Deck 12: Social Cognitive Theory: Bandura and Mischel

Question 1

The major difference between social cognitive theory and other learning approaches (e.g., Skinner) is that social learning theory

A) emphasizes developmental principles.
B) emphasizes learning in the absence of reinforcement.
C) emphasizes imitative behavior.
D) minimizes the role of reinforcement in performance.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Two of Mischel's mentors were

A) Kelly and Rotter.
B) Bandura and Kelly.
C) Bandura and Rotter.
D) Kelly and Eysenck.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The text notes that a defining characteristic of persons involves persons'

A) language and reasoning abilities.
B) capacity for self-reflection.
C) capacity to think about the future.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Expectations generally

A) are inherited.
B) vary from situation to situation.
C) cannot be stated in words.
D) are consistent from situation to situation.

Question 5

A numerical value that can influence people's estimates of a quantity is called

A) an expectancy.
B) a goal.
C) an anchor value.
D) a standard.

Question 6

Bandura's microanalytic research strategy emphasizes

A) the enduring influence of unconscious processes.
B) situational specificity.
C) modeling, or observational learning.
D) goals and intrinsic interest.

Question 7

Social cognitive theorists are critical of earlier learning theories because of their

A) neglect of cognitive variables.
B) emphasis on rewards.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 8

Social cognitive theory recognizes that people differ not only because of their different emotions and motives, but because of their different

A) archetypes.
B) competencies.
C) traits.
D) levels of self-actualization.

Question 9

Social cognitive theory has roots in

A) drive theory.
B) phenomenology.
C) learning theory.
D) all of the above.

Question 10

Like Kelly's personal construct theory, social cognitive theorists believe that much human thought and action is

A) future-oriented.
B) influenced by submerged constructs.
C) determined by childhood events.
D) determined by environmental rewards.

Question 11

The text notes that social cognitive theory is most similar to

A) behaviorism.
B) trait theory.
C) phenomenological theory.
D) personal construct theory.
E) c and d.

Question 12

_______ refers to what people think will happen, whereas _______ refer to what people think should happen.

A) goals; standards
B) standards; goals
C) expectancies; standards
D) standards; expectancies

Question 13

A feature that differentiates social cognitive theory from behaviorism is the two theories' different views of

A) the importance of experimentation.
B) the importance of experiences in the social environment.
C) personality trait variables.
D) expectancies.

Question 14

The following is a distinction emphasized by social cognitive theorists

A) acquisition-performance.
B) behaviorist-humanist.
C) situationist-personologist.
D) all of the above.

Question 15

According to social cognitive theory, the process of reciprocal determinism suggests that

A) people influence their environments.
B) environments influence people.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 16

Social cognitive theorists strongly emphasize

A) variability in behavior.
B) traits
C) reinforcers in the acquisition of responses.
D) all of the above.

Question 17

A major theme is Bandura's work is that people

A) can learn merely by observation.
B) have the capacity to self-regulate their actions and experiences.
C) contribute agentically to their own development.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Question 18

Social-cognitive theorists are critical of trait theory because they think that

A) variability in action is important to understanding people's personality, yet is relatively disregarded by trait theory.
B) trait theorists have placed far too much emphasis on unconscious forces.
C) trait theorists are interested in individual differences.
D) people do not have distinctive characteristics, or traits.

Question 19

Social-cognitive theorists are critical of behaviorism because behaviorists

A) based their theory on experimental rather than correlational research.
B) underestimated people's capacity for personal agency.
C) underestimated people's capacity to adapt their behavior to situations.
D) were too interests in individual differences.

Question 20

Social cognitive personality theorists are critical of approaches that emphasize

A) unconscious forces.
B) traits.
C) drives.
D) all of the above.

Question 21

The CAPS model was developed by

A) Bandura.
B) Mischel and Shoda.
C) Skinner.
D) Costa and McCrae.

Question 22

As illustrated by the CAPS model, social-cognitive theorists view personality as

A) primarily inherited.
B) the product of unconscious forces.
C) too complex to be understand via laboratory experiments.
D) a system.

Question 23

The fact that children learn so many behaviors through television can probably best be explained by

A) Skinnerian operant conditioning.
B) Freudian psychoanalytic theory.
C) Pavlovian classical conditioning.
D) Bandura's observational learning.

Question 24

Vicarious conditioning occurs in

A) humans.
B) monkeys.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 25

Self-efficacy beliefs most influence

A) patterns of thought.
B) motivation.
C) performance.
D) all of the above.

Question 26

The text notes that Bandura has criticized theories of learning that place complete reliance on the concept of reinforcement for the following reason(s)

A) They fail to account for complex behaviors that are immediately learned in their entirety.
B) They fail to account for behaviors learned in the absence of rewards to the model or to the observer.
C) They fail to account for the first appearance of behaviors weeks after they have been learned.
D) All of the above are reasons.

Question 27

Research by Shoda, Wright, and Mischel reveals that aggressive behavior

A) is primarily inherited, as the evolutionary psychologists thought.
B) is very stable across time.
C) varies from one situation to another.
D) is not an important element of personality.

Question 28

In social cognitive theory, one of the ways in which self-regulation is achieved is

A) through the use of external rewards.
B) through the use of external cues.
C) through the use of internal standards and self-evaluation.
D) through the use of internal cues.

Question 29

________ goals usually have a stronger influence on behavior than do ________ goals.

A) easy; difficult
B) unclear; clear
C) proximal; distal
D) distal; proximal

Question 30

A central idea of the CAPS model is that

A) variability in behavior is an important aspect of personality.
B) the key determinant of behavior is self-efficacy.
C) most behavior is acquired through modeling or observational learning.
D) people's trait are stable across different situations.

Question 31

Bandura's microanalytic research strategy emphasizes

A) computer generated profiles.
B) if-then behavior profiles.
C) situation-specific measures.
D) the use of strategic expectancies.

Question 32

Through observational learning, one can acquire

A) behavior responses.
B) emotional reactions.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 33

Observed consequences to a model most affect

A) acquisition of responses.
B) performance of responses.
C) both to the same degree.
D) They have no consistent effect.

Question 34

A ___________ is a criterion for judging the goodness or worth of a person or thing.

A) performance goal
B) learning goal
C) self-efficacy perception
D) evaluative standard

Question 35

The point of Cervone and Peake's research on anchoring, self-efficacy, and behavior was that

A) people are highly motivated to perform well in academic settings.
B) self-efficacy judgments causally influence behavior.
C) self-efficacy should be assessed in a context-specific manner.
D) self-efficacy judgments may change over time.

Question 36

People's goals generally

A) are organized in a hierarchical system.
B) do not change over periods of time.
C) cannot be stated in words.
D) are unconscious.
E) c and d.

Question 37

In observational learning, a critical distinction is made between

A) acquisition and performance.
B) acquisition and memory.
C) memory and performance.
D) all of the above.

Question 38

According to social cognitive theory, goals

A) allow us to engage in altruistic behavior.
B) allow us to form social groups.
C) allow us to organize behavior over extended periods of time.
D) allow the future to govern behavior more than the past.

Question 39

With regard to the personality variables of competencies, goals, evaluative standards, and expectancies, social cognitive theorists

A) give people an overall score on each by using self-report questionnaires.
B) give people an overall score on each by using projective tests.
C) give people an overall score on each by using brain imaging techniques.
D) would never give people one overall score on each.

Question 40

Experiments (outlined in the text) which show that a subject can develop a conditioned response through the observation of another person (model) being conditioned are taken as evidence of

A) vicarious conditioning.
B) negative modeling.
C) reverse modeling.
D) identification with the conditioner.

Question 41

According to social cognitive theory, goal-directed behavior is best understood in terms of

A) standards and anticipated consequences.
B) standards and reinforcers.
C) reinforcers and traits.
D) anticipated consequences and ego controls.

Question 42

Research reveals that playing violent video games

A) increase people's aggression.
B) lower people's aggression.
C) has no influence on people's aggression.
D) lower people's verbal skills.

Question 43

Which of the following is not a structural unit emphasized by social cognitive theory?

A) self-efficacy beliefs.
B) competencies.
C) goals.
D) generalized expectancies.

Question 44

Mischel found that preschool measures of delay of gratification were

A) related to adolescent social popularity.
B) related to later athletic performance.
C) related to adolescent cognitive competencies.
D) all of the above.

Question 45

In Michel's delay of gratification paradigm, children get a large reward if they

A) wait for a designated period of time.
B) have a high sense of self-efficacy.
C) show an if . . . then . . . behavioral signature.
D) all of the above.

Question 46

According to Bandura, greater effort follows from

A) not meeting one's standards.
B) meeting one's standards.
C) anxiety.
D) all of the above.

Question 47

The development of intrinsic interest is enhanced by

A) self-efficacy beliefs.
B) challenging standards.
C) positive feedback.
D) all of the above.

Question 48

Standards can be acquired through

A) reinforcement.
B) observational learning.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 49

In Michel's delay of gratification paradigm, children wait longest if they see

A) the immediate reward.
B) the delayed reward.
C) both rewards.
D) neither reward.

Question 50

Delay of gratification research is concerned with

A) the learning of new skills
B) the control of impulses
C) motivating oneself when one can no incentive to take action
D) unconvering unconscious mental forces

Question 51

Research by Bandura and Cervone indicates that motivation is best increased by

A) goals.
B) performance feedback.
C) a and b.
D) none of the above.

Question 52

Delay of gratification scores in preschool children were found to be related to later

A) parental ratings of cognitive skills.
B) parental ratings of self-control skills.
C) SAT scores.
D) all of the above.

Question 53

According to Bandura, aggressive behavior is regulated by

A) external consequences.
B) self-produced consequences.
C) vicarious experiencing of consequences.
D) all of the above.

Question 54

Research by Bandura and Cervone indicates the goals and feedback affect behavior by influencing

A) observational learning.
B) self-efficacy perceptions.
C) self-evaluative reactions.
D) b and c.

Question 55

According to social cognitive theory, effortful performance is most enhanced when

A) goals and feedback are present.
B) a relaxed atmosphere prevails.
C) incentives are high.
D) all of the above.

Question 56

Modeling involves the acquisition of

A) abstract principles.
B) discrete responses.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 57

According to Bandura, a person will try harder if

A) they see a more competent person succeed.
B) they see a model punished.
C) perceived self-efficacy suggests a chance for success.
D) all of the above.

Question 58

Bandura's view of motivation involves

A) goals.
B) performance feedback.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 59

According to social cognitive theory, goal-directed behavior can be explained in terms of

A) performance standards.
B) feedback information.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 60

Behavioral signatures consist of

A) aggregates across situations.
B) profiles of situation-behavior relationships.
C) generalized expectancies.
D) none of the above.

Question 61

According to social cognitive theory behavior is influenced more by expected consequences than actual consequences.

Question 62

According to research by Osofsky and colleagues, how were prison personnel able to execute prisoners when, in general, they knew killing was wrong?

A) By finding ways to make mortality more salient.
B) By finding ways to selectively disengage morality.
C) By finding ways to argue against the death penalty.
D) By finding ways to punish themselves later.

Question 63

Social cognitive theory emphasizes stages of cognitive development.

Question 64

A social cognitive theorist would suggest that children can learn aggressive behavior through watching television.

Question 65

In observational learning, what happens to the model plays no role in the performance of behavior.

Question 66

Which of the following items could appear on a scale measuring moral disengagement?

A) "Cheating on an exam is justified when individuals don't have the time to study because of family obligations."
B) "Plagiarizing a term paper is okay if it's for a class that is not part of your academic major."
C) both 'a' and 'b.'
D) neither 'a' nor 'b.'

Question 67

One would expect social cognitive theorists to support the use of generalized measures of intelligence.

Question 68

Although conceptualized differently, social cognitive theory shares many fundamental assumptions with trait theory.

Question 69

Self-efficacy beliefs are important mediators to action.

Question 70

In development of the ability to delay gratification, children develop ways to distance themselves from the "hot" qualities of desired objects.

Question 71

The most important ingredient of self-efficacy is reinforcement for accomplishment.

Question 72

An important aspect of competencies in social cognitive theory is that they are context specific.

Question 73

Relative to trait theorists, social cognitive theorists place much greater emphasis on discriminations among situations.

Question 74

According to theorizing by Bandura and colleagues, the disengagement of moral standards allows people to:

A) engage in immoral behaviors when it is to their advantage to do so.
B) disregard their own standards of behavior.
C) engage in behaviors they believe to be morally wrong.
D) all of the above.

Question 75

The problem with self-efficacy measures is that they do not predict behavior.

Question 76

Self-efficacy involves the generalized expectancy of successful goal attainment.

Question 77

Which of the following statements best describe the social cognitive theory approach to personality assessment, specifically, their approach to assessing perceived self-efficacy?

A) self-efficacy perceptions should be assessed using self-report measures that describe specific situations individuals will confront.
B) self-efficacy perceptions should be assessed using self-report measures that do not describe any specific situations, but instead measure a more generalized sense of self.
C) self-efficacy perceptions can not be assessed using self-report measures because people are not fully aware of their thinking processes, and therefore can not report on them.
D) none of the above

Question 78

In research conducted by Bandura and Cervone, on factors that increase motivation, results indicated that motivation is most strongly enhanced when people

A) are working toward specific goals, but do not receive any feedback on their performance, since the feedback can distract them from performing at their best.
B) receive feedback on their performance but do not receive any specific goals to work toward, since goals can distract people from performing at their best.
C) do not receive either goals or feedback on their performance.
D) none of the above.

Question 79

According to social cognitive theorists, self-efficacy can be considered a trait.

Question 80

The process of learning emotional reactions through observing others is known as vicarious conditioning.