Question 1

Why does making a decision tend to generate dissonance, how is this dissonance reduced, and under what conditions is postdecisional dissonance reduction the greatest?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Why does making a decision tend to...

Question 2

According to the authors of your text, when people are tempted to behave immorally and they choose to be either moral or immoral in that situation, how do they justify their actions?

Accepted Answer

A) They actually change their attitudes to concur with their actions. 
B) They merely rationalize their actions, and retain their attitudes. 
C) They add cognitions to reduce the dissonance. 
D) They become less satisfied with their behaviors.

Question 3

According to the authors of your text, why would people experience cognitive dissonance after investing a lot of time and effort in pursuit of a goal that falls short of their expectations?

Accepted Answer

A)  Punishment serves to reduce intrinsic motivation. 
B)  Heightened intrinsic motivation biases people's perceptions. 
C)  Actually, people would not experience cognitive dissonance in this situation. 
D)  Sensible people don't work hard to attain something trivial.

Question 4

Mills (1958) had elementary school children compete for attractive prizes.The children could cheat to win the prizes, but they didn't know that the experimenter would be assured of detecting the cheaters.Some children cheated, and others did not.The next day,

Accepted Answer

A)  none of the students endorsed cheating as acceptable. 
B)  those who had cheated earlier became more lenient in their attitudes about cheating. 
C)  those who didn't cheat earlier became more lenient in their attitudes about cheating. 
D)  when they were offered a large inducement to cheat, most students cheated.

Question 5

Research presented in the text (McMillan, Stice, & Rohde, 2011) had high school and college women write essays against the "thin is beautiful" idea.By writing about the emotional and physical costs of pursuing this unhealthy body image, the women showed

Accepted Answer

A)  significant increases in their satisfaction with their bodies. 
B)  significant decreases in happiness. 
C)  significant increases in anxiety. 
D)  increases in dieting.

Question 6

Based on MRI research on people who were experiencing and later resolved cognitive dissonance, what would you expect to happen to Mary, who just reduced her dissonant feelings about visiting the tanning salon by telling herself that she isn't genetically predisposed to skin cancer, so it won't affect her?

Accepted Answer

A)  She will next experience nervousness. 
B)  She will experience pleasant feelings. 
C)  She will be able think critically about other things. 
D)  She will be unable to encode new memories for up to ten minutes.

Question 7

Too late, your neighbor discovered that he couldn't flush his toilet.He has asked you to come help him unstop his plugged toilet.It's not a task that you look forward to, but you come over to help.Based on the psychology of insufficient justification, you'd be most likely to change your attitudes about fixing broken plumbing if you helped

Accepted Answer

A)  Tom, because he helped you change a tire last week. 
B)  Ben, because he sometimes steals your morning paper. 
C)  Adam, because he's a friend who happens to be your neighbor. 
D)  Juan, because he's your neighbor and your boss.

Question 8

According to the authors of your text, using ________ rewards or punishments leads to longer lasting attitude change than using ________ rewards or punishments.

Accepted Answer

A) larger; smaller 
B) tangible; intangible 
C) smaller; larger 
D) meaningful; smaller

Question 9

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues asked college students either to compose a persuasive message advocating the use of condoms or to compose and deliver their message in front of a video camera.Considering which participants in this study later actually purchased more condoms, what would be the best way a high-school Health teacher could promote condom use in his/her class?

Accepted Answer

A) show a video about Ryan White (a victim of HIV) 
B) have students write an essay about being hypocrites if they chose not to use condoms 
C) have students pledge to use condoms 
D) teach students only abstinence, since it is more effective than condoms

Question 10

Based on information from the authors of your text about cognitive dissonance and immoral behavior, which of the following people would be most likely to condone having an extramarital affair?

Accepted Answer

A)  Sarah, who is not married 
B)  Jessie, who cheated on her husband long ago, but didn't get caught 
C)  Laura, who is faithful to her husband 
D)  any of these

Question 11

Social psychologists had African American students do carefully constructed self-affirming writing assignments regarding their good qualities outside of school.If this approach was to work for you with a group of students who were in danger of being academically dismissed, how would it affect them?

Accepted Answer

A)  They would have higher self-esteem but no improvement to academic performance. 
B)  They would have higher self-esteem and improvement in their academic performance. 
C)  They would have lower self-esteem but no improvement to academic performance. 
D)  They would have lower self-esteem and improvement in their academic performance.

Question 12

When people receive bad news-perhaps that they did not get a dream job they applied and interviewed for-what tends to happen?

Accepted Answer

A) People usually feel worse than they expect they were going to. 
B) People tend to feel about as bad as they thought they would. 
C) People realize they really weren't qualified for the job anyway. 
D) People usually put a spin on the news that makes them feel better.

Question 13

Members of the Heaven's Gate cult, who "knew" there was a spaceship following the Hale-Bopp comet, returned a perfectly good telescope they had purchased because they failed to see the spaceship they "knew" was there.Such behaviors demonstrate that

Accepted Answer

A)  cult leaders go to great lengths to brainwash their members. 
B)  people will often go to extreme lengths to justify their actions or beliefs. 
C)  pleasant, smart, reasonable people are seldom drawn to cults. 
D)  scientists, like many of us, are fascinated with the macabre, gruesome aspects of life.

Question 14

According to results of dissonance studies, who is more likely to believe that lying is truly a heinous, unconscionable, and unforgivable act?

Accepted Answer

A)  Mark, who was tempted to lie, but told the truth instead 
B)  Dan, who has always told the truth 
C)  Bill, who lies quite often 
D)  Julius, who knew he should tell the truth, but lied instead

Question 15

Lisa is a car salesperson.She has just gotten you to agree to a deal on a new car and to write out a check for the down payment.She takes this to her manager and comes back a while later saying that, because of taxes and fees, the price of the car will actually come out to $600 over what you agreed upon.According to the research on lowballing, which of the following is most likely to occur?

Accepted Answer

A)  You would decide to buy the car anyway because you realize the decision is reversible. 
B)  You would decide to buy the car only if you are not excited by the anticipation of the event. 
C)  You would decide to buy the car anyway because there is an illusion of irrevocability (i.e., you don't feel that you can reverse your decision). 
D)  You would not buy the car because salespeople are generally ineffective at persuading buyers to do what they want.

Question 16

In general, the more ________ a decision between alternatives, the ________ the postdecision dissonance.

Accepted Answer

A)  permanent; greater 
B)  revocable; greater 
C)  trivial; greater 
D)  free; less

Question 17

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues designed experiments to remind students of their own hypocrisy when it came to using condoms during sex.Participants who made videotaped speeches in which they talked about the difficulties they had using condoms actually changed their attitudes and behaviors related to condom use.These experiments are actually variations on the phenomenon of the ________ paradigm.

Accepted Answer

A)  justification of effort 
B)  post-decision dissonance 
C)  counterattitudinal advocacy 
D)  insufficient punishment

Question 18

Suppose that both Oscar and Sam went through hazing rituals for the same fraternity.Oscar went through a very long and involved hazing process while Sam went through relatively mild rituals.After they both got into the fraternity, they realized that there were a lot of negative things associated with membership that they hadn't expected.According to cognitive dissonance, which of the following would you expect to happen?

Accepted Answer

A)  Oscar would love the fraternity more than Sam because he went through more to get into it. 
B)  Sam would want to stay in the fraternity more than Oscar because Sam realizes that he accepted the membership even though he didn't like it. 
C)  Both Oscar and Sam would like the fraternity equally. 
D)  Sam and Oscar would dislike the fraternity equally because of all the negatives associated with it.

Question 19

Of the following, how are individuals most likely to reduce cognitive dissonance?

Accepted Answer

A)  By pretending they did not perform a particular behavior. 
B)  By reducing their total number of cognitions. 
C)  By adding new cognitions that are consistent with their behavior. 
D)  By decreasing their arousal.

Question 20

Dissonance theorists might assert that just as we suffer for the things we like, we also convince ourselves that we like the things for which we suffer.Use concepts related to the justification of effort to explain this statement.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dissonance theorists might assert that just as...

Exam 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions: the Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction