Deck 14: Social Psychology in the Clinic

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

illusory correlation.

Question 2

Which of the following does not belong with the others?

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

Answer 2

group polarization

Question 3

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 these choices.

Answer 3

all of these choices.

Question 4

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 child 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 5

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 .75.

Question 6

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 7

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.

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) victims of childhood sex abuse.
C) healthy, successful adults.
D) all of these choices.

Question 9

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 10

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.

Question 11

Dr. Phillips, a psychotherapist, is plagued by doubt and guilt after a client commits suicide. These guilt 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 12

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 these choices.

Question 13

Snyder and Swann gave interviewers some hypotheses to test concerning individuals' traits, and 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 these choices.

Question 14

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

A) if they have definite pre-exiting ideas
B) irrespective of what they think
C) even if they don't have any pre-existing ideas.
D) All of the above.

Question 15

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 these choices.

Question 16

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) any of these choices are equally likely.

Question 17

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) Both of these choices resulted in interviewers overcoming their confirmation bias.
D) None of these choices worked in overcoming the confirmation bias of the interviewers.

Question 18

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 19

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 20

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 21

"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 22

According to the text, the pervasiveness of illusory thinking points to the need for a __________________ study of thought and behaviour.

A) psychohistorical
B) literary
C) scientific
D) humanistic

Question 23

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 24

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 25

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 26

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 very self-confident.

Question 27

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 28

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 29

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 30

Which of the following does not belong?

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

Question 31

Compared to nondepressed 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 32

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 these choices.

Question 33

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 34

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 35

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 36

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 37

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 38

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 39

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 40

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 these choices.

Question 41

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 42

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 43

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 44

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) all of these choices.

Question 45

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 46

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 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

Shy people tend to

A) make a bad first impression.
B) over-personalize social situations.
C) become well-liked over time.
D) all of these choices.

Question 49

According to the text, labelling oneself as shy, depressed, or under the influence of alcohol can serve ______________ function.

A) an anger-reducing
B) a self-handicapping
C) a concurrence-seeking
D) a group-identification

Question 50

Being depressed has __________ effects.

A) cognitive
B) behavioural
C) both A and B
D) none of these choices

Question 51

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 these choices.

Question 52

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 53

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 54

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 these choices.

Question 55

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 56

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 57

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 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 he fit in, and he's 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 58

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 59

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 60

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 61

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

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

Question 62

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 63

According to the text and research evidence, premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

A) occurs in 6 of 10 women.
B) leads to premenstrual dysphoric disorder in 3 of 10 women.
C) is a socially constructed disorder.
D) is a myth perpetuated by men.

Question 64

Hailey is considering a new medical treatment for a terminal illness. Which treatment option is she most likely to choose?

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

Question 65

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 66

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 67

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) educational
C) forensic
D) health

Question 68

Patients are more wiling 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

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 these choices.

Question 70

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 71

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 72

Ingrid and a friend of Ingrid's sometimes notice that they often feel terrific the day after their menstrual periods end. They've discussed this with each other a few times. What is the most likely explanation for their observations?

A) Ingrid and her friend have postmenstrual syndrome.
B) Ingrid and her friend are simply not noticing instances that confirm their beliefs.
C) Ingrid and her friend are simply noticing instances that disconfirm their beliefs.
D) Ingrid and her friend have premenstrual syndrome.

Question 73

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 develops severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea. He starts wondering whether he has colitis or another intestinal disorder. This example best demonstrates how

A) we tend to underestimate the frequency that 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 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

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 76

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 77

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 these choices.

Question 78

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 79

A large Swedish study has found that, compared with unstressed workers, those with a history of workplace stress

A) are better prepared to deal with stress in their family lives.
B) tend to have a more pessimistic explanatory style.
C) are at much greater risk of developing colon cancer.
D) develop stronger immune defences.

Question 80

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

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