A professor explains a student's rude outburst by pointing to the stress of finals week rather than to the student's character. Which perspective is the professor taking?
Situationism
✓
Dispositionism
Self-serving bias
Just-world hypothesis
Correct Answer
Situationism
Situationism holds that behavior is driven mainly by the immediate environment, such as a stressful week. Dispositionism would explain the outburst by the student's traits. Self-serving bias concerns how people explain their own successes and failures. Just-world hypothesis is the belief that people get what they deserve.
Category: Social Thinking
Question 2
When a driver cuts you off, you instantly decide he is a reckless jerk without considering that he might be rushing to a hospital. Which error does this illustrate?
Self-serving bias
Fundamental attribution error
✓
Halo effect
Group polarization
Correct Answer
Fundamental attribution error
The fundamental attribution error is overestimating personal traits and underestimating situational pressures when explaining someone else's behavior. Self-serving bias concerns explanations of one's own outcomes. Halo effect is letting one positive impression color judgments of other qualities. Group polarization is the strengthening of a group's views through discussion.
Category: Social Thinking
Question 3
Jordan credits his A on a chemistry exam to his intelligence but blames his D in history on an unfair test. Which pattern is Jordan showing?
Fundamental attribution error
Actor-observer bias
Self-serving bias
✓
Confirmation bias
Correct Answer
Self-serving bias
Self-serving bias is attributing one's successes to internal qualities and one's failures to outside factors, which protects self-esteem. Fundamental attribution error concerns explaining other people's behavior. Actor-observer bias contrasts how we explain our own behavior with how we explain others' behavior. Confirmation bias is favoring information that fits what one already believes.
Category: Social Thinking
Question 4
Someone who assumes that people living in poverty must have done something to deserve their circumstances is expressing which belief?
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Halo effect
Group polarization
Just-world hypothesis
✓
Correct Answer
Just-world hypothesis
The just-world hypothesis is the belief that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people, which can lead to blaming victims for their misfortune. Self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation that brings about its own confirmation. Halo effect is letting an overall impression shape judgments of specific traits. Group polarization is the strengthening of a group's position after discussion.
Category: Social Thinking
Question 5
Donating blood, volunteering at a shelter and helping a stranger carry groceries are all voluntary actions intended to benefit other people. What is the general term for such actions?
Prosocial behavior
✓
Self-presentation
Social facilitation
Deindividuation
Correct Answer
Prosocial behavior
Prosocial behavior is any voluntary action meant to help others, whatever the helper's motive; helping with no expectation of reward is a special case called altruism. Self-presentation is how people manage the impression they make on others. Social facilitation is better performance on simple tasks when others are watching. Deindividuation is a loss of self-awareness in anonymous crowds.
Category: Aggression and Helping
Question 6
Knowing that at a sit-down restaurant you wait to be seated, order, eat and then pay the bill reflects which concept?
Social norm
Script
✓
Social role
Attitude
Correct Answer
Script
A script is knowledge of the sequence of events expected in a particular setting, and scripts can differ across cultures. Social norm is a group's general expectation of acceptable behavior rather than a step-by-step sequence. Social role is the pattern of behavior expected of a person in a position, such as server or customer. Attitude is an evaluation of a person, object or idea.
Category: Self-Presentation
Question 7
A student who values honesty cheats on a quiz and then feels uneasy about the mismatch between her values and her actions. What is this uneasy state called?
Groupthink
Deindividuation
Cognitive dissonance
✓
Confirmation bias
Correct Answer
Cognitive dissonance
Leon Festinger described cognitive dissonance as the discomfort of holding inconsistent beliefs and behaviors, which people try to reduce by changing the behavior or justifying it. Groupthink is a group's drive for harmony overriding good judgment. Deindividuation is a loss of self-awareness in anonymous groups. Confirmation bias is attending to information that supports existing beliefs.
Category: Attitudes and Persuasion
Question 8
In the elaboration likelihood model, an ad that persuades by presenting detailed crash-test ratings and fuel-economy data is using which route?
Peripheral route
Indirect route
Emotional route
Central route
✓
Correct Answer
Central route
The central route relies on logic, facts and data, requires effort from the audience, and tends to produce lasting attitude change. Peripheral route relies on cues such as celebrity endorsements or pleasant feelings and tends to produce temporary change. Indirect route and emotional route are not the names of the two routes in the model.
Category: Attitudes and Persuasion
Question 9
A campaign volunteer first asks residents to sign a short petition and a week later asks them to put a large sign in their yard. Which persuasion strategy is this?
Foot-in-the-door technique
✓
Door-in-the-face technique
Low-ball technique
That's-not-all technique
Correct Answer
Foot-in-the-door technique
The foot-in-the-door technique gains agreement to a small request first, which makes people more likely to accept a larger one so they can stay consistent with their earlier commitment. Door-in-the-face technique starts with a large request that is refused, then follows with a smaller one. Low-ball technique gets agreement to a deal and then adds costs. That's-not-all technique sweetens an offer before the person responds.
Category: Attitudes and Persuasion
Question 10
The Yale attitude change approach identifies which three factors that influence persuasion?
Affect, behavior and cognition
Source, message and audience
✓
Intimacy, passion and commitment
Locus, stability and controllability
Correct Answer
Source, message and audience
Carl Hovland and colleagues at Yale found that persuasion depends on who delivers the message, what the message says and how it is presented, and who receives it. Affect, behavior and cognition are the components of an attitude. Intimacy, passion and commitment are the components of Sternberg's theory of love. Locus, stability and controllability are Weiner's dimensions of attribution.
Category: Attitudes and Persuasion
Question 11
In Solomon Asch's line-judgment studies, what caused conformity to drop sharply?
The majority grew larger
Answers were given aloud
One other person disagreed with the majority
✓
The correct line was harder to see
Correct Answer
One other person disagreed with the majority
Having even a single ally who broke from the group made participants far less likely to go along with the wrong answer. The majority grew larger tended to raise conformity up to a point, after which it leveled off. Answers were given aloud increased conformity compared with private answers. The correct line was harder to see would make the task ambiguous, which typically increases reliance on others.
Category: Conformity and Group Behavior
Question 12
During a fire alarm in an unfamiliar building, Priya follows the crowd toward an exit because she assumes the others know the way out. Which type of influence is this?
Normative social influence
Obedience to authority
Social loafing
Informational social influence
✓
Correct Answer
Informational social influence
Informational social influence is going along with others because they seem to have accurate information, which is most likely in ambiguous situations. Normative social influence is conforming in order to be liked and accepted. Obedience to authority is following direct orders from an authority figure. Social loafing is reduced effort when working in a group.
Category: Conformity and Group Behavior
Question 13
In Stanley Milgram's original obedience study, about what share of participants continued to the maximum 450-volt level?
About 65 percent
✓
About 5 percent
About 25 percent
About 95 percent
Correct Answer
About 65 percent
Roughly two thirds of participants kept delivering what they believed were shocks all the way to 450 volts when urged on by the experimenter, far more than most people predicted. About 5 percent and about 25 percent underestimate the result. About 95 percent overstates it, since a substantial minority refused to continue.
Category: Conformity and Group Behavior
Question 14
Irving Janis coined which term for a group's desire for harmony overriding a realistic evaluation of its options?
Group polarization
Groupthink
✓
Social facilitation
Deindividuation
Correct Answer
Groupthink
In groupthink, members silence doubts, shield the leader from opposing views and share an illusion of unanimity, which leads to poor decisions. Group polarization is discussion pushing a group's views to a more extreme position. Social facilitation is improved performance on simple tasks in front of others. Deindividuation is a loss of self-awareness under anonymity.
Category: Conformity and Group Behavior
Question 15
On a group project graded only as a whole, several members put in less effort than they would if working alone. What is this called?
Groupthink
Social facilitation
Social loafing
✓
Deindividuation
Correct Answer
Social loafing
Social loafing is the drop in individual effort that occurs when contributions are pooled and not evaluated separately, and it tends to grow with group size. Groupthink is faulty decision making driven by a wish for harmony. Social facilitation is better performance on easy tasks when others are watching. Deindividuation is reduced self-awareness in anonymous crowds.
Category: Conformity and Group Behavior
Question 16
A man feels dislike and hostility toward a new neighbor solely because of the neighbor's ethnic group. Which concept describes his feeling?
Stereotype
Discrimination
In-group bias
Prejudice
✓
Correct Answer
Prejudice
Prejudice is the affective part of the pattern: a negative feeling toward someone based only on group membership. Stereotype is the cognitive part, an overgeneralized belief about a group. Discrimination is the behavioral part, negative action toward someone because of the group. In-group bias is a preference for one's own group rather than a specific negative feeling toward one person.
Category: Prejudice and Discrimination
Question 17
After a factory closes, some residents blame an immigrant group for the town's economic troubles. Which concept does this illustrate?
Scapegoating
✓
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Confirmation bias
Actor-observer bias
Correct Answer
Scapegoating
Scapegoating is blaming an out-group when one's own group feels frustrated or blocked from its goals. Self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation that causes behavior that makes it come true. Confirmation bias is seeking information that supports existing beliefs. Actor-observer bias is explaining one's own behavior by the situation and others' behavior by their traits.
Category: Prejudice and Discrimination
Question 18
Rosenthal and Jacobson found that students whose teachers were led to expect strong performance went on to earn higher grades. Which concept does this illustrate?
Confirmation bias
Self-fulfilling prophecy
✓
Just-world hypothesis
Halo effect
Correct Answer
Self-fulfilling prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when an expectation changes behavior in ways that make the expectation come true, here through how teachers treated the students. Confirmation bias is noticing only information that fits one's beliefs, without changing the outcome itself. Just-world hypothesis is the belief that people get what they deserve. Halo effect is one positive impression coloring judgments of other traits.
Category: Prejudice and Discrimination
Question 19
A hired enforcer smashes a debtor's car windows to pressure him into paying, feeling no personal anger toward him. Which type of aggression is this?
Hostile aggression
Indirect aggression
Instrumental aggression
✓
Relational aggression
Correct Answer
Instrumental aggression
Instrumental aggression is harm used as a means to reach a goal, such as collecting money, rather than out of anger. Hostile aggression is driven by anger and a desire to hurt. Indirect aggression harms a person through means such as damaging their social standing. Relational aggression targets relationships through rumors or exclusion, not property damage.
Category: Aggression and Helping
Question 20
In Sternberg's triangular theory, what is love that combines intimacy, passion and commitment called?
Companionate love
Romantic love
Fatuous love
Consummate love
✓
Correct Answer
Consummate love
Consummate love includes all three components of Sternberg's triangle. Companionate love has intimacy and commitment but lacks passion. Romantic love has passion and intimacy but lacks commitment. Fatuous love has passion and commitment but lacks intimacy.
Category: Attraction and Love