Question 1

Before Stanley Milgram conducted his study on obedience,he asked a number of psychiatrists and psychologists how many people would go all the way to the highest voltage under the instructions of the authority.Milgram found that

Accepted Answer

The experts greatly underestimated the number of participants who would inflict what they thought were dangerous amounts of shock, with the actual experiment showing that a significant majority of participants were willing to administer the highest voltage under the authority's instructions.

Question 2

Janis,an administrative assistant at a large firm,is trying to find reasons for her boss' hostile behaviour.She is likely to

Accepted Answer

Janis is likely to overestimate her boss' personality traits and underestimate the influence of the situation, a common cognitive bias known as the fundamental attribution error. This error leads individuals to attribute others' behaviors more to their character than to external factors.

Question 3

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency of people to

Accepted Answer

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors (e.g. personality traits, attitudes) in the behaviour of others, while underestimating the role of situational factors (e.g. context, environment). So option B is the correct choice. Option A is the opposite of the fundamental attribution error while option C and D are not related to the fundamental attribution error.

Question 4

__________ processes are unconscious,fast,and automatic,whereas_________ processes are slower,intentional and within our conscious awareness.

Accepted Answer

The first blank describes characteristics of implicit processes, which occur automatically and without conscious awareness. The second blank describes characteristics of explicit processes, which are intentional and within our conscious awareness. Therefore, the best choice is B, where implicit processes are contrasted with explicit processes.

Question 5

In social psychology,the term "person perception" refers to

Accepted Answer

Person perception refers to the process of forming impressions or judgments about other people. This includes categorizing individuals based on perceived attributes or characteristics, such as personality traits or physical appearance. It involves a range of cognitive and perceptual processes, such as attention, memory, and inference. Ultimately, person perception plays a crucial role in social interactions and relationships.

Question 6

William,a police officer,is instructed by a superior officer to physically harm a suspect in order to obtain a confession.According to research done on obedience,William is more likely to disobey this order if

Accepted Answer

According to research, individuals are more likely to disobey orders to harm others when they perceive that others around them are also disobeying or when they have social support for their actions. Therefore, if William's partner refuses to physically harm the suspect, he is more likely to disobey the order and not engage in harming the suspect.

Question 7

Assuming that others hold similar attitudes and opinions as our own,even if we know they are not popular,is known as

Accepted Answer

The false consensus effect is the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors. It can lead to the belief that our opinions and attitudes are more widely held than they actually are. The other options (naive realism, person perception, stereotyping) do not refer specifically to this phenomenon.

Question 8

Callie does poorly on an exam in one class but does very well on an exam in another class.She attributes her poor performance on the first exam to the fact that the professor is not a very good instructor.In contrast,she attributes her good performance on the second exam to the fact that she is a good student.This is most likely an example of

Accepted Answer

This is an example of the self-serving bias, where individuals tend to attribute their successes to their internal qualities and their failures to external factors beyond their control. In this case, Callie attributes her poor performance to the professor's instruction (an external factor) while taking credit for her own good performance in the other class.

Question 9

When Milgram and his team set up several variations of his original study,they found that people were more likely to disobey when

Accepted Answer

Milgram found that when a confederate acting as another teacher refused to comply, participants were more likely to disobey as well. This suggests that the presence of a disobedient peer can influence individual behavior towards disobedience.

Question 10

According to the self-serving bias concept,we tend to use ______________ attributions for ourselves when we do something well,and_______________ attributions when we fail or commit errors.

Accepted Answer

According to the self-serving bias concept, people tend to make internal attributions for their successes (taking credit for their abilities and efforts), but external attributions for their failures (blaming situational factors beyond their control). Therefore, option B (internal; external) correctly represents this bias. Options A and D are incorrect because they suggest external attributions for success, which is not consistent with the self-serving bias. Option C is not a valid answer as dispositional attributions refer to personality traits, which are different from internal attributions.

Question 11

Thad believes Callum is a jerk,so Thad ignores Callum and does not invite him to any of his parties.Callum begins to be rude to Thad and talks about him behind his back.Assuming Callum's behaviour is only a reaction to how Thad treated him in the first place,this is an example of

Accepted Answer

This scenario is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, where Thad's initial negative attribution of Callum causes him to treat Callum negatively, leading Callum to respond in kind, confirming Thad's initial belief.

Question 12

Which of the following is a valid conclusion from the studies discussed in your textbook that used the thin-slice of behaviour technique to investigate quick judgments about the personal qualities of others?

Accepted Answer

Studies using the thin-slice of behavior technique have shown that quick judgments about others' personal qualities are remarkably similar in accuracy to judgments made with more information. This suggests that people can make surprisingly accurate assessments based on very limited observations.

Question 13

Our impressions of people tend to be formed

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that our impressions of people are often formed within seconds of meeting them. This is known as the "halo effect," where our initial impression of someone influences how we perceive them in subsequent interactions.

Question 14

The __________ is a phenomenon in which people make an attribution based on character,while simultaneously ignoring situational factors.

Accepted Answer

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to overemphasize dispositional (personality) explanations for other people's behavior, while downplaying situational explanations.

Question 15

When people are trying to find reasons for someone else's behaviour,they tend to

Accepted Answer

This is known as the fundamental attribution error, where people tend to overemphasize personality traits when explaining someone else's behaviour and underestimate the role of situational factors.

Question 16

About ____ of all participants in Milgram's study administered the highest level of shock to the learner.

Accepted Answer

Milgram's study found that 65% of participants administered the highest level of shock to the learner, indicating a high level of obedience to authority.

Question 17

Which statement best describes an important finding of Milgram's classic research?

Accepted Answer

Milgram's classic research found that people will easily obey an authority figure and do harm to others, even if it goes against their personal morals and values. This was shown through his infamous obedience experiment where participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to a confederate. Despite the confederate's pleas for the shocks to stop and their apparent pain, the majority of participants continued to administer shocks because they were told to do so by the experimenter in authority.

Question 18

The tendency to give too much emphasis to personal factors when accounting for other people's actions is called

Accepted Answer

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overemphasize internal or dispositional factors and underestimate situational or external factors when judging other people's behavior. It occurs when we explain someone else's behavior as being due to their personality traits or internal factors, rather than considering situational factors that may have influenced their behavior.

Question 19

When interpreting behaviour,if a social psychologist takes both conscious and unconscious processes into account,they are said to be using a(n)

Accepted Answer

A dual-process model takes into account both conscious and unconscious processes when interpreting behaviour. The other options may also involve considering multiple factors or approaches, but do not specifically address conscious and unconscious processes.

Question 20

Augustus believes that dogs are the best pet.Most of Augustus' friends also think that dogs are the best pet.In Augustus' opinion,people who think otherwise are deluded and wrong.Augustus' skewed perception of reality is known as

Accepted Answer

Naïve realism is the tendency to believe that our perception of reality is objective and unbiased, leading us to assume that those who do not share our views must be mistaken or irrational. In this case, Augustus has a strong preference for dogs and assumes that anyone who disagrees with him is simply wrong. This is an example of naïve realism.

Quiz 13: C: Social Psychology