Psy 240 - Exam 1

Psy 240 - Exam 1 - Form A

Name: ________________________ SSN: ______________________

For each of the following, choose the best answer. You may write on this exam, but only answers marked on the scantron will be counted. Good luck!

1. People are more likely to stereotype when

a. They are tired

b. They are busy

c. They are feeling emotional

d. *All of the above

2. Which of the following is not a sub-area of social psychology?

a. group processes

b. attitudes

c. *social phobias

d. personality

3. What was the basic strategy of the German structuralists, who initiated the empirical study of psychology by trying to emulate other sciences like biology and chemistry?

a. They tried to discover the physiological and hormonal bases of behavior.

b. They based their theories on the naive ideas of their lab assistants.

c. *They tried to break thought down into its basic underlying components.

d. They based their approach entirely on things they could objectively observe in the lab.

4. Which of the following was one of the events that lead to the downfall of behaviorism in the United States?

a. the Marxist revolution drew psychologists toward the topic of social equity

b. *WWII changed the topics that psychologists studied

c. the voyage of the Beagle in 1892 and Darwin’s subsequent book describing his findings that viciously attacked Watsonian behaviorism

d. Congress lost interest in funding animal research.

5. The basic structuralist method of Trained Introspectionism was described in class through an example involving people’s perception of the color green. The basic problem with the method, according to the lecturer, is that:

a. Colors have no structure.

b. *Instead of reporting what they see, subjects end up reporting what they think they are supposed to, given their training.

c. Some people have ESP and some don’t.

d. It turns out that green is fundamentally different from other colors.

6. Which of the following best describes a major goal of behaviorism?

a. Use trained introspection to analyze the structural components of everyday objects or behavior

b. Determine what happens in the mind between the experience of a stimulus and the response it produces (i.e., fill in the ‘black box’)

c. *Objectively examine specific responses given as a result of specific stimuli

d. Use the computer as a metaphor to explain information processing by humans

7. Which of the following was not one of the goals of psychologists during World War II?

a. Determine quickly who would make good leaders

b. *Eliminate any justification for the correspondence bias

c. Determine what constituted effective propaganda

d. Establish why rulers like Hitler and other Nazis had such influence

8. A psychologist is shown a drawing consisting of a horizontal line placed on the top point of a vertical line. If this psychologist practiced Gestaltism (the European approach that succeeded Structuralism), she would most likely describe the drawing as

a. two lines perpendicular to one another

b. *the letter ‘T’

c. non-existent; the lines are only a function of our minds and we cannot truly tell the things we see

d. One of the basic elements making up the word THE.

9. According to Kurt Lewin and his field theory, any given individual’s behavior is a function of

a. the personality of the individual

b. the environment in which the individual exists

c. the perceptions of the individual

d. *All of the above

10. Which of the following is not one of the properties of experimental research designs?

a. Random assignment to conditions (or treatments)

b. Manipulation of the Independent Variable

c. The ability to draw conclusions of causality

d. *Actually, ALL of these are properties of experimental designs.

11. Joe Researcher believes that the reason people smoke is due to low self-esteem and is interested in studying the effects of a new treatment for getting people not to smoke. Specifically, he wants to know whether or not his treatment (having people write positive things about themselves) is better than no treatment (or a control) in getting individuals to limit their smoking behavior. In this study, treatment (vs. none) is the _________________, while the number of cigarettes being smoked after 6 months is the ___________________ .

a. Congruent variable, incongruent variable

b. correlational variable, experimental variable

c. *independent variable, dependent variable

d. random variable, outcome variable

12. In the previous question, Joe Researcher defined “limit their smoking” as the “number of cigarettes being smoked after 6 months.” This best illustrates the concept of

a. independent assignment

b. *operationalization

c. quasi experiment

d. field experiment

13. Imagine you have people complete a questionnaire that includes measures of self-enhancement and year in school. Assuming you find that the longer somebody has been in school the more self-enhancing they are, you can conclude

a. that being in school causes people to make themselves sound better than they really are.

b. that being self-enhancing causes people to remain in school.

c. there is no true relationship between self-enhancement and year in school.

d. *none of the above; in this study you cannot assume causality.

14. According to Jones and Davis’ Correspondent Inference Theory of attribution, you learn more about another person from their ______________ behaviors.

a. *unusual

b. unintentional

c. shared (with people in their group)

d. desirable

15. As demonstrated by the activity completed during recitation, you are more likely to suggest that your personality _____________ while another person’s personality _________________.

a. remains unchanged, always changes

b. always changes, remains unchanged

c. *depends on the situation, is relatively stable

d. is relatively stable, depends on the situation

16. Suppose that Jack and Krissy eat the same amount of vegetables, but that neither has thought much about their attitude towards vegetables. So you ask Jack whether or not “he sometimes eats vegetables” and Krissy whether or not she “always eats vegetables.” Then, later, you ask them to indicate how much they like vegetables. According to self-perception theory, who would be likely to indicate that they like vegetables more?

a. *Jack

b. Krissy

c. Depends on their self-concept

d. There would be no difference, since they eat the same amount and have no attitude.

17. Suppose you conduct a correlational study examining the association between the variables of physical attractiveness and rate of job termination (i.e., likelihood of being fired). You find that the more physically attractive one is, the less likely he or she is to be fired from his/her job. The correlation coefficient ( r ) in this study is most likely:

a. *-.50.

b. .50.

c. 1.5.

d. -1.5.

18. According to the research cited in your text, the best cues as to whether or not a person is trying to deceive you are

a. their facial expressions

b. the kind of words they are using

c. *movements of their hands or feet

d. the size of their pupils

19. The ‘halo’ effect is sometimes used to describe the patterns you get when asking people to rate another person on a bunch of different traits. Specifically, this term refers to people’s tendency to:

a. *See those with some positive traits as having all positive traits, and those with negative traits as having all negative traits.

b. See religious people in a more positive light than atheists.

c. See themselves more positively than other people.

d. View themselves more positively if they make all positive ratings of other people’s traits.

20. Based on the actor-observer effect:

a. some people have personalities that lead them to be the center of attention, but some people prefer watching others.

b. *you would attribute your own failure on a task as being due to the difficulty of the task, but you may assume someone else failed at the task because they are unintelligent.

c. you would attribute your own failure on a task as being due to being unintelligent, but you may assume someone else failed at the task because the test was hard.

d. individuals differ in the perspectives they take; some people are good at seeing the world through others’ eyes.

21. Modern emotion theorists consider emotion to be:

a. * a product of cognitive appraisals of a situation that lead to an action.

b. simply physiological experiences.

c. a barrier to rational, thoughtful behaviors.

d. unrelated to goals.

22. Suppose you use your older brother as a standard of comparison in evaluating yourself. However, he is smarter than you, and is a better athlete than you are, so comparing yourself to him tends to make you feel bad. This type of social comparison is called:

a. *upward comparison.

b. downward comparison.

c. negative comparison.

d. enhancing comparison.

23. Self-esteem is _____________________, whereas your self-concept is ________________.

a. *your attitude toward yourself; what you know about yourself

b. changeable; unchangeable

c. the same as your ideal self; the same as your ought self

d. individually determined; socially determined

24. In the ‘computer dance’ study described in class (where individuals believed they were computer matched with another person who was similar to them as their date for a dance), which of the following was the best predictor of whether the couple would date again?

a. The male’s personality traits or characteristics

b. The amount of time the couple spent talking at the dance

c. *The female’s physical attractiveness as rated by the experimental assistant

d. The amount of eye contact the couple had throughout the evening

25. Which of the following does not have to be in place in order for an individual to correct for a biasing factor?

a. Awareness of the possible existence of the bias

b. The capacity or ability to correct for the biasing factor

c. *Knowledge of the cause of the bias

d. Motivation to overcome the bias

26. Jack and Jill are at a party talking. Jill is seen throwing her drink in Jack’s face. Jill is not known for throwing drinks in people’s faces, but this is the third time she has thrown a drink at Jack. (She got him once in the car and once in the elevator!) Other people also throw drinks in Jack’s face when they talk to him. According to Kelley’s covariation theory, to what or whom would we attribute the drink throwing behavior?

a. Jill (being hostile)

b. The party (bringing out hostility)

c. *Jack (eliciting hostility)

d. Jack and Jill jointly (they are just a bad combination)

27. According to work in social psychology, which of the following does not explain why first impressions seem to have such a lasting impact?

a. *Because people are known to try harder at first

b. When we communicate our impressions to others, they are made more memorable.

c. The information that easily comes to mind about another is affected by the first impression.

d. We tend to treat others in line with our first impressions of them, causing them to respond similarly and prove our expectations correct.

28. Which of the following is not a goal of debriefing a subject who participates in research?

a. Addressing subjects’ concerns about the research design or process

b. Eliminating and explaining any deception

c. Enhancing the overall educational value of the participation to the subject

d. *Getting the subjects’ contact information for future reference and participation possibilities

29. Imagine that prior to meeting Jeremy, you are told he is a rude person. As a result, you act a bit stand-offish (e.g., distant, not nice). Subsequently, he acts rudely towards you. This illustrates what concept?

a. *Self-fulfilling prophecy

b. Stereotyping

c. Discrimination

d. Illusory correlation

30. According to the research described in your book, which of the following long term effects is not a result of the discrepancy between the actual self and the ought self ?

a. Poor immune function

b. *Lowered physiological arousal

c. Anxiety

d. Embarrassment

31. Which of the following statements would probably be made by a high self-monitor (Snyder’s personality measure, discussed in the text)?

a. “I have trouble changing my behavior to suit different people and situations.”

b. *“I think I would make a good actor or entertainer.”

c. “I believe in being my own person, no matter who is around.”

d. “I don’t believe in letting the situation dictate my behavior.”

32. According to your text, which of the following is not one of the three motivational principles of social life?

a. *People need to construct their own reality

b. People strive for mastery

c. People seek connectedness

d. People want to see themselves and anyone connected to them in a positive light.

33. A researcher is worried that her measure of self-esteem doesn’t really measure self-esteem. It may in fact be a measure of extraversion. This researcher is concerned with ____________.

a. Internal validity

b. External validity

c. Assessing causality

d. *Construct validity

34. According to the Contact Hypothesis

a. merely having people from different groups interact together should reduce prejudice.

b. individuals can eliminate prejudice in a group setting through contact, even when the ‘powers that be’ (e.g., business owners, bosses, etc.) regularly demonstrate prejudicial behavior.

c. creating subtypes among a particular group will reduce prejudice.

d. *the existence of social roles need to be eliminated to create a feeling of status equality among all interacting group members.