Deck 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organisations

Question 1

Selective attention occurs after incoming information is organised and interpreted.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Social identity theory includes the processes of categorisation and attribution.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The perceptual process begins by attributing behaviour to internal or external causes.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The more we interact with someone,the more we rely on stereotypes to understand that individual.

Question 5

Social identity theory states that we define ourselves in terms of our differences with people who belong to other social categories.

Question 6

Stereotyping is partly responsible for prejudice and discrimination.

Question 7

Seeing a trend in a sequence of sales figures involves the process of categorical thinking.

Question 8

Grouping people and objects into recognisable patterns is part of the selective attention process.

Question 9

Social identity theory explains how we perceive others as well as ourselves.

Question 10

Diversity awareness programs mainly educate employees about the value of diversity and the problems with stereotyping.

Question 11

According to social identity theory,we tend to see unique characteristics in every person who is different from us.

Question 12

Categorical thinking is mostly a conscious process of deciding what information in the environment to notice.

Question 13

Diversity awareness programs are designed specifically to correct deep-rooted prejudice and intolerance in the workplace.

Question 14

Stereotyping is a natural process that helps us to economise mental effort.

Question 15

The three steps in stereotyping,in order,are: (a)identify negative information,(b)behave in ways consistent with previous expectations and (c)watch the employee form a positive or negative opinion of you.

Question 16

A person's social identity is a complex combination of his or her memberships in many groups.

Question 17

Employees can break out of their existing mental models by working with colleagues from diverse backgrounds who bring different mental models to the workplace.

Question 18

Homogenisation and differentiation are two processes in social identity theory.

Question 19

We are more likely to notice objects with features that are repetitive,intense and in motion.

Question 20

Stereotyping is an extension of the social identity process.

Question 21

One of the most effective ways to minimise negative self-fulfilling prophecy is to make managers aware of the power of positive expectations.

Question 22

Attribution theory mainly explains the selective attention process.

Question 23

Interacting with people from other backgrounds is more likely to minimise stereotyping when these people have equal status with you throughout the interaction.

Question 24

People who learn to empathise with others are less likely to engage in attribution errors.

Question 25

Self-efficacy is a general trait related to self-concept.

Question 26

Self-fulfilling prophecy tends to have a stronger effect on employees who are new to the job than on employees who have worked in that job for a few years.

Question 27

Student responses to poor grades are influenced to a large degree by whether they take responsibility for these or attribute the failure to external causes.

Question 28

The primacy effect causes interviewers to ignore information presented at the beginning of the interview and to pay more attention to information presented later in the interview.

Question 29

You are more likely to make an internal attribution about someone's poor performance if you have also observed the person performing that task poorly in the past and have observed other employees performing the task well.

Question 30

Even though we categorise someone,for example as an accountant,we only transfer the positive features of the stereotype to the person.

Question 31

Fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to attribute the behaviour of other people to internal factors more than external factors.

Question 32

Our self-evaluations are now thought to influence our attitudes,motivation,decisions and behaviour
ACCSB: Reflective thinking

Question 33

Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs whenever supervisors accurately predict the future performance of recently hired employees.

Question 34

It is difficult for observers to see the external factors which constrain an individual's behaviour.

Question 35

According to the Johari Window,the hidden area is reduced through disclosure.

Question 36

Fundamental attribution error would cause a supervisor to believe that an employee's lateness is due to factors beyond the employee's control rather than to a lack of motivation to attend work.

Question 37

Self-concept refers to an individual's beliefs about themselves and their self-evaluataion.

Question 38

The four areas of the Johari Window are open,closed,internal and external.

Question 39

Self-concept becomes clearer with age as does the consistency between our multiple selves.

Question 40

People who believe that their successful completion of a project is due to their skill and hard work are making an internal attribution.

Question 41

The more serious form of stereotype bias is:

A) Unintentional discrimination
B) Systematic discrimination
C) Intentional discrimination
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 42

__________ is a mostly unconscious process of organising people and objects into preconceived groups stored in memory.

A) Selective attention
B) Halo effect
C) Attribution
D) Categorical thinking

Question 43

People tend to have better psychological wellbeing when they have one well-established and simple idea of themselves.
ACCSB: Reflective thinking

Question 44

The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category refers to:

A) Halo effect
B) Projection bias
C) Empathy
D) Stereotyping

Question 45

Our likelihood of noticing a person or object depends on its:

A) Novelty
B) Intensity
C) Size
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 46

Mental models cause us to:

A) Perceive events as though people are acting on a theatrical stage
B) Select and organise stimuli in ways that are consistent with our broad world views
C) Believe the behaviour of others is caused more by their ability or motivation than the situation
D) Perceive ourselves as members of several groups that are different from people in other groups

Question 47

Perception begins when environmental stimuli are received through our:

A) Senses
B) Brain
C) Emotions
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 48

Categorical thinking relies on a variety of:

A) Automatic perceptual grouping principles
B) Perceptual values
C) Patterns
D) Filling in missing information

Question 49

Mental models are mainly related to:

A) Perceptual organisation and interpretation
B) Learning orientation
C) Attribution
D) Self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 50

Stereotyping is based on which of the following?

A) Social identity theory
B) Self-fulfilling prophecy
C) Selective attention
D) Attribution

Question 51

Which of the following is an example of selective attention?

A) You notice that two employees are arguing in the company's quiet library
B) You conclude that the person near the cash register is a sales clerk
C) You assume that an employee is lazy because she works in a department with lazy people
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 52

Social identity theory says that:

A) We define ourselves in terms of our membership in certain groups and our differences with people who belong to other groups
B) We tend to believe our own actions are caused by motivation or ability rather than the situation
C) Our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations
D) We quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them

Question 53

Categorical thinking and related perceptual organisation activities:

A) Occur very quickly and mostly unconsciously
B) Are usually avoidable when you are aware of them
C) Tend to occur after you have a moment to think carefully about the information received
D) Are mostly unconscious and occur slowly over several days

Question 54

Selective attention and environmental stimuli are two components of:

A) Attribution theory
B) The perceptual process
C) The Johari Window
D) The 'Big Five' personality dimensions

Question 55

Selective attention is influenced by our assumptions and:

A) Conscious anticipation of future events
B) Expectations and assumptions
C) Perceptions
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 56

________ is the process of filtering information received by our senses.

A) Social learning
B) Projection
C) Stereotyping
D) Selective attention

Question 57

The main lesson to be learned from self-fulfilling prophecy literature is that leaders need to develop and maintain:

A) A realistic approach
B) Intentional justifications
C) Positive yet realistic expectations towards all employees
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 58

One way to increase self-awareness is by applying:

A) Open area
B) Johari Window
C) Contact hypothesis
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 59

Self-verification occurs when people rate themselves above average,believing they have a better than average chance of success because of their abilities and motivation.

Question 60

The social identity process includes:

A) Comparing ourselves with people who do not belong in our groups
B) Homogenising others by believing people within a group share common traits
C) Defining ourselves in terms of the groups in which we can be identified
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 61

How might self-serving bias be observed in a corporate annual report?

A) The report would say more about the company's problems and less about its successes
B) The report would emphasise the role of competition,inflationary pressures and other external causes of problems in the organisation's performance
C) The report would exclude any bad news about the organisation's performance
D) The report would acknowledge that competition,the economy and other external factors should be credited for some of the company's recent success
ACCSB: Reflective thinking

Question 62

Which of the following statements about stereotyping is FALSE?

A) People can improve the perceptual process by preventing the activation of stereotypes
B) Stereotyping causes us to ignore or misinterpret behaviours that are inconsistent with the stereotype we assign to a person
C) Stereotypes do not accurately describe everyone assigned to that stereotype
D) Stereotypes generally have some inaccuracies

Question 63

Which of the following is the first step in self-fulfilling prophecy?

A) Employee behaves in a way consistent with the supervisor's expectations
B) Supervisor treats the employee in a manner consistent with the supervisor's expectations
C) Supervisor forms an incorrect impression of the employee
D) Supervisor attributes employee's good performance to external causes

Question 64

According to the fundamental attribution error:

A) People seldom make attributions about their own behaviour
B) The likelihood of making an error attributing the behaviour of another person increases with your familiarity with that other person.
C) We tend to believe that other people have the same beliefs and behaviours that we have
D) We tend to believe the behaviour of other people is caused more by their motivation and ability than by factors beyond their control

Question 65

Consistency,consensus and distinctiveness are:

A) Three elements of behaviour modification
B) Three elements of the selective attention process
C) The three rules determining whether to make an internal or external attribution
D) Three of the four quadrants in the Johari Window

Question 66

In the Johari Window,disclosure of information to colleagues results in:

A) Increasing our open area by reducing our blind area
B) Increasing our unknown area by reducing our hidden area
C) Increasing our open area by reducing our closed area
D) Increasing our open area by reducing our hidden area

Question 67

What perceptual error occurs when a supervisor incorrectly rates an employee at a similar level across all performance dimensions based on an overall impression of that employee?

A) Attribution error
B) Stereotyping
C) Projection bias
D) Halo effect

Question 68

How can stereotyping create problems in an organisation?

Question 69

Which of these statements about the contact hypothesis is TRUE?

A) Increased contact with someone tends to change our stereotype of the group to which that person belongs
B) Increased contact with someone tends to reduce our tendency to use stereotypes to perceive that person
C) By reducing our contact with people,we develop more accurate perceptions of them
D) Increased contact with someone tends to change our stereotype of the group to which that person belongs and tends to reduce our tendency to use stereotypes to perceive that person

Question 70

Which of the following helps managers to increase their empathy with subordinates?

A) Managers should work together in executive offices away from their employees
B) Managers should use formal written media (e.g.memos,reports)rather than face-to-face interaction when communicating new directives to employees
C) Managers should occasionally work in their subordinates' jobs along with their employees
D) Managers should take a training program where they learn about primacy and recency effects

Question 71

Positive organisational behaviour states that:

A) Employees are more effective when they experience extinction more than other contingencies of reinforcement
B) Employees are,by nature,good rather than bad in terms of their ethics and care for others in the world
C) Focusing on the positive rather than negative aspects of life will improve organisational success and individual well-being
D) Organisational behaviour knowledge offers more positive than negative information about how to survive in organisations

Question 72

Engaging in self-fulfilling prophecy can improve organisational effectiveness:

A) Never; self-fulfilling prophecy is a perceptual bias that always makes organisations less effective
B) Whenever and wherever it exists in organisational settings
C) When supervisors demonstrate their hope and optimism in each employee's potential
D) When supervisors also use stereotyping to determine the employee's potential performance

Question 73

Jim has just arrived late for work.This is the third time over the past five days that he has arrived more than 30 minutes late.However,you conclude that Jim's lateness is due to factors beyond his control because most other employees who also take Jim's route to work have also been late to work on these days.According to attribution theory,what attribution have you made of Jim's lateness and based on what attribution rule?

A) Internal attribution due to high conscientiousness
B) External attribution due to high consistency
C) Internal attribution due to high distinctiveness
D) External attribution due to high consensus

Question 74

A perceptual error in which we tend to believe that other people hold the same beliefs and attitudes that we do refers to:

A) Self-serving bias
B) Recency effect
C) False consensus effect
D) Self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 75

___________ occurs when our general impression of a person,usually based on one prominent characteristic,colours our perception of other characteristics of that person.

A) Projection bias
B) Halo effect
C) Selective attention
D) Self-serving bias

Question 76

The tendency to attribute the behaviour of other people to internal factors more than external factors refers to:

A) Recency bias
B) Projection bias
C) Fundamental attribution error
D) Primacy effect

Question 77

Why is it important to understand our own beliefs,values and attitudes to have a global mindset?

Question 78

The process of stereotyping includes:

A) Identifying with people who belong to the groups that you don't belong to
B) Believing that other people have the same beliefs and behaviours that you have
C) Determining whether a person's behaviour is due either to his or her motivation or factors beyond his or her control
D) Assigning the cluster of traits from a social category to a person identified with that social category

Question 79

In attribution theory,the question 'How often does the person act this way in other settings?' relates directly to:

A) Self-confidence
B) Distinctiveness
C) Consistency
D) External attribution

Question 80

Why is self-fulfilling prophecy useful for leaders in relation to their team members or colleagues?