Deck 5: Psychology and Morality

Question 1

For the most part, moral psychology makes what sort of claims concerning morality?

A) normative claims about how people should act.
B) descriptive claims about how people think and behave.
C) historic claims about where and how theories of ethics originated.
D) moral claims about why right actions are right.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Psychological situationism

A) supports the idea that people behave consistently over time regardless of the situation.
B) supports the idea that people will often behave differently depending on the situation.
C) shows that what one ought to do is based on unique situations.
D) shows that one's values cannot withstand pressure.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Altruism pertains to how

A) willing people are to sacrifice their interests for others.
B) good people are at determining which of their beliefs are all true.
C) extroverted a person is.
D) open people are to accepting new truths.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What Kahneman calls System 1 involves

A) the conscious execution of tasks.
B) the attention needed to learn a difficult skill.
C) self-reflection.
D) mindless behaviors.

Question 5

System 2

A) does statistical thinking with extreme accuracy.
B) excels at creating coherent pictures.
C) tends to take the easier route to a solution.
D) enables one to be creative.

Question 6

Psychological susceptibilities

A) can lead individuals to impulsive and undesirable moral behaviors.
B) control individuals and make most people immoral.
C) are natural and completely harmless.
D) fortunately do not affect morality.

Question 7

Clifford says it is always morally wrong, no matter what the circumstances, for anyone to believe something based on insufficient evidence, however, he

A) is wrong to maintain that what we believe has any moral importance.
B) cannot support this statement with sufficient evidence.
C) has unrealistically high standards for "sufficient evidence," making this statement impossible to practice.
D) has had several of his own theories disproven.

Question 8

Milgram's experiments suggest that people can be led to act immorally when subject to

A) stressful situations.
B) jail.
C) authority.
D) bribery.

Question 9

Psychological studies have suggested that there

A) is essentially no correlation between behavior and most familiar character traits.
B) may be correlations between behavior and less familiar personality traits.
C) All of the above
D) None of the above

Question 10

There is evidence that framing

A) has no effect on how people think.
B) can have a significant effect on how people think.
C) completely determines how people think.
D) makes people act out of a concern for others, regardless of self-interest.

Question 11

Kahneman's two Systems

A) reflect the workings of very different components of the brain.
B) are convenient ways of talking about human mental processes.
C) characterize ways different people tend to think.
D) explain why some people are more inclined to act morally.

Question 12

Framing

A) links associations between words and concepts, motor activities, and emotions.
B) causes our later impressions to be influenced by our first impressions.
C) can lead people to different conclusions depending on how the problem is presented.
D) can be problematic if the mind creates an unfairly biased understanding of the problem at hand.

Question 13

The halo effect

A) links associations between words and concepts, motor activities, and emotions.
B) causes our later impressions to be influenced by our first impressions.
C) can lead people to different conclusions depending on how the problem is presented.
D) can be problematic if the mind creates an unfairly biased understanding of the problem at hand.

Question 14

Which of the following describes the relationship between Systems 1 and 2?

A) System 1 receives the outputs of System 2.
B) System 2 receives the outputs of System 1.
C) The two systems are constantly sending signals back and forth between each other.
D) The two systems do not interact.

Question 15

To defend ourselves against committing System 2 mistakes, we can

A) employ stereotypes to establish a coherent picture more quickly.
B) trust our first gut reactions.
C) expand our background knowledge.
D) adjust our motivations.

Question 16

Clifford considers it morally wrong to believe some remarkable claim on the basis of

A) insufficient evidence.
B) sufficient evidence.
C) scientific evidence.
D) expert knowledge.

Question 17

The kinds of immediate impressions that situational influences tend to produce in people do not resemble

A) moral reasoning.
B) moral reflection.
C) critical thinking.
D) All of the above

Question 18

Batson's experiments with people's willingness to relieve another person of suffering

A) show beyond doubt that people are sometimes motivated by pure altruism.
B) establish that people are purely self-serving and never altruistic.
C) support the notion that people can be truly altruistic.
D) prove that people can be truly altruistic.

Question 19

System 2 is prone to mental fatigue, which can result from a nutritional deficiency and/or from thinking too hard for too long.

Question 20

Although people often appear to act altruistically, these people might still be motivated by subtle self-interested reasons instead.

Question 21

Psychological studies of human tendencies seem to indicate that humans are, by nature, susceptible to committing serious moral wrongs and to acting in highly altruistic ways.

Question 22

Psychological situationism maintains that behaviors are mainly determined by an individual's moral character traits.

Question 23

Psychological studies have found that people are often more likely to help others if they have just had a positive experience of their own.

Question 24

Altruism reflects a desire for others' wellbeing, regardless of self-interest. This figures in with one of the Big Five psychological traits.

Question 25

Kahneman's System 1 involves activities that require our careful attention, like solving a difficult math problem or studying a foreign language.

Question 26

Kahneman's System 2 involves mental events like becoming angry or immediately recognizing someone we know well.

Question 27

System 1 always tries to give us coherent pictures or ways of viewing things that make sense to us, even if that picture is not entirely accurate.

Question 28

System 2 may receive errors from System 1, but System 2 cannot make any additional errors of its own.

Question 29

Choice architecture can help individuals make a good choice, however, it can also be used to take advantage of our susceptibilities.

Question 30

Humans seem able to feel empathy towards others, a sentiment which can be psychologically linked to helpful actions.