Deck 21: A: Reading

Question 1

What do Cohen et al., suggest heightens the distress felt by people of minority backgrounds, particular when those backgrounds carry widely known negative stereotypes?

A) being in a chronically evaluative situation
B) repeated exposure to others who are more successful
C) being overtly or openly denigrated by a boss or a superior
D) lack of a strong positive role model during childhood

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which major concept discussed by Aronson in The Social Animal is at the heart of the research questions asked by Cohen and his colleagues?

A) cognitive dissonance
B) stereotype threat
C) hindsight bias
D) fundamental attribution error

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In Cohen et al., the researchers used a word fragment task in which participants were given seven words that were incomplete (e.g., _ ACE). They could be completed in either a stereotype-neutral way (i.e., FACE) or in a stereotype-relevant fashion (i.e., RACE). This task was intended to:

A) activate a racial stereotype in the participants.
B) measure whether a stereotype had been activated in participants.
C) reduce the racial stereotype that had been activated in the participants.
D) eliminate the racial stereotype that had been activated in the participants.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What did Cohen et al., find about the value of self-affirmation in their first study?

A) Students did not demonstrate any significant impact when they engaged in a self-affirmation task.
B) All students-regardless of race-performed better in school when they engaged in a self-affirmation task, but black students' improvement was vastly greater than that of white students.
C) All students-regardless of race-performed better in school when they engaged in self-affirmation tasks.
D) Approximately 70% of African American students performed better when they engaged in a self-affirmation task.

Question 5

What do Cohen and his colleagues suggest about the need for drastic interventions in preference to small interventions in the classroom setting?

A) Students of racial or ethnic minority backgrounds need immediate and drastic self-affirmation interventions to "close the gap" between their performance and that of their white classmates.
B) Only students whose families support self-affirmation exercises at home will benefit form classroom interventions.
C) When interventions are introduced in small but consistent doses, the long-term impact can be very significant.
D) The classroom intervention of self-affirmation is effective only when it is introduced by minority teachers, as students tend to disregard such efforts by white teachers.