Deck 1: Defining the Field of Applied Social Psychology

Question 1

Social psychology strives to understand how individuals

A) oppose others
B) think about, relate to, and influence others
C) modify their maladaptive behavior
D) prevent social problems

Answer 1

think about, relate to, and influence others

Question 2

In Sherif's (1966)summer camp research,

A) fun activities, such as tugs-of-war and skits, were used to encourage the development of confidence and positive emotion among campers
B) there were four separate research phases in all
C) competition was used to induce negative intergroup attitudes
D) there was no competition

Answer 2

competition was used to induce negative intergroup attitudes

Question 3

Suppose that research indicates that people who take Supplement X tend to feel more energetic than people who do not take Supplement X.This evidence would provide us with what form of scientific understanding?

A) determination of cause
B) prediction
C) description
D) theory verification

Answer 3

prediction

Question 4

Which of the following guides the decisions made by applied social psychologists and scientists in their work?

A) personal values
B) merit
C) equality
D) equivalence

Question 5

Applied social psychology is defined as ______ of social psychology.

A) an unrelated offshoot
B) the parent discipline
C) the discipline that preceded the growth
D) a branch

Question 6

In the section on the formation of intergroup attitudes in the first chapter,what factor was NOT cited as a determinant of negative attitudes toward other groups?

A) competition
B) social deprivation
C) influence of important others
D) in-group-out-group bias

Question 7

According to the text,which is an important value that guides scientists in their research?

A) skepticism
B) dogmatism
C) subjectivity
D) standardization

Question 8

What feature of applied social psychology,in particular,sets it off from its parent field,social psychology?

A) emphasis on problems
B) design of intervention strategies
C) concern with the practical
D) blend of science and nonscience

Question 9

Sherif's (1966)summer camp research consisted of phases.Which phase emphasized the importance of attaining superordinate goals?

A) Phase 1
B) Phase 2
C) Phase 3
D) Phase 4

Question 10

Which is true with respect to scientific understanding?

A) Explanation is synonymous with establishing cause and effect.
B) Simple description is one type of understanding.
C) Biased prediction is a type of understanding.
D) Explaining why something occurs is unimportant.

Question 11

When social psychologists develop and administer a program for reducing the incidence of bullying in a school system,their efforts are guided,in particular,by both a scientific responsibility and a(n)______ responsibility.

A) ethical
B) impersonal
C) client-centered
D) ecological

Question 12

Understanding social psychological phenomena involves the attainment of several goals.Which is NOT one of them?

A) prediction
B) explanation
C) theory verification
D) description

Question 13

The text cites research evidence pointing to factors that contribute to the development of negative intergroup attitudes.Evidence regarding which possible causal factor was NOT cited?

A) exposure to news reports
B) prior experience with diverse others
C) the nonverbal behavior of adults
D) identification with one's national in-group

Question 14

Explanation concerning the social psychological phenomenon of conformity would include knowing that people

A) of different ages engage in different rates of conformity
B) are more likely to conform when faced with a complex situation than when faced with a simple situation
C) conform to others in order to avoid their disapproval
D) all of these

Question 15

Which activity carried out by a student named Brenda does NOT represent the subject matter of social psychology?

A) She wonders if a new acquaintance is really as happy as he says.
B) She chuckles as she remembers a comment by her roommate.
C) She finds the husband of a friend very attractive.
D) She ponders what she will make for dinner.

Question 16

The essence of science involves two key components.Which is one of them?

A) theory-driven research
B) a set of core values
C) generalizability of findings across disciplines
D) primary emphasis on experimentation

Question 17

What is NOT a fundamental characteristic of an empirical test?

A) guided by theory
B) allows for the support or refutation of propositions
C) involves systematic observation
D) readily allows for replication by other researchers

Question 18

In having boys work toward superordinate goals,Sherif (1966)was concerned primarily with which goal of science?

A) improving quality of life
B) control
C) determination of cause
D) explanation

Question 19

Nine-year-old Holly really likes her 14-year old neighbor,Kim.Holly often tags along after Kim,who usually ignores her because she thinks Holly is a pest.Sometimes,she has to send Holly home because they have strayed too far from their neighborhood.Which of the following from the passage is the kind of phenomenon that social psychologists study?

A) Holly and Kim straying from their neighborhood
B) Holly's interest in bugs
C) Kim thinks Holly is a pest
D) Holly and Kim's neighborhood

Question 20

Phase 1 of Sherif's (1966)summer camp research entailed ______.

A) role playing
B) member disengagement
C) cooperative interdependence
D) generation of negative attitudes

Question 21

In a control condition in which participants were free to select shock intensities at any level,______ out of 40 of Milgram's participants showed the maximum level of obedience.

A) 1
B) 8
C) 16
D) 25

Question 22

The results of the 2010 UNAIDS report on the worldwide AIDS epidemic suggested that the incidence of new HIV infections may have decreased because of ______.

A) AIDS-related deaths
B) weather patterns
C) the development of effective medical treatments
D) prevention efforts

Question 23

What is NOT true of Milgram's (1970)obedience research?

A) The participants had multiple opportunities to shock the learner.
B) In at least one situation studied by Milgram, all participants applied the maximum level of shock to the learner.
C) Evidence was found that suggested similar levels of obedience in men and women.
D) The research findings demonstrated the power of the situation in shaping behavior.

Question 24

Declines in the incidence of which factor are most likely the consequence of AIDS prevention programs?

A) AIDS-related deaths
B) people living with HIV
C) people newly infected with HIV
D) regional variations in the incidence of AIDS-related deaths

Question 25

Research on conformity (Asch,1955)and bystander intervention in emergencies (Latané & Nida,1981)were cited as demonstrating

A) multiple levels of analysis
B) the distinction between applied research and basic research
C) classic examples of social psychologically based intervention strategies
D) the strong influence of situational factors

Question 26

Myers,Spencer,and Jordon (2009)affirm that "the great truth about the power of social influence is but half the truth if separated from its complementary truth: the power of ______."

A) biological and genetic scripts
B) cultural imperatives
C) the person
D) the human drive to resist influence

Question 27

What is NOT true with respect to the rise of the field of applied social psychology?

A) Once the important work of Lewin and Sherif had been carried out, the development of the field was straightforward.
B) The foundation of the field was established by the early 1950s.
C) Adolf Hitler gave significant impetus to the field's development.
D) The development of the field was slowed because applied work became widely viewed as synonymous with low quality.

Question 28

In reviewing Riksheim and Chermak's (1993)analysis of the determinants of police behavior,the authors of Chapter 1 ("Defining the Field of Applied Social Psychology")

A) used the analysis to illustrate several different types of intervention strategies that can be employed to improve police performance
B) suggested that the results of the analysis favor direct interventions at the level of individual differences
C) indicated police use of force was predicted by variables at all the levels of analysis studied
D) suggested that the police did not use force at all

Question 29

As noted in the text,decisions about whether or not to implement affirmative action programs frequently involve a clash between which two personal values?

A) control and freedom of choice
B) control and equality
C) merit and freedom of choice
D) equality and merit

Question 30

To illustrate the meaning of levels of analysis,the work of Riksheim and Cermack (1993)on the determinants of police behavior was cited.Which level of analysis did they specifically NOT examine?

A) individual difference
B) group
C) organizational
D) community

Question 31

In considering the possible role of social psychology in AIDS prevention,the authors of Chapter 1 ("Defining the Field of Applied Social Psychology")noted the work of Hodges,Klaaren,and Wheatley (2000).These researchers focused on increasing the likelihood that females would

A) carry condoms and insist on their use
B) think about the possible long-term social consequences of AIDS, as well as the medical consequences
C) engage in safe-sex discussions with their male partners
D) have regular medical tests for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases

Question 32

An intervention strategy may be viewed as

A) a social behavior
B) the systematic exercise of situational control
C) a use of force
D) conforming to social norms

Question 33

The authors of Chapter 1 ("Defining the Field of Applied Social Psychology")propose that

A) a central focus of the field of applied social psychology is on practical problems, as well as on social problems
B) problems such as smoking and HIV/AIDS are nonsocial at a basic biological level and thus are not especially amenable to social psychologically based solutions
C) understanding group dynamics among teams is the core focus of applied social psychology
D) social psychology has a more applied focus than applied social psychology

Question 34

According to Kurt Lewin (1944),"There is nothing so ______ as a good theory."

A) productive
B) fundamental
C) practical
D) trivial

Question 35

A teacher observes a boy yelling at another boy and assumes the first boy's verbal barrage was probably due to something really inappropriate that the second boy had done.In explaining the first boy's behavior,the teacher would have made an ______.

A) internal (i.e., dispositional) attribution
B) internal (i.e., situational) attribution
C) external (i.e., dispositional) attribution
D) external (i.e., situational) attribution

Question 36

Although social psychologists focus primarily on how social influences affect people,they also seek to understand the interaction between social influences and ______.

A) temperature patterns
B) animal behavior
C) physics experiments
D) individual differences

Question 37

Which is true with respect to Kurt Lewin's contributions?

A) He was much more interested in social problems than practical issues.
B) He emphasized the role of theory in applied work.
C) His biggest contributions were made in the 1990s.
D) all of these

Question 38

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency for people to account for the behavior of others by

A) de-emphasizing the role of both dispositional and situational determinants
B) emphasizing the role of both dispositional and situational determinants
C) de-emphasizing the role of dispositional determinants and emphasizing the role of situational determinants
D) emphasizing the role of dispositional determinants and de-emphasizing the role of situational determinants

Question 39

With respect to the AIDS epidemic,the contributions of applied social psychologists are most likely to be reflected in

A) the development of effective medical treatments
B) declines in the number of people newly infected with HIV
C) declines in AIDS-related deaths
D) increases in people living with HIV

Question 40

The backlash in the 1950s to the development of applied work largely arose from the widespread

A) concern that applied work was not sufficiently grounded in science
B) view that there had not been compelling demonstrations of the effectiveness of the applied approach
C) hostility to the idea that applied research was drawing too much government funding away from basic research
D) view that most social problems were so complex that they were not readily amenable to scientific solutions

Question 41

In arguing that American psychology should become less American,Arnett (2008)

A) estimates that only 5% of American research findings would replicate in Third World cultures
B) reports that only about 5% of studies published in American journals involve non-American samples
C) observes that the American population represents only about 5% of the world population
D) estimates that only about 5% of American psychologists would acknowledge the limited cross-cultural generalizability of their research findings

Question 42

When an applied social psychologist works closely with a community organization in a collaborative process of data collection and interpretation that leads to the development of action strategies,she or he is acting in the role of ______.

A) action researcher
B) social cognition researcher
C) program developer
D) community advocate

Question 43

Define applied social psychology.

Question 44

A core assumption of the field of social psychology is that the behavior of individuals is strongly influenced by the social situation or context.

Question 45

Applied social psychology is,by definition,not a science,as it does not rely on the scientific method used within the sciences.

Question 46

The main concern within social psychology is developing social influence strategies (i.e.,interventions)to improve people's functioning with respect to social and practical problems.

Question 47

The social situational determinants of an individual's behavior within the field of social psychology are referred to as levels of analysis.

Question 48

Applied social psychology is concerned with social determinants and explanations of behavior while social psychology is primarily concerned with interventions.

Question 49

Social psychologists devote primary attention to the role of the social context or situational factors in understanding and explaining the complexities of human social behavior; as a result,taking into account other relevant perspectives is deemed ineffective and unnecessary.

Question 50

The authors of Chapter 1 described various features that make social psychology a science.One of these features is scientific understanding.Name and describe the four goals of scientific understanding.

Question 51

In arguing that American psychology should focus more attention on people from other regions of the world,Arnett (2008)points out that people living in the United States constitute only about ______ of the world population.

A) 5%
B) 20%
C) 30%
D) 25%

Question 52

The authors of Chapter 1 ("Defining the Field of Applied Social Psychology")state that applied social psychology requires a broad approach.By broad approach,they do NOT recognize which of the following?

A) The field is relevant to virtually all areas of life.
B) The field is mostly relevant to persons characterized by having a more "social" interpersonal style.
C) The field requires a variety of research methods.
D) The field must adopt an interdisciplinary orientation.

Question 53

Describe Kurt Lewin's contributions to the field of applied social psychology.

Question 54

Although social psychology is primarily concerned with social determinants and explanations of behavior,the field recognizes the important role of individual difference variables in understanding the behavior of people.

Question 55

Which of the following are NOT approaches to applied social psychology?

A) the social cognition approach and the critical approach
B) the engaged research approach and the behavioral approach
C) the critical approach and the engaged research approach
D) the engaged research approach and the social cognition approach

Question 56

Personal values do not influence many decisions of an applied social psychologist as the discipline itself is concerned with objectivity.

Question 57

According to Kenrick and Funder (1988),personal characteristics are thought to exert a greater effect on behavior in which of the following situations?

A) "weak" situations
B) "strong" situations
C) "moderate" situations
D) "unfamiliar" situations

Question 58

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency for individuals to focus on situational factors in explaining other people's behavior and to underestimate the influence of individual factors.

Question 59

Many social psychologists are interested in conducting research that will enhance our understanding of social problems but,in their own work,do not address how that understanding can be applied.

Question 60

What's the core difference between applied social psychology and social psychology?

Question 61

Applied social psychology tends to adopt "a broad approach." What does this mean? Describe three interrelated aspects of such a broad approach.

Question 62

The applicability of applied social psychology extends beyond social problems as it also addresses practical problems.Using the example of a sports environment or workplace setting,describe two practical problems that applied social psychology might address,and highlight an approach to solving the problem.

Question 63

Work in applied social psychology tends to adopt one of three approaches.List these three approaches,and describe them in detail.

Question 64

What role do personal values play in applied social psychology?

Question 65

Explain what is meant by level of analysis in social psychology,and name the different levels at which interventions may be directed.

Question 66

Name and describe the six major roles of an applied social psychologist.