluating and Responding to the Social World

The mechanism by which we compare ourselves to other people to determine whether or not our perception of social reality is correct is known as ________.

An attitude is more likely to influence a person's behavior if ________.

Messages that arouse strong levels of fear are ________.

Initial evaluation of a stimulus generally refers to ________.

When attitude-behavior discrepancy involves important attitudes and/or self-belief,________ isn't feasible as a means of reducing cognitive dissonance.

Briefly describe Fazio's attitude-to-behavior process model.

When direct rewards are not present,nor any social approval or other motivations,we may develop attitudes by merely viewing others' behaviors,a process called ________.

Small rewards produce greater attitude change than do large rewards when people believe they are personally responsible for the action and ________.

Fazio's attitude-to-behavior process model suggests that an event may activate an attitude,which influences our ________.

Our attitudes tend to be strongest and hardest to modify when they are based on direct personal experience with the ________ of the attitudes.

We hold values similar to,and identify with,________.

The fewer rewards or reasons a person has for engaging in a behavior the more likely there will be attitude change.This is called __________.

Cognitive dissonance arises when we notice a discrepancy between our attitudes and our behaviors.One way we can reduce the dissonance is by ________.

Tony disagrees with a certain political commercial.When the commercial comes on,he immediately switches the television channel.This is an example of ________.

The source of a message influences its effectiveness.To increase the effectiveness of a message,the communicator should be attractive and ________.

People may employ two strategies when resisting persuasive attempts.Which of the following accurately lists these two strategies?

Cognitive dissonance arises when we notice a discrepancy between our attitudes and our behaviors.One way we can reduce the dissonance is by ________.