Question 1

Though Aleser, Fiodor, and Alan are from different countries and backgrounds, they have no trouble agreeing on which women they find attractive. Fascinated that skin, eye, and hair colour have no effects on the men's experience of beauty, Fiodor wonders what the beautiful faces have in common. After some research, he learns that attractive faces tend to be more __________ than others.
A)square
B)unusual
C)symmetrical
D)round
E)distinctive

Accepted Answer

Attractive faces are often found to be more symmetrical than others. Symmetry is widely regarded as a key component of facial attractiveness across different cultures and backgrounds.

Question 2

Janis goes to see a movie with a group of friends. As they leave the theatre, she is surprised to hear her friends exclaim that they loved the movie, because she thought the plot was poorly constructed and the acting terrible. She says nothing to the others, though, because she doesn't want to look stupid or offend other people in her group. Janis has succumbed to
A)normative social influence.
B)social facilitation.
C)situational attributions.
D)the peripheral route to persuasion.
E)reductionist thinking.

Accepted Answer

Janis has succumbed to normative social influence, which occurs when a person conforms to the group's norms or behaviors to be accepted or liked by the group members, even if they might personally disagree with the group's views or actions. In this case, Janis chooses not to express her negative opinion about the movie to avoid conflict or disapproval from her friends.

Question 3

You and four other group members have to prepare a presentation that either argues for or against increasing government spending. You ask whether the group wants to use any multimedia in the presentation and one of the other members quickly expresses his opinion that would be a waste of what little time you've been allocated to speak. No one in the group disagrees and that becomes the plan. However, the night before the presentation, you start second guessing whether there should have been more debate about the prospect of using multimedia, rather than just going along with whatever the first person to respond said. What could this provide an example of?
A)rationalizing
B)foot-in-the-door technique
C)indoctrination
D)groupthink
E)suspension of disbelief

Accepted Answer

This scenario is an example of groupthink, where the group quickly agrees to a course of action with little to no debate, often to maintain harmony or conformity within the group, even if it might not lead to the best decision.

Question 4

Jody is known at the office for being meek and even a pushover. Though people like him, they sometimes joke that if they need something done, Jody will do it. One morning, Jody wears a new tie with an unusual pattern and when a colleague asks him if he was on drugs when he picked it, Jody attacks him. Everyone is so stunned by Jody's sudden aggressiveness that more than a minute passes before people drag him away from the man he was beating. Before the end of the day, Jody is in a psychologist's office, filling out a test that reveals that he has
A)hidden prejudices.
B)made a situational attribution.
C)achieved catharsis.
D)overcontrolled hostility.
E)no fashion sense.

Accepted Answer

Jody's sudden aggressive behavior after a period of being meek and accommodating suggests overcontrolled hostility, where anger and frustration are bottled up until they explode in an uncharacteristic outburst.

Question 5

When Tanek serves jury duty, he is astonished by how different the casual, talkative people he met in the waiting area behave when they enter the courtroom. They stand and sit straighter, fold their legs more formally, and say "yes, sir" or "yes, ma'am" rather than "yeah" when speaking to the judge or attorneys. The members of the jury pool are responding to
A)the matching effect.
B)a social role.
C)deindividuation.
D)the fundamental attribution error.
E)the threat of being charged with contempt.

Accepted Answer

The members of the jury pool are responding to a social role, which involves adopting behaviors and attitudes expected in a particular setting or position, such as a courtroom setting where formal behavior is expected.

Question 6

You have just received your results on an exam. Although you thought that you were prepared, you didn't do very well. You can't recall exactly what the questions asked but clearly remember how much work you put in preparing for it. You decide that the reason you performed poorly must have been because the exam questions were unfair in some way. You tell your friend that and they point out that it doesn't sound like you've considered possible explanations related to yourself (e.g. even though you thought you were prepared you actually weren't). If that was the case, what kind of effect might that reflect?
A)groupthink
B)a stereotype
C)a social role
D)a self-serving bias
E)a social norm

Accepted Answer

This scenario reflects a self-serving bias, where an individual attributes their successes to internal factors (like their own abilities or efforts) and their failures to external factors (like the unfairness of exam questions), to maintain a positive self-image.

Question 7

What are the three components in Sternberg's triangular theory of love?
A)respect, passion, intimacy
B)passion, commitment, respect
C)passion, commitment, intimacy
D)commitment, attraction, respect
E)attraction, passion, intimacy

Accepted Answer

Sternberg's triangular theory of love consists of three components: passion, commitment, and intimacy. These elements form the basis of different types of love when combined in various ways.

Question 8

Leah decides to give speed dating a try. In the course of an hour, she will spend three minutes each talking with 20 different men. Without any additional information, which of the following qualities is most likely to make Leah want to date one or more of the men she meets?
A)intelligence
B)friendliness
C)sense of humour
D)physical attractiveness
E)political orientation

Accepted Answer

Physical attractiveness is often a primary factor in initial attraction, especially in a brief interaction like speed dating.

Question 9

You have just received your results on an exam. Although you thought that you were prepared, you didn't do very well. You can't recall exactly what the questions asked but clearly remember how much work you put in preparing for it. You decide that the reason you performed poorly must have been because the exam questions were unfair in some way. You wonder why your instructor is trying to make things difficult for your class and don't consider the possibility that there was nothing wrong with the exam and the course material was simply difficult. What concept would be most relevant here?
A)generativity
B)a situational attribution
C)fundamental attribution error
D)escape conditioning
E)source misattribution error

Accepted Answer

This scenario is an example of the fundamental attribution error, where the individual is attributing their poor performance to external factors (unfair exam questions, instructor's intentions) rather than considering their own possible shortcomings or the inherent difficulty of the material.

Question 10

When she first hears a particular song on the radio, Madelaine hates it. A lot of other people like it, though, and the song is played often, so whether she wants to or not, Madelaine hears it over and over. One day she realizes that she actually kind of likes the song. She tells a friend that the song has grown on her. Madelaine's feelings about the song changed, due to the
A)social penetration theory.
B)social exchange theory.
C)mere exposure effect.
D)social facilitation effect.
E)incidental processing effect.

Accepted Answer

Madelaine's change of heart regarding the song is a classic example of the mere exposure effect, which suggests that people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Question 11

In a study researchers sent 5,000 fictitious résumés, identical except for the names, to companies advertising in Chicago and Boston. Applicants with black-sounding names were 50 percent less likely to be called for an interview than those with white-sounding names. This unfair treatment is called
A)prejudice.
B)discrimination.
C)realistic conflict theory.
D)social identity theory.
E)affirmative action.

Accepted Answer

Discrimination refers to the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. In this study, the differential treatment of applicants based on the perceived race associated with their names is a clear example of discrimination.

Question 12

During rush hour one afternoon, Tabitha sees a van on fire at the side of the road. Though normally she would drive on by assuming that someone else had already called for help, she learned in her psychology class that people often walk or drive past emergencies, due to __________. When she calls 911, she is nonetheless shocked to learn that nobody else has called in the fire.
A)social facilitation
B)normative social conformity
C)the bystander effect
D)deindividuation
E)repressed tendencies

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is the bystander effect, which refers to the phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. The more bystanders there are, the less likely any one of them is to help, often due to the assumption that someone else will take action.

Question 13

What is the relationship between frustration and aggression, according to the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
A)aggression and frustration are only related to each other in clinical populations
B)suppressing frustration always leads to greater aggression in the long run
C)frustration leads to aggression, and aggression is the result of frustration
D)suppressing aggression always leads to greater frustration in the long run
E)levels of aggression can be directly predicted by measuring frustration

Accepted Answer

The frustration-aggression hypothesis posits that frustration often leads to aggressive behavior, as aggression is considered a direct result of frustration encountered.

Question 14

You and four other group members have to prepare a presentation that either argues for or against increasing government spending. While everyone was in favour of increasing spending at the beginning, you expected that exploring some counterarguments (reasons to consider being against it) might change that. However, your discussion seemed to only reinforce what everyone already believed and afterwards the group was even more strongly in favour of taking that position than when they started. What could account for that?
A)regression to the mean
B)group polarization
C)cognitive restructuring
D)syntactic priming
E)cognitive dissonance

Accepted Answer

Group polarization occurs when discussions within a group lead to an exaggeration of the group's initial attitudes. In this case, discussing the topic made the group's initial favorable stance towards increasing government spending even stronger.

Question 15

When Majan comes to class wearing his bathrobe, his classmates stare and laugh because he
A)is having a psychogenic fugue.
B)has violated a social norm.
C)is demonstrating deindividuation.
D)has violated the saliency bias.
E)isn't in that class.

Accepted Answer

Majan wearing his bathrobe to class is seen as unusual because it violates a social norm, which are the unwritten rules about how to behave in social situations. Wearing a bathrobe in public, especially in a classroom setting, is not considered appropriate attire, hence the reaction from his classmates.

Question 16

You and four other group members have to prepare a presentation that either argues for or against increasing government spending. After all the work has been done, you realize that you and one other group member actually did 75% of the work. Even though you know the other members typically have very good work ethics while completing school assignments on their own, the group context seemed to change their behaviour. What could account for that change?
A)stereotype threat
B)asymmetrical completion
C)social facilitation
D)bimodal completion
E)social loafing

Accepted Answer

Social loafing is the phenomenon where individuals exert less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone. This can explain why the other members contributed less in the group context despite having good work ethics individually.

Question 17

You have just received your results on an exam. Although you thought that you were prepared, you didn't do very well. You can't recall exactly what the questions asked but clearly remember how much work you put in preparing for it. You decide that the reason you performed poorly must have been because the exam questions were unfair in some way. What kind of process could this be an example of?
A)a personal attribution
B)a situational attribution
C)an internal attribution
D)means-end analysis
E)linguistic relativity

Accepted Answer

The student is attributing their poor performance to an external factor (the exam questions being unfair) rather than an internal factor (their own lack of preparation). This is an example of a situational attribution.

Quiz 13: Behaviour in a Social Context

What are the three components in Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Leah decides to give speed dating a try. In the course of an hour, she will spend three minutes each talking with 20 different men. Without any additional information, which of the following qualities is most likely to make Leah want to date one or more of the men she meets?

What is the relationship between frustration and aggression, according to the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

When Majan comes to class wearing his bathrobe, his classmates stare and laugh because he