Deck 14: Social Psychology in the Clinic

Question 1

According to the text, even when making up their own questions, interviewers' expectations may influence their questioning

A) if they have definite pre-existing ideas.
B) irrespective of what they think.
C) even if they don't have any pre-existing ideas.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Answer 1

if they have definite pre-existing ideas.

Question 2

Some researchers believe that psychotherapists' susceptibility to confirmation bias may explain

A) their patients' recovered memories of sex abuse.
B) the occurrence of transference in therapy.
C) the sadder-but-wiser effect in depressed patients.
D) the beneficial effects of patients' optimism.

Answer 2

their patients' recovered memories of sex abuse.

Question 3

Clinician David Rosenhan and his colleagues faked schizophrenic symptoms to infiltrate mental hospitals. Once they had been admitted and no longer complained of any fake symptoms,

A) professional clinicians quickly distinguished them from the real patients and released them from hospitalization.
B) the clinicians sought and found evidence in their histories and behaviour to confirm their admitting diagnoses.
C) the pseudopatients were ostracized by the hospital's real patients.
D) the pseudopatients absorbed their "sick" roles and developed additional symptoms in the course of their treatment.

Answer 3

the clinicians sought and found evidence in their histories and behaviour to confirm their admitting diagnoses.

Question 4

When Snyder and Swann gave interviewers some hypotheses to test concerning individuals' traits, they found that people often test for a trait by

A) asking those being tested for a general self-evaluation.
B) looking for information that will contradict it.
C) looking for information that will confirm it.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 5

In the Rosenhan study, clinicians who dealt with pseudopatients who had faked symptoms to get into mental hospitals demonstrated the error of

A) self-serving bias.
B) hindsight bias.
C) self-handicapping.
D) overjustification.

Question 6

Chapman and Chapman had university students and professional clinicians study the relationship between patients' test performances and diagnoses. They found that

A) if students or clinicians expected a particular association, they perceived it, regardless of whether the data was supportive.
B) students and clinicians only saw relationships that were indeed supported by the data.
C) professional clinicians were more accurate than students in assessing relationships.
D) students and clinicians only recognized positive relationships if the actual correlations were greater than 0.75.

Question 7

Which of the following does not belong with the others?

A) group polarization
B) hindsight bias
C) illusory correlations
D) clinical judgments

Question 8

Freudian therapists who expect to find evidence of early childhood traumas are likely to uncover such experiences among clients who are

A) gay males.
B) healthy, successful adults.
C) none of the choices are correct.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 9

Research indicates that when interviewers are instructed to test for a trait, they tend to ask questions that show evidence of

A) the confirmation bias.
B) the illusion of control.
C) negative attributional style.
D) illusory correlation.

Question 10

You find out that Margaret, a woman who was a close friend of yours years ago in grade school, has just come out as a lesbian. When chatting with a friend about this news, you can both recall things Margaret did as a girl that indicated her emerging lesbianism. This might be an example of

A) abreaction.
B) hindsight bias.
C) wish fulfillment.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 11

Farah goes to a therapist to seek help with memory problems for periods of her childhood. Her therapist tells Farah that gaps in childhood memory are frequently evidence of childhood sexual abuse. Her therapist interprets her existing memories, memory loss, and behaviours as evidence of past abuse. The therapist is likely engaging in

A) after-the-fact explanations.
B) the confirmation bias.
C) overconfidence bias.
D) the abuse-excuse effect.

Question 12

Which of the following questions do social and clinical psychology seeks answers to?

A) How can the ways in which we think about self and others feed such problems as depression, loneliness, anxiety, and ill health?
B) How do environmental issues affect the self?
C) How does our genetic composition affect our social structures?
D) How can we change our genetic orientations?

Question 13

Our tendency to notice confirming instances but not disconfirming instances of an expected relationship contributes to

A) illusory correlation.
B) perceptual connectivity.
C) the attention heuristic.
D) the ultimate attribution error.

Question 14

Some clinicians' continuous confidence in uninformative tests may be due to

A) the inoculation effect.
B) learned helplessness.
C) the representativeness heuristic.
D) illusory correlation.

Question 15

Annette is going out on a first date with Tony, whom her best friend says is funny and fun-loving. On the date, Annette predictably asks Tony, "What is the most fun-loving thing you've ever done?" What is the likely effect of such questioning on Tony?

A) He will act more fun-loving on the date than if not asked such questions.
B) He will act more reserved and shy than if not asked such questions.
C) He will resent such questions and become annoyed.
D) He will try to explain that there are times when he is not fun-loving.

Question 16

Confirmation bias has been demonstrated to occur when

A) college student research participants are given a hypothesis (e.g., "this person is extraverted") to test.
B) experienced psychotherapists are given a hypothesis to test.
C) people evaluate themselves in response to questions such as "are you happy with your social life?"
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 17

According to research evidence, professional clinicians

A) often overestimate the predictive powers of their clinical intuition.
B) are frequently the victims of illusory correlation.
C) are fooled by hindsight analysis and self-confirming diagnoses.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 18

According to the text, professional clinical judgment is vulnerable to

A) illusory correlations.
B) overconfidence bred by hindsight.
C) self-confirming diagnosis.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 19

Snyder and his colleagues found that they could get interviewers to search for behaviours that would disconfirm the trait they were testing for by

A) telling them that it was relevant and informative to find out ways in which the person might not be like the stereotype.
B) promising $25 to the interviewer who developed the set of questions that told the most about the interviewee.
C) all of the choices resulted in interviewers overcoming their confirmation bias.
D) none of the choices worked in overcoming the confirmation bias of the interviewers.

Question 20

Dr. Phillips, a psychotherapist, is plagued by doubt and guilt after a client commits suicide. These guilty feelings probably stem from _____________ on the part of the therapist.

A) self-serving bias
B) the ultimate attribution error
C) self-handicapping
D) hindsight bias

Question 21

Jane, a college senior, is mildly depressed. Asked to describe herself, she notes both her positive and negative qualities. She recalls both past successes and failures and takes personal responsibility for both. Jane clearly illustrates the _______________ effect.

A) rose-collared-glasses
B) sadder-but-wiser
C) head-in-the-clouds
D) feet-on-the-ground

Question 22

Dwayne believes that smiling during lectures helps him get better grades than he would otherwise get. Jake believes that smiling has no effect. Which of the following statements about Dwayne and Jake is most reasonable?

A) Dwayne is more likely to be depressed than Jake.
B) Jake is more likely to be depressed than Dwayne.
C) Dwayne makes more social cognitions than Jake.
D) Jake makes more social cognitions than Dwayne.

Question 23

The work of Alloy and Abramson in studying how depressives view the extent of their personal control over events provides evidence of the phenomenon known as

A) optimistic well-being.
B) pessimistic exaggeration.
C) depressive realism.
D) learned helplessness.

Question 24

Greg just watched his baseball team badly lose a game. When asked to predict how he was going to perform later that evening during a card game, Greg most likely

A) thought his performance would be improved.
B) thought his performance would be impaired.
C) thought his performance would be the same as it usually is.
D) thought his performance would be unaffected by his team's loss.

Question 25

Which of the following does not belong?

A) negative explanatory style
B) external attribution
C) global attribution
D) stable attribution

Question 26

Strack and Coyne found that depressed people were realistic in thinking that other people

A) possessed more accurate self-concepts.
B) did not appreciate their behaviour.
C) would welcome their friendship and trust.
D) were less influenced by fear of social disapproval.

Question 27

University students who have depressed roommates tend to become

A) somewhat depressed themselves.
B) more accepting of people suffering psychological disorder.
C) more optimistic about their own lives.
D) more studious and committed to achieving academic success.

Question 28

Which of the following best illustrates an internal attribution for a failure or setback?

A) "I'll never succeed."
B) "This ruins everything."
C) "It's my fault."
D) "The whole world is against me."

Question 29

Maxwell, a first-year university student, suffers from chronic depression. After learning that he has performed poorly on his chemistry test, he is most likely to say,

A) "The test was not a fair assessment of what I actually know."
B) "My chemistry professor does not grade his tests fairly."
C) "I'm incompetent and probably always will be."
D) "I am sure most people did poorly on the test."

Question 30

Based on what you know about social cognition and depression, which of the following statements is true?

A) Life is the art of being well informed.
B) Stable, specific, other-focused explanations for negative events are common in depressed people.
C) Unstable, non-specific, self-focused explanations for negative events are common in depressed people.
D) None of the choices are correct.

Question 31

Compared to depressed people, normal people

A) exaggerate their control of events around them.
B) have realistic perceptions of the good and bad things the future holds.
C) readily accept responsibility for both success and failure.
D) describe themselves with a fairly even mix of positive and negative qualities.

Question 32

asked students to consider whether they were happy with their social life. The students searched their memories for positive examples and ended up feeling happier. This case illustrates how ____________ can appear when people evaluate themselves.

A) self-fulfilling prophecies
B) stereotypes
C) confirmation bias
D) heuristics

Question 33

Explanatory style refers to

A) the complexity of one's persuasive arguments.
B) one's habitual way of explaining life events.
C) the pitch and speed with which one communicates.
D) whether one relies primarily on reason or emotion in debating an issue.

Question 34

Compared to non-depressed people, depressed people are more likely to attribute their failures and setbacks to causes that are

A) unstable.
B) specific.
C) internal.
D) situational.

Question 35

According to the text, an important implication of the research on illusory thinking is that

A) intuition really has no legitimate place in doing science.
B) the scientific method is the only legitimate way to answer significant human questions.
C) research psychologists must test their preconceptions before propounding them as truth.
D) the conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.

Question 36

Depressed moods can lead to

A) memories for negative events.
B) bleak assessments of one's future performance.
C) reciprocal depression in others.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 37

Colette is seeking a therapist. Based on the material in the text, Colette should make sure that the therapist

A) feels confident that he or she is correctly interpreting Colette's experiences.
B) has a great deal of clinical intuition.
C) guards against the human tendency toward illusory thinking.
D) is self-confident.

Question 38

Explaining life events in terms of factors that are stable, global, and internal is a ___________ explanatory style.

A) negative
B) positive
C) realistic
D) repressive

Question 39

The tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions defines

A) depression.
B) depressive realism.
C) illusory correlation.
D) the fundamental attribution error.

Question 40

Which of the following attributions regarding a failure or a setback illustrates the global quality of a depressed person's explanatory style?

A) "It's my fault."
B) "It's going to last forever."
C) "The whole world is against me."
D) "It's going to affect everything I do."

Question 41

Some people are affected by minor stresses. According to Sacks and Bugental, this may be due to

A) self-focus and self-blame.
B) negative experiences.
C) cognitive and behavioural consequences and depressed mood.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 42

Alcohol may reduce social anxiety at a party because it

A) makes people happy.
B) leads to serious health consequences.
C) restricts people's ability to think about their internal states.
D) distracts people's attention away from concerns such as school assignments.

Question 43

According to self-presentation theory, we will feel social anxiety when we are

A) motivated to impress others but doubt our ability to do so.
B) motivated and able to impress others, but they ignore us.
C) in any circumstance in which we can be observed.
D) depressed.

Question 44

, based on their results, assert that

A) depression is both a cause and a consequence of negative cognitions.
B) happiness seems best pursued by focusing not on oneself but beyond oneself.
C) all of the choices are correct.
D) none of the choices are correct.

Question 45

Amanda is a self-assured, outgoing, confident person. She is about to make a presentation to a hiring committee and she really wants to get the job. How do you expect she will feel and act?

A) More outgoing and confident than she feels, which might lead the committee to dislike her.
B) Exactly the same as ever, because she is confident.
C) She will feel and act completely unselfconscious.
D) Much more like a shy person than like herself.

Question 46

In non-Western cultures, major depression is ____________ common and ____________ tied to guilt and self-blame over perceived failure.

A) less; less
B) less; more
C) more; less
D) more; more

Question 47

According to the text, shyness is a form of ____________ characterized by self-consciousness and worry about what others think.

A) loneliness
B) social anxiety
C) depression
D) social incompetence

Question 48

Being depressed has __________ effects.

A) cognitive
B) behavioural
C) all of the choices are correct
D) none of the choices are correct

Question 49

According to researcher Martin Seligman, near-epidemic levels of depression in America today can be blamed, ironically, in part on the promotion of attitudes that say,

A) "Everybody needs somebody sometime."
B) "You can make it on your own."
C) "You're nobody if nobody loves you."
D) "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

Question 50

You are trying to explain to a friend the concept of the vicious cycle of depression. To which mutual acquaintance will you refer to illustrate the concept?

A) Sandra, who has felt worthless ever since she dropped out of university, and who has been so depressing to be around that some of her friends have avoided her
B) Joe, who dropped out of college last year because he didn't feel that he fit in, and who has been looking for work ever since
C) Mike, whose girlfriend left him a few months ago
D) Rasheeda, who had a huge fight with her mother, lost her job, and then sprained her ankle

Question 51

Steele and Josephs found that ___________ and they called this effect ____________.

A) anxious laboratory rats will keep drinking alcohol until they die; counter-productive alcohol consumption
B) people who are drunk often focus on the most notable environmental cue; alcohol myopia
C) people who are drunk often focus on an inconspicuous detail of their environment; alcohol myopia
D) people who are drunk often focus on the most notable environmental cue; counter-productive alcohol consumption

Question 52

Shy people tend to

A) make a bad first impression.
B) overpersonalize social situations.
C) become well liked over time.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 53

In which of the following situations is Joanna likely to feel most anxious?

A) At a party with her co-workers
B) When she is intoxicated at a hockey game
C) At a formal dinner the first time she is meeting her boyfriend's parents
D) Volunteering at a homeless shelter

Question 54

Which of the following theories most clearly predicts that we will feel anxious when we are motivated to impress others but doubt our ability to do so?

A) social learning theory
B) self-presentation theory
C) self-perception theory
D) cognitive dissonance theory

Question 55

The vicious cycle of depression is usually triggered by negative experiences that lead directly to

A) self-focus and self-blame.
B) depressed mood.
C) further negative experiences.
D) blaming others for the negative experience.

Question 56

Thinking negatively, which leads to a negative mood and consequently leads to negative behaviour defines

A) the vicious cycle of depression.
B) the negative explanatory style.
C) pessimistic explanatory style.
D) none of the choices are correct.

Question 57

Chronically self-conscious people tend to blame _________________ for their poor social relationships and incidental events.

A) their parents and early childhood experiences
B) the uncaring attitudes of those presently around them
C) themselves
D) cultural patterns

Question 58

Research suggests that when __________________ is filtered through a negative explanatory style, the frequent outcome is _______________.

A) self-blame; the fundamental attribution error.
B) stress-induced rumination; depression.
C) positive feedback; thought pattern adjustment.
D) self-consciousness; bipolar depression.

Question 59

According to Martin Seligman's analysis of the attitudes that promote near-epidemic levels of depression in America, most of us feel that if we don't "make it" in today's world, we can blame

A) our parents.
B) the government.
C) the alienation of the modern world.
D) only ourselves.

Question 60

In comparison to those in Western cultures, depressed people in Japan are more likely to report feeling

A) guilt and self-blame over personal failure.
B) shame over letting down their family or co-workers.
C) sad about social problems such as poverty and discrimination.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 61

Peterson and Seligman analyzed the press quotes of baseball Hall of Famers and found that those who routinely offered pessimistic explanations for bad events, like losing big games, were more likely to

A) earn lower salaries.
B) experience divorce.
C) play aggressively.
D) die at younger ages.

Question 62

Which of the following is an interdisciplinary field that integrates and applies behavioural and medical knowledge about health and disease?

A) health psychology
B) behavioural medicine
C) applied psychology
D) clinical psychology

Question 63

Research indicates that people who agree with statements like ___________________ are less often bothered by various illnesses.

A) "my fate is out of my hands"
B) "human life is fragile"
C) "I usually expect the best out of life"
D) "I rarely count on good things happening to me"

Question 64

Experiments that subject animals to mild but uncontrollable electric shocks, loud noises, or crowding have shown that such experiences

A) directly cause diseases like cancer.
B) lower the body's resistance to disease.
C) strengthen the animals' capacity to deal with future stressors.
D) lead to the animals becoming more aggressive in interacting with members of their own species.

Question 65

Which of the following has been linked with a greater vulnerability to illness?

A) an anger-prone personality
B) depression
C) pessimism
D) all of the choices are correct

Question 66

Joey is a pre-med student who has just been studying about intestinal disorders. He goes out with his friends to eat at a pub, and later that day he develops severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. He starts wondering whether he has colitis or another intestinal disorder. This example best demonstrates how

A) we tend to underestimate the frequency with which we experience symptoms.
B) information about illnesses can cause us to underestimate our symptoms.
C) we tend to interpret symptoms according to familiar disease schemas.
D) overt symptoms are more likely to be interpreted as illness compared to subtle symptoms.

Question 67

Research has reported that newlywed couples who become angry while discussing problems

A) experience catharsis and better long-term relationships with their spouses.
B) are subsequently more susceptible to problems of depression and loneliness.
C) suffer more immune system suppression the next day.
D) are more prone to develop colon cancer in the subsequent six months.

Question 68

Patients are more willing to follow treatment instructions in all of the following except

A) their friends recommend alternate treatment routes.
B) they have a warm relationship with their doctor.
C) they help plan their treatment.
D) options are framed attractively.

Question 69

Research by MacDonald and colleagues has found that ______________ can lead people to engage in dangerous social behaviours such as having unprotected casual sex.

A) alcohol
B) depression
C) social anxiety
D) the sadder-is-unwise effect

Question 70

Which of the following statements is false?

A) People more often seek treatment if they believe their symptoms have a physical rather than a psychological cause.
B) Women are more often sick.
C) Women are more likely than men to visit a physician.
D) Men use fewer prescription and non-prescription drugs.

Question 71

According to the text, an essential contributing factor to why optimists usually live longer than pessimists is that _________________.

A) they generally have greater income
B) they are more likely to engage in healthy behaviours
C) they tend to be more religious
D) they are less likely to engage in risky behaviours

Question 72

Research investigating the nature of the connection between explanatory style and health has shown that people who routinely use the pessimistic style

A) have weaker bodily immune defences.
B) boost the morale of others via a contrast effect.
C) also tend to be impulsive and resistant to influence.
D) complain more but are not really sicker than optimists.

Question 73

A growing body of evidence reveals that people who undergo highly stressful experiences become

A) more resistant to low-level illnesses like colds and flu.
B) become more vulnerable to disease.
C) less self-disclosing and more socially isolated.
D) stronger and more socially skilled than unstressed people.

Question 74

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Most of us are not good at judging our own heart rate, blood pressure, or blood sugar level.
B) One's actual blood pressure is closely related to how one feels, making judgments of blood pressure easy and fairly accurate.
C) Most of us are quite good at judging our own heart rate, blood pressure, and blood-sugar level.
D) Early signs of illnesses such as cancer and heart disease are easily recognized.

Question 75

In the industrialized world, at least half of all deaths are linked with

A) behaviour.
B) aspartame.
C) smoking.
D) alcohol.

Question 76

Dr. Jones is a psychologist who specializes in the causes and control of stress. Dr. Jones is most likely a(n) _________ psychologist.

A) consumer
B) clinical
C) forensic
D) health

Question 77

Hailey is considering a new medical treatment for a terminal illness. She is most likely to choose the treatment option that

A) is effective but has many side-effects.
B) has a 43% chance of survival.
C) has a 57% chance of failure.
D) is very experimental and may not work.

Question 78

Mildly depressed people are more vulnerable to ________________, even after controlling for differences in smoking and other disease-related factors.

A) cancer
B) heart disease
C) chronic pain
D) pneumonia

Question 79

A subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioural medicine defines

A) clinical psychology.
B) psychiatry.
C) behavioural analysis.
D) health psychology.

Question 80

One of the things that an alien observing the industrialized world might find very puzzling about people's behaviour is

A) people behave rationally in order to ensure that they have long, healthy lives.
B) people manage to notice only their important physical symptoms and disregard the rest.
C) at least half of all deaths are linked with behaviour that is under people's own voluntary control.
D) all of the choices are correct.