Deck 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations

Question 1

An individual's self-concept can be described by four characteristics: complexity, consistency, character, and clarity.

Answer 1

False
Explanation: An individual's self-concept can be described by three characteristics: complexity, consistency, and clarity.

Question 2

Selective attention occurs after perceptual organization and interpretation.

Answer 2

False
Explanation: The process of attending to some information received by our senses and ignoring other information is called selective attention.Incoming information is not organized and interpreted completely.

Question 3

Some experts believe that self-esteem is a person's rating of his/her success at social inclusion.

Answer 3

True
Explanation: Some experts believe that self-esteem is a person's rating of his/her success at social inclusion.In other words, people have higher self-esteem when they believe they are connected to and accepted by others.

Question 4

Consistency occurs when we are confident about "who we are," can describe our important identities to others, and provide the same description of ourselves across time.

Question 5

People who define themselves by their work have high complexity, which explains their tendency to have lower absenteeism and turnover.

Question 6

People with more of an internal locus of control believe events in their life are mainly due to fate, luck, or conditions in the external environment.

Question 7

Self-concept complexity, consistency, and clarity influence a person's well-being, behavior, and performance.

Question 8

Self-verification affects the perceptual process because employees are more likely to remember information that is consistent with their self-concept and nonconsciously screen out information that seems inconsistent with it.

Question 9

Self-efficacy refers to the extent to which people like, respect and are satisfied with themselves.

Question 10

The perceptual process begins by attributing behavior to internal or external causes.

Question 11

When contemplating a career, we compare our images of that job with our current and desired images of ourselves.

Question 12

Like self-enhancement, self-verification does not include seeking feedback that is not necessarily flattering.

Question 13

Confirmation bias causes us to screen out information that is contrary to our values and assumptions.

Question 14

Philosopher John Dewey recognized that people are inherently motivated to perceive themselves (and to be perceived by others) as competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important.

Question 15

Social identity theory states that we define ourselves by the groups to which we belong or have an emotional attachment.

Question 16

Most categorical thinking occurs without our awareness.

Question 17

Categorical thinking is the mostly conscious process of organizing people and objects into categories that are stored in our short-term memory.

Question 18

High internal consistency exists when most of the individual's self-perceived roles require similar personality traits, values, and other attributes.

Question 19

Our emotions influence what we recognize or screen out.

Question 20

A self-concept has high complexity when the individual's most important identities are highly interconnected.

Question 21

Social identity is a comparative process, and the comparison begins with categorical thinking.

Question 22

Seeing a trend in a gambling activity or in the winning streak of a sports star are examples of categorical thinking.

Question 23

You are more likely to make an internal attribution about someone's poor performance if you have also observed the person performing that task poorly in the past and have observed other employees performing the task well.

Question 24

The first step in a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when the observer acts differently toward people with whom he or she has high expectations than towards those with whom he or she has low expectations.

Question 25

People who believe that their successful completion of a project is due to their skill and hard work are making an internal attribution.

Question 26

A manager believes in the philosophy of positive organizational behavior.His self-fulfilling prophecies are likely to improve organizational performance.

Question 27

People rely on mental models to make sense of their environment through perceptual grouping.

Question 28

Most experts agree that categorical thinking (including stereotyping) is an automatic and nonconscious process.

Question 29

You are a high achievement-oriented person.You are more likely to be influenced by self-fulfilling prophecy effect than the low-achievement oriented people.

Question 30

Intentional discrimination occurs when decision makers rely on stereotypes to establish notions of the "ideal" person.

Question 31

Homogenization and differentiation are two activities in the process of forming and maintaining our social identity.

Question 32

Employees can break out of their existing mental models by working with colleagues from diverse backgrounds who bring different mental models to the workplace.

Question 33

The self-fulfilling prophecy helps supervisors accurately predict the future performance of recently hired employees.

Question 34

The fundamental attribution error would cause a supervisor to believe that an employee's lateness is due to factors beyond the employee's control rather than to a lack of motivation to attend work.

Question 35

People tend to make an internal attribution about someone's behavior if that person has typically not acted in a similar way either in the past or in other situations.

Question 36

The self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for our successes and blame others or the situation for our mistakes.

Question 37

The self-fulfilling prophecy tends to be stronger when employees are new to the job than when employees have worked in that job for a few years.

Question 38

The primacy effect refers to the phenomenon of forming an opinion of other people based on the first information perceived.

Question 39

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to attribute the behavior of other people to internal factors more than external factors.

Question 40

When making an internal or external attribution about a person's behavior, we tend to look at whether the person has acted this way in the past and in other situations and whether other people have acted similarly in the same situation.

Question 41

Empathy is both cognitive and emotional.

Question 42

Sandy is a R&D manager at a manufacturing plant and her self-concept is considered to have low complexity.Which of the following would most likely be what she considers as her most important identities?

A)manager, engineer, family income-earner
B)mother, manager, family income-earner
C)wine connoisseur, manager, mother
D)wife, engineer, mother
E)family income-earner, mother, wife

Question 43

Recent studies suggest that we have a(n) _________ self (our personal traits), _________ self (interpersonal relations), and _________ self (our membership in identifiable social groups).

A)character; collective; social
B)collective; perceived; reflective
C)individual; relational; collective
D)summary; character; social
E)esteem; collective; relational

Question 44

According to the halo effect, a supervisor's initial expectations of you influence your behavior so that you are more likely to act consistently with those expectations in the consequent encounters.

Question 45

According to the Johari Window, the hidden area is reduced through disclosure.

Question 46

Diversity training is the best way to minimize perceptual biases.

Question 47

The contact hypothesis states that the more individuals interact with one another, the less they rely on stereotypes to perceive each other.

Question 48

A person's annual performance evaluation is heavily influenced by performance results of the last month.This is an example of recency effect.

Question 49

Diversity awareness programs mainly educate employees about the value of diversity and problems with stereotyping.

Question 50

The halo effect occurs when one characteristic of a person shapes our general impression of that person which, in turn, biases our perceptions about the other characteristics of that person.

Question 51

In a global mindset, the empathy of an individual from a different culture translates into the effective use of words and behaviors that are compatible with the local culture.

Question 52

A global mindset can be developed through better knowledge of people and cultures solely by formal training.

Question 53

When interacting with people from other backgrounds, perceptual biases are more likely to be minimized when these people have equal status during the interaction.

Question 54

Employees who are thinking of quitting their jobs believe that a large percentage of their co-workers are also thinking about quitting.This perceptual error is called the halo effect.

Question 55

People who are unsure of their self-views are more:

A)difficult to influence.
B)stressed in decision-making situations.
C)defined by their work.
D)frequently absent.
E)apathetic to social forces.

Question 56

People who learn to empathize with others are less likely to engage in fundamental attribution errors.

Question 57

The primacy effect causes interviewers to ignore information presented at the beginning of the interview and pay more attention to the dominant information presented later in the interview.

Question 58

The Johari Window is a training program that teaches employees how to change their personality.

Question 59

A global mindset includes the capacity to empathize and act effectively across cultures.

Question 60

Self-fulfilling prophecy training is successful at influencing managers to eliminate self-fulfilling prophecies.

Question 61

_____ is the mostly unconscious process of organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are stored in our long-term memory.

A)Mental model
B)Social identification
C)Categorical thinking
D)Personal identification
E)Reinforcement theory

Question 62

The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in an identifiable social category is called:

A)the recency effect.
B)the halo effect.
C)projection bias.
D)empathy.
E)stereotyping.

Question 63

Mental models are _____ that guide perceptions and behavior.

A)stereotypes
B)forms of punishment
C)self-fulfilling prophecies
D)knowledge structures
E)action learning practices

Question 64

Generally, the brands placed on the upper shelves of supermarkets receive greater attention than those on the lower shelves.This is an example of _____.

A)selective attention
B)stereotyping
C)halo effect
D)behavior modification
E)recency effect

Question 65

Some investors in the stock market become overconfident and ignore evidence that their strategies are more likely to lose money.This can be attributed to _____.

A)the primacy effect
B)confirmation bias
C)the recency effect
D)the prophecy effect
E)stereotyping

Question 66

Someone with an external locus of control would most likely believe the events in their life are due mainly to:

A)themselves.
B)personal choices.
C)lucky streaks.
D)a lack of motivation.
E)a lack of competence.

Question 67

Which of the following is an example of selective attention?

A)You notice that two employees are arguing in the company's quiet library.
B)You conclude that the person near the cash register is a sales clerk.
C)You assume that an employee is lazy because she works in a department with lazy people.
D)You watch only a few television channels based on your interests.
E)You select a few job applicants through structured interviews.

Question 68

Which of the following refers to the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us?

A)Personalization
B)Motivation
C)Reinforcement theory
D)Perception
E)Social identification

Question 69

According to social identity theory, people tend to:

A)receive information and make sense of the world around them.
B)perceive that their own actions are due to the situation, whereas the behaviors of other people are mainly due to their motivation and ability.
C)believe that people in their own groups share common traits.
D)think that they are distinct from people in the social groups to which they have a connection.
E)refer to something about themselves as separate individuals.

Question 70

Which of the following occurs most likely due to confirmation bias?

A)A company conducts monthly performance reviews to evaluate its employees.
B)A customer demands a proof statement from the salesperson.
C)A manager believes his actions are correct, though they are highly unpopular.
D)A manager considers female workers to be less productive than the male workers.
E)A teacher assigns moderate grades to all her students, though there is a vast difference in performance.

Question 71

Systemic discrimination:

A)is not due to a perceptual error.
B)will not result in stereotyping.
C)is completely based on prejudice.
D)creates unintentional stereotypes.
E)is associated with negative attitudes toward others.

Question 72

Mental models cause us to:

A)perceive events as though people are acting on a theatrical stage.
B)utilize perceptual grouping to make sense of things.
C)believe the behavior of others is caused more by their ability or motivation than the situation.
D)perceive ourselves as members of several groups that are different from people in other groups.
E)change our personality whenever we develop new mental models.

Question 73

The extent to which people like, respect, and are satisfied with themselves is known as:

A)self-concept.
B)self-esteem.
C)self-verification.
D)self-enhancement.
E)self-centering.

Question 74

George believes that women have difficulty coping with the stress of executive decisions.Sally is promoted into a senior management position and George soon complains that Sally won't be able to cope with this job.George is exhibiting which of the following perceptual errors?

A)Attribution error
B)Stereotyping
C)Projection bias
D)Halo error
E)Recency error

Question 75

________ is the process of filtering information received by our senses.

A)Personal identification
B)Social learning
C)Projection
D)Stereotyping
E)Selective attention

Question 76

André is a doctor who is quick to mention that he is a doctor when he first meets other people.He also tends to perceive himself and other physicians in a more favorable way than nurses and non-medical staff.Which concept best explains André's perceptual process?

A)Attribution theory
B)Social identity theory
C)Self-fulfilling prophecy
D)Perceptual defense
E)Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Question 77

Social identity theory says that:

A)we define ourselves in terms of our membership in certain groups and our differences with people who belong to other groups.
B)we tend to believe our own actions are caused by motivation or ability rather than the situation.
C)our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations.
D)we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them.
E)our emotions screen out large blocks of information that threaten our beliefs and values.

Question 78

The process where people are motivated to confirm and maintain their existing self-concept is known as:

A)self-efficacy.
B)self-esteem.
C)self-verification.
D)self-enhancement.
E)self-centering.

Question 79

The combination of social identity and self-enhancement leads to the process of:

A)attribution, acceptance, and modification.
B)categorization, homogenization, and differentiation.
C)perception, personality, and attitude.
D)fundamental attribution, self-serving attribution, and social identity.
E)agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Question 80

Philosopher John Dewey recognized that people are inherently motivated to perceive themselves (and be perceived by others) as competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important.This is known as:

A)self-concept.
B)self-esteem.
C)self-verification.
D)self-enhancement.
E)self-centered.