Question 1

In the "Wall Street Game" and "Community Game" research, the personality traits of the student participants

Accepted Answer

A) determined how participants played the game. 
B) had no measurable effect on the participants' behavior. 
C) caused them to commit the fundamental attribution error. 
D) mean the more competitive students did better on the Community Game.

Question 2

Although the fields of sociology and social psychology are related, what distinguishes social psychology from the other?

Accepted Answer

A)  It uses rigorous scientific methods; the other does not. 
B)  It examines how social situations impact individual's lives, whereas the other examines only the individual. 
C)  It examines the individual in the situation, whereas the other examines broader societal issues. 
D)  It examines social situations, but not the individuals in them.

Question 3

According to the authors of your text, when faced with a puzzling social question, it may be tempting to ask people why they behaved as they did.Why is this not always the best way to understand social behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)  People almost always lie when they are interviewed. 
B)  People would feel defensive, even when asked benign questions. 
C)  People would not necessarily know why they behaved as they did. 
D)  People would simply answer randomly.

Question 4

Jamal was confused by his sister's relationship with her boyfriend.They just didn't seem to have anything in common."Oh well," Jamal figured, "I guess opposites really do attract." Jamal's explanation is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  folk wisdom. 
B)  philosophy. 
C)  sociology. 
D)  social psychology.

Question 5

Rahid's server in the restaurant just can't seem to get his order right.If Rahid has just read Chapter 1 on social influence and is thinking more like a social psychologist than before, what would he be most likely to think?

Accepted Answer

A)  "This person is a chronic dolt." 
B)  "Our educational system is failing us." 
C)  "This person must have had a bad morning." 
D)  "Human beings are inherently lazy."

Question 6

Melissa, Sally, Kathleen, and Lynne went mountain climbing.According to the self-justification approach, which one of the women would most appreciate the view from the top of the mountain?

Accepted Answer

A)  Melissa, who climbed while listening to arousing music on her headphones. 
B)  Sally, who pulled a muscle and got scratched by thorns. 
C)  Kathleen, who enjoyed seeing the different types of trees on the mountain. 
D)  Lynne, who daydreamed about her husband while she climbed.

Question 7

Jake had a hypothesis about the outcome of the Ross and colleagues (2004) study about the "Wall Street Game" and the "Community Game." Jake hypothesized that the players would respond based on their personalities, not just the name of the game they played.His hypothesis is most likely based on which tendency?

Accepted Answer

A)  self-fulfilling prophecy 
B)  construals 
C)  direct social influence 
D)  fundamental attribution error

Question 8

Compare the importance that behaviorist and Gestalt approaches attach to such "mentalistic" concepts as thoughts and feelings.To which of these schools of thought is contemporary social psychology more closely related and why?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Compare the importance that behaviorist and Gestalt...

Question 9

Which of the following is not a likely consequence of the human tendency to prefer self-justifying information to accurate information?

Accepted Answer

A)  People maintain their level of self-esteem. 
B)  People become less likely to learn from their experiences. 
C)  People may make faulty decisions about future behavior. 
D)  People gain feedback that makes for better decisions.

Question 10

According to social cognition researchers, we sometimes have difficulty making sense of the social world because we

Accepted Answer

A)  are inherently flawed in our reasoning. 
B)  choose to ignore the relevant facts. 
C)  ignore simple decisions in favor of complex decisions. 
D)  lack the stamina to seek out all the relevant facts.

Question 11

According to the authors of your text, people's evaluations of how good, competent, and decent they are is the definition of

Accepted Answer

A)  self-evaluation. 
B)  self-efficacy. 
C)  self-monitoring. 
D)  self-esteem.

Question 12

Social psychologists, as compared to personality psychologists, believe that by only paying attention to the influence of personality traits on behavior, one is ignoring what?

Accepted Answer

A)  genetic variation 
B)  the role of social influence 
C)  individual differences 
D)  common sense

Question 13

Ted likes Jim and smiles at him every chance he gets.Jim wonders why Ted is always smirking at him sarcastically and studiously avoids him.Ted thinks he's being friendly and cannot understand Jim's standoffishness; Jim thinks Ted is a jerk for continuing to smirk at him without explanation.This difference illustrates the role of ________ in explaining social behavior.

Accepted Answer

A)  power 
B)  construals 
C)  the need for affiliation 
D)  persuasion

Question 14

The authors of your text discuss three snares in peoples' ability to reason accurately.All of the following are snares in reasoning except

Accepted Answer

A)  People rarely know all of the facts. 
B)  People are seldom motivated to be accurate. 
C)  People often lack time or stamina to reason well. 
D)  People often generalize based on superficial information.

Question 15

Which of the following people have fallen prey to the fundamental attribution error?

Accepted Answer

A)  Cindy, who explains her poor exam performance by pointing out how hard the questions were. 
B)  Tim, who points to a person who fell down and says, "What a clumsy oaf!" 
C)  Guillermo, who explains his girlfriend's tears by saying, "She didn't get enough sleep last night." 
D)  Dien, who points to an erratic driver and says, "Look at that! The roads are slick tonight."

Question 16

Marta left a party feeling very upset.Rather than trying to recall each conversation she had during the party, Marta tried to explain her feelings by reflecting on the party as a whole.The process Marta used resembles the approach used by ________ psychologists.

Accepted Answer

A)  behavioral 
B)  social 
C)  personality 
D)  Gestalt

Question 17

Julia eats granola bars and avoids chocolate bars, even though the granola bars contain 50 percent more fat and 15 percent more sodium than the chocolate bars.According to a social cognition approach, why might that be? Julia

Accepted Answer

A)  is motivated to see herself as a healthy person. 
B)  is motivated to convince her friends that she is a healthy person. 
C)  failed to seek out all the relevant facts about the nutritional value of those snacks. 
D)  needs to justify paying more for the granola bar.

Question 18

Which of the following relatively "famous" psychologists is a behaviorist?

Accepted Answer

A)  Wolfgang Kohler 
B)  Lee Ross 
C)  B.F.Skinner 
D)  Kurt Lewin

Question 19

Tom saw a weight-loss program advertised on late-night television.The ad claimed that deep breathing exercises would speed up metabolism, causing people to lose weight.He mailed a check for $99.95.When the plan arrived, Tom rearranged his day so that he could complete the breathing exercises as scheduled.They made him nauseated and dizzy, and before long, Tom's friends began to think that he was going overboard with the program, and they began to avoid him.After the end of the ten-week program, Tom got on the scale and saw that he hadn't lost an ounce! Still, he remained enthusiastic and thought, "I may not have lost any weight, but I feel so much healthier!" This situation is best explained by

Accepted Answer

A)  the justification of suffering. 
B)  the self-fulfilling prophecy. 
C)  delusional thinking. 
D)  accurate self-perceptions.

Question 20

Several presidents have been given conflicting advice during wartime.Some advisers urged the president to pursue a peaceful solution; others urged him to escalate bombing to overcome the enemy.These presidents did not want to go down in history as the first U.S.president to lose a war, so they have chosen to escalate, thereby prolonging the war.According to your text, this decision was most likely a consequence of the motive to

Accepted Answer

A)  perceive the situation as accurately as possible. 
B)  save as many lives as possible. 
C)  justify previous actions. 
D)  convince the taxpayers that a tax increase was necessary.

Exam 1: Introducing Social Psychology