Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to search for, interpret and remember information in a way that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. Some researchers suggest that therapists' confirmation bias may result in them actively looking for and encouraging their patients to recall repressed memories of sex abuse, leading to the occurrence of false memories.

Question 2

Which of the following does not belong with the others?

Accepted Answer

A

Question 3

Which of the following,regarding professional clinicians,has research not been able to prove?

Accepted Answer

The other options (A, B, and C) have all been supported by research, but research has not been able to prove that professional clinicians often underestimate the predictive powers of their clinical intuition.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

According to Freudian theory, early childhood traumas play a significant role in shaping personality and behavior. However, not all individuals who experience traumatic events in childhood develop psychological problems as a result. Freudian therapists may therefore be more likely to attribute symptoms to childhood trauma in otherwise healthy, successful adults, as they are more likely to be looking for evidence to support their theoretical beliefs. Clients from lower socio-economic backgrounds or divorced women may also be more likely to have experienced trauma, but this is not explicitly stated in the question. Identical twins are also not specifically relevant to the question.

Question 5

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.

Accepted Answer

The best choice is hindsight bias because Dr. Phillips is experiencing doubt and guilt after the fact of the suicide, and may be attributing more responsibility to themselves than they actually had in the situation. In hindsight, it is easy to see what steps could have been taken to prevent the tragedy, but it is important for the therapist to recognize that their actions alone may not have been the sole cause of the suicide.

Question 6

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

Accepted Answer

The answer of Snyder and his colleagues found that they...

Question 7

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

Accepted Answer

Snyder and Swann found that people often test for a trait by looking for information that will confirm it. This is known as confirmation bias, where people seek out information that supports their beliefs and ignore or dismiss information that contradicts them.

Question 8

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

Accepted Answer

Chapman and Chapman found that participants' expectations influenced their perceptions of the relationship between patients' test performances and diagnoses. They perceived a particular association if they expected it, regardless of whether the data supported it. This suggests that preconceptions and biases can affect how individuals interpret data.

Question 9

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

Accepted Answer

Interviewers' expectations can influence their questioning if they have definite pre-existing ideas, which can subtly guide how they frame or approach their questions.

Question 10

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

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as illusory correlation, which refers to the perception of a relationship between variables even when no such relationship exists or is weak. It occurs because we tend to pay more attention and remember more vividly the instances that confirm our expectations, rather than those that disconfirm them.

Question 11

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

Accepted Answer

Social and clinical psychology seeks answers to questions regarding the impact of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors on mental and physical health. Option A is the only choice that is related to this field of study. Options B, C, and D are not directly related to social and clinical psychology.

Question 12

Confirmation bias has been demonstrated to occur when

Accepted Answer

Confirmation bias occurs when people favor information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. When evaluating themselves with questions like "are you happy with your social life?", individuals may focus on information that supports their belief about their happiness, demonstrating confirmation bias.

Question 13

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

Accepted Answer

The therapist is demonstrating the confirmation bias by interpreting Farah's symptoms in a way that confirms their pre-existing belief about the cause of memory gaps, without considering other explanations.

Question 14

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?

Accepted Answer

Annette's question is likely to make Tony feel pressure to live up to her expectations of him as a fun-loving person. He may feel compelled to act more fun-loving than he actually is in order to impress her. This is known as the "impression management" effect, where individuals adjust their behavior to conform to expectations or perceptions of others.

Question 15

According to the text,professional clinical judgment is NOT vulnerable to

Accepted Answer

The text suggests that professional clinical judgment is not vulnerable to the self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a situation where a belief or expectation leads to its own fulfillment.

Question 16

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,

Accepted Answer

The study conducted by David Rosenhan and his colleagues, known as the Rosenhan experiment, found that once the pseudopatients were admitted to the mental hospital and stopped simulating any symptoms, the clinicians did not recognize their normal behavior and continued to interpret their actions as symptoms of mental illness. They were then discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia "in remission", which confirmed their initial admitting diagnoses. This suggests that the clinicians were more likely to rely on the stereotypical expectations of what a mental patient would do, rather than on the actual behavior of the patients.

Question 17

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

Accepted Answer

The Rosenhan study demonstrated the error of hindsight bias, which is the tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that one would have predicted or expected the outcome. In other words, clinicians who dealt with pseudopatients retrospectively believed that they could have identified them as faking their symptoms, despite not having done so at the time. The study did not demonstrate self-serving bias, self-handicapping, or overjustification.

Question 18

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

Accepted Answer

Clinicians may perceive a correlation between the test results and patient outcomes even when none exists, leading to continued confidence in uninformative tests.

Question 19

You find out that Margaret,a woman who was a close friend of yours 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

Accepted Answer

Hindsight bias refers to the tendency to believe that the occurrence of an event was predictable after learning about it, even though there may have been no actual evidence to suggest that it was likely to happen. In this case, the fact that the speaker and their friend are able to recall past behaviors that they now interpret as indicating Margaret's sexual orientation suggests that they are imposing their current knowledge of her sexual orientation onto past events in order to make them seem more predictable in hindsight.

Question 20

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

Accepted Answer

The confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. In the context of conducting interviews to test for a certain trait, interviewers may ask questions that confirm their preconceived notions about the trait they are testing for, thus exhibiting the confirmation bias.

Quiz 14: Social Psychology in the Clinic