Psy 240 - Exam 2 - Form B (Blue)

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. According to your text, we tend to like people who are similar to us because

a. we are more likely to have positive interactions with these people

b. we assume that similar others will like us

c. similar others make us feel good about our own beliefs

d. *all of the above

2. According to your text, _____________ is perhaps the most important component of close relationships (i.e,. this sets close relationships apart from other types of relationships)

a. attachment

b. love

c. *intimacy

d. none of the above

3. According to the research on social support cited in your text, when responding to somebody’s negative feelings, ______________ are likely to respond with understanding and acceptance while ___________ are likely to try and find a quick fix to the problem.

a. males, females

b. *females, males

c. extroverts, introverts

d. introverts, extroverts

4. The evolutionary notion that men and women have to put in different amounts of time and resources into potential offspring is recognized by which concept?

a. Paternity confidence

b. *Relative parental investment

c. Gene quality

d. Principle of parental inventory

5. According to the research discussed in class, males become most jealous when imagining their partner developing a _____________ relationship with somebody else, and females become most jealous when imagining their partner developing a __________ relationship with somebody else.

a. emotional, physical

b. *physical, emotional

c. physical, physical

d. emotional, emotional

6. According to the attachment theory research discussed in class, if a female has an anxious attachment style, who would she most likely find herself dating?

a. *Newman, who says he is uncomfortable being close to others.

b. Jerry, who believes that others are reluctant to get close to him.

c. Kramer, who often scares partners away because he is too “intense”.

d. All of the above; a person with an anxious attachment style will date anybody willing.

7. Marge takes into account her partner Homer’s interests along with her own through the process of

a. *transformation of motivation

b. comparison level for alternatives

c. dependence

d. maximizing costs

8. According to Interdependence theory, Dharma is dependent upon her relationship with Greg to the extent that her current outcomes exceed her

a. past outcomes

b. comparison level

c. future expectations

d. *comparison level for alternatives.

9. According to evolutionary theories of relationships, which of the following is the least likely characteristic a female would look for in a potential male mate?

a. Possesses good parenting skills

b. Willing to invest in offspring

c. *Attractiveness

d. High status

10. According to the attachment perspective, we are most likely to date:

a. someone who will likely help pass on our genes.

b. someone we depend on for the fulfillment of important needs.

c. someone who shows us a new side of life.

d. *someone who meets our expectations for how a significant other should be.

11. Research has demonstrated that people tend to allot more resources to members of their own groups and remember more information about their own group. These findings illustrate which principle?

1. stereotype vulnerability
2. *ingroup favoritism
3. ingroup heterogeneity
4. outgroup homogeneity

12. Which of the following factors DOES NOT make one’s social identity more accessible?

1. the presence of outgroup members
2. being a member of a minority group
3. *the physical attractiveness levels of other ingroup members
4. being directly reminded of one’s group membership (e.g., students calling you “Professor”)

13. The “ABC” definition of attitudes states that attitudes are comprised of:

1. *affective responses to, behavioral responses to, and cognitive representations of attitude objects.
2. attitude objects, beliefs about those objects, and classically conditioned attitudes.
3. actions, behaviors, and categorizations.
4. none of the above.

14. According to the research discussed in class, which of the following is true about the effectiveness of a polygraph (i.e., lie detector)?

1. Polygraph usage cannot accurately predict if someone is guilty or innocent of a crime beyond chance levels.
2. Polygraphs accurately identify individuals who are lying, at about 98% accuracy.
3. Individuals taking a polygraph test cannot do anything to change the outcome of their score—if they are lying they will get caught, and if they are telling the truth they will pass.
4. *none of the above.

15. LaPiere’s (1934) study in which he traveled around the country with a Chinese couple and recorded whether they were refused service or not illustrates the point that:

1. the norm of reciprocity influences one’s compliance with a request.
2. *the elements of action, context, target, and time are important when assessing attitude-behavior consistency.
3. attitudes may or may not have a cognitive component.
4. one’s ingroup may have a profound effect on how they view minority groups.

16. According to the classical conditioning approach to attitude formation and change:

1. *attitudes tend to be positive if they are formed in conjunction with a positive stimuli (e.g., forming an attitude toward a movie while eating tasty popcorn).
2. attitudes are more easily changed by superficial routes for people low in need for cognition (e.g., someone low in need for cognition will be persuaded by an attractive spokesperson).
3. attitudes do not predict behaviors (e.g., your attitude toward French fries does not predict if you will eat them for lunch today).
4. attitudes are very difficult to measure because of desirability biases (e.g., participants are reluctant to respond negatively toward some attitude objects because of social pressures).

17. Suppose President Beering has announced that Purdue plans to institute a comprehensive exam that all students must pass prior to graduation. However, this plan will not go into effect until several years after you graduate. Based on what you know about information processing and attitude change, while listening to President Beering’s announcement you would most likely:

1. be highly motivated to systematically process his argument.
2. use argument strength as the key factor in evaluating his argument.
3. *superficially process the persuasive appeal of his argument.
4. be unaffected by source cues such as physical attractiveness or likeability.

18. According to dissonance theory:

1. *an unpleasant state of tension is created when attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent, so one is motivated to change his or her attitudes.
2. you don’t really have attitudes—instead you construct them from your memories when asked about them.
3. attitude strength is a function of importance, personal involvement, and extremity.
4. you will have a positive attitude if you are very strongly rewarded for having that attitude.

19. Suppose you want your friend to let you borrow her car. You first ask for a ride to the grocery store, which she agrees to do. After getting a ride to the grocery store, you then ask if you can borrow her car for the day so you can go Indianapolis, and to your surprise, she agrees. You have stumbled across the __________________ technique of persuasion.

1. door-in-the-face
2. *foot-in-the-door
3. low-ball
4. kitchen sink

20. Suppose you buy a new Honda because all your friends, who know much more about cars than you do, recommend Hondas. What kind of conformity are you exhibiting?

1. consistency
2. observational
3. normative
4. *informational

21. Solomon Asch, in his famous studies of judging lines of different lengths, found that:

1. the majority of participants always gave the correct, unbiased answer to the question.
2. even in the presence of others who held their position, most participants still publicly went along with the majority group.
3. *a fair amount of participants publicly agreed with the majority group, even when the majority group was wrong.
4. people were less likely to conform when the majority got bigger.

22. Stanley Milgram’s studies of obedience clearly demonstrate that:

1. Americans tend to be very independent and will refuse to comply with any orders that they disagree with.
2. *many people will obey the direct orders of authority figures, even if their actions have serious consequences.
3. attitudes are not a reliable predictor of behaviors.
4. cognitive dissonance is the largest factor in influencing people’s actions.

23. Suppose you want your parents to loan you $20, so you first ask them to give you $100. When they say no, you reduce your request to $20, and they agree because you have given in some on your original request. This is an example of which of the following social norms?

1. the norm of commitment
2. the norm of possession
3. the norm of altruism
4. *the norm of reciprocity

24. According to the research cited in your text, in order to persuade the majority, numerical minorities must ____________ and ____________ .

a. appear humble, have a cohesive group environment

b. be attractive, unbiased

c. *offer an alternative consensus, be consistent

d. be unbiased, appear confident in their arguments

25. Dissonance is likely to be high when:

a. one is given a large external justification for his/her dissonant behavior.

b. *one knows that his/her dissonant behavior will have a negative effect on others.

c. one knows that he/she had little choice in performing the dissonant behavior.

d. one does not take much personal responsibility for the action performed.

26. Alice buys a car and thinks she got a pretty good price. After the price is agreed upon, the salesperson starts to add small accessories such as fuzzy dice for the rearview mirror, a sure-grip steering wheel, and extra stereo speakers -- which ends up increasing the final price Alice pays. The salesperson, by using the “low-balling” technique, is taking advantage of the norm of:

a. *commitment

b. reciprocity

c. altruism

d. obedience

27. When a majority of group members initially favor one side of an issue, group discussion will often result in a group decision that is more extreme in that same direction. Such a result is known as:

a. a persuasion cue

b. *group polarization

c. group rationalization

d. group cohesiveness

28. According to Fishbein and Ajzen’s work on measurement of attitudes and prediction of behavior, earlier studies found a weak attitude/behavior relationship because:

a. *The attitude and behavior did not correspond in their level of specificity.

b. The attitudes assessed were too high in personal relevance to the respondents.

c. The attitudes assessed were not based on direct or indirect experience.

d. All of the above

29. Which of the following statements does self perception theory best support?

a. *Behaviors cause attitudes.

b. Attitudes cause behaviors.

c. Aversive arousal causes attitude change.

d. Positive mood causes mood management.

30. Imagine you overhear the following statements. “It was such an exciting game! Everyone was shouting and screaming, and before I knew it, a riot had broken out in the stadium, and I was following right along with everyone else. I don’t know what got into me.” These statements best reflect the concept of:

a. groupthink

b. *deindividuation

c. social loafing

d. minority influence

31. Which of the following is an example of stereotype threat?

a. a female, who does not know that women stereotypically do poorly on math tests, becomes stressed out during a test and does poorly on the test.

b. a man, who is aware that men stereotypically perform well on spatial tests, realizes he has a natural talent for such tests and aces the test.

c. *an Asian man, who is aware that there is a stereotype that Asians are good at math, becomes flustered under the pressure of trying to do well and fails the test.

d. All of the above

32. Which of the following is NOT a way to reduce dissonance?

a. Change the inconsistent attitude

b. Add consonant cognitions (“bolster”)

c. Minimize the importance of the conflict

d. *Strengthen personal involvement

33. Which of the following best outlines the results of the “classic” dissonance study, where subjects were paid to tell a confederate that a boring task was interesting?

a. Subjects paid $1 liked the task more when the experimenter was physically attractive.

b. Subjects paid $20 liked the task more because they were paid more than those in the $1 condition.

c. *Subjects paid $1 liked the task more because they had insufficient outside justification for telling another participant the study was interesting.

d. Subjects paid $20 liked the task more because the monetary reward gave them enough justification for lying to the confederate.

34. According to the research discussed in class concerning discrimination and social identity, when people are asked to allocate resources to their ingroup and one outgroup, it has been demonstrated that:

a. People will choose allocations of resources that give their ingroup maximal amounts of resources overall, even if the outgroup receives the same amount.

b. *People will choose allocations of resources that give their ingroup an advantage over the outgroup, even if it means less overall resources for the ingroup.

c. When people are allocating resources, they always choose the allocation that gives similar resources to their ingroup and the outgroup in the interest of equality.

d. The allocation of resources to the ingroup vs. the outgroup does not vary in any systematic way.

35. Which of the following is NOT a reason for the outgroup homogeneity effect, as outlined in the text?

a. Because we typically know more ingroup than outgroup members, we are more aware of the diversity of ingroup members.

b. Interactions with outgroup members typically occur within constrained settings, which may make members of outgroups more prone to showing a “unified front.”

c. In the attempt to focus on the characteristics that make us unique from others, we more readily learn about the differences between ourselves and ingroup members through interaction.

d. *Because conflict with outgroup members is common, members of the ingroup are motivated not to like outgroup members.