Question 1

Janice is late for work each day by about ten minutes. How would attribution theory describe this behavior?
A) It shows consensus.
B) It shows similarity.
C) It shows consistency.
D) It shows reliability.
E) It shows distinctiveness.

Accepted Answer

Consistency in a person's actions means that the person responds the same way over time to the same situation. An employee who hasn't been late for several months is perceived differently than an employee who is late two or three times a week. Janice demonstrates high consistency in tardiness.

Question 2

Jane Allen, a campaign manager at a non-profit organization, often takes full credit for project successes even when her team members' contributions play a big role in achieving milestones. However, when projects receive setbacks, she blames her team members and sometimes states that the situation was beyond her control. Allen's behavior is an example of ________ bias.
A) impact
B) anchoring
C) confirmation
D) distinction
E) self-serving

Accepted Answer

Individuals and organizations tend to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as ability or effort and place the blame for failure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-workers. This is known as self-serving bias.

Question 3

Laura Simpson, a campaign manager at a child rights organization in Jakarta, planned a marathon for celebrities to raise money for underprivileged children. Though all arrangements for the event had been made, a few days before the event she realized that on the same day there was a political rally happening in the city which would block access to the route on which the marathon was supposed to be undertaken. In such a situation, what is Simpson, who suffers from self-serving bias, most likely to say?
A) I did not do sufficient research on public events in the city.
B) My colleagues did not inform me about the rally.
C) The director had warned me of this. I should have known better.
D) I should have weighed feasibility options for the event.
E) I should have established better contacts to know about this update.

Accepted Answer

Self-serving bias places the blame for failure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-workers rather than taking personal responsibility for the failure.

Question 4

Individuals engage in ________ because it is impossible for them to assimilate everything they see and can take in only certain stimuli.
A) selective perception
B) cognitive dissonance
C) self-serving bias
D) emotional labor
E) self-fulfilling prophecy

Accepted Answer

Any characteristic that makes a person, an object, or an event stand out will increase the probability we will perceive it. Since we can't observe everything going on about us, we engage in selective perception.

Question 5

According to the attribution theory, if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows ________.
A) distinctiveness
B) tractability
C) consensus
D) consistency
E) manageability

Accepted Answer

If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows consensus.

Question 6

Johanna Springer, who works as a sales executive at Pascal's Bank, is upset at the way her manager, Emma Womack, always calls her in for one-on-one meetings to discuss her underperformance. Though Springer makes a higher number of sales calls and works longer hours than last year, her sales figures are still low. She knows that the main reason behind her underperformance is the recent economic meltdown in the country. However, her manager feels that Springer's underperformance is the result of her laid-back attitude and has nothing to do with external factors. In this situation, Womack's behavior is characterized by a(n) ________.
A) anchoring bias
B) contrast effect
C) fundamental attribution error
D) self-fulfilling prophecy
E) Pygmalion effect

Accepted Answer

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others is referred to as the fundamental attribution error.

Question 7

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to internal causes.
A) low on consistency
B) high on rigidity
C) low on distinctiveness
D) high on consensus
E) low on conformity

Accepted Answer

Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores low on distinctiveness, we tend to attribute it to internal causes.

Question 8

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to external causes.
A) low on distinctiveness
B) low on adaptability
C) low on consistency
D) high on stability
E) low on consensus

Accepted Answer

Consistency indicates that the person responds the same way over time. The less consistent the behavior, the more we are inclined to attribute it to external causes.

Question 9

Naomi Fisher, a sales manager at Pure, a water purifier company, had a new member, Leah Marshall, join her team. Though during Leah's interview, Naomi felt she would be a productive sales executive, her performance has often been below the mark. Consistently in the past three months, Leah has been unable to reach her targets and is falling substantially behind on her annual targets. Naomi assumes that Leah is not determined and motivated enough to do what it takes. Which of the following, if true, weakens Naomi's assumption?
A) Leah has often arrived late for team meetings conducted in the morning.
B) Leah has been assigned a sales territory where consumers are from low income groups.
C) Leah has good interpersonal skills and gets along well with her customers.
D) Research showed that the company's largest competitor had a lower turnover than they did.
E) Naomi recently received feedback from other team members that Leah is often uncooperative.

Accepted Answer

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others refers to the fundamental attribution error. If Leah is assigned a sales territory where consumers are from low income groups, this shows that she does not necessarily lack the ability to perform and that external constraints are the reason for her underperformance. It thus weakens Naomi's assumption. If Leah often arrives late for meetings, it strengthens Naomi's assumption because it indicates that Leah is not motivated. Good interpersonal skills do not necessarily mean that a person is motivated, and hence, this does not weaken Naomi's assumption. Research showing that the company's largest competitor had a lower turnover than them is irrelevant to the assumption.

Question 10

Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She recently worked on a campaign against global warming during which she worked extremely hard to achieve project milestones. However, the campaign failed as it could not achieve the desired objective. Due to this, her manager, Brenda Owens, gave her a poor performance appraisal. In the appraisal, Brenda said that Johanna was not motivated and failed to reach out to 25,000 people through Internet media to spread awareness about climate change. Which of the following, if true, weakens Brenda's statement?
A) Johanna lacks experience in publicizing campaigns using Internet media.
B) Brenda was unable to make time for Johanna to brief her on the tasks involved in carrying out the campaign's media strategy.
C) Johanna recently moved from the agriculture campaign to the climate campaign.
D) Johanna's previous job involved an extensive amount of researching on environmental issues.
E) Brenda is known in the organization to be a fair and unbiased manager.

Accepted Answer

Individuals and organizations tend to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as ability or effort and place the blame for failure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-workers. This is known as a self-serving bias. If Brenda were unable to make time for Johanna to brief her on the tasks involved in carrying out the campaign's media strategy, then this weakens the argument because it shows that it was not entirely Johanna's fault and that Brenda is partly to blame. If Johanna lacks experience in publicizing campaigns using Internet media, it strengthens Brenda's statement. The fact that Johanna recently moved from the agriculture campaign to the climate campaign and that Johanna's previous job involved an extensive amount of researching on environmental issues is irrelevant to Brenda's argument. Brenda's argument is strengthened if she is known to be a fair and unbiased manager because it indicates that her evaluation of Johanna is most likely true.

Question 11

According to the attribution theory, ________ is one of the three main factors which attempt to determine an individual's behavior.
A) distinctiveness
B) perverseness
C) flexibleness
D) resilience
E) timorousness

Accepted Answer

Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. Determination, however, depends largely on three factors, namely, distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency.

Question 12

With reference to the attribution theory, which of the following terms indicates the extent to which an individual displays different behaviors in different situations?
A) flexibility
B) integrity
C) consensus
D) consistency
E) distinctiveness

Accepted Answer

Distinctiveness is one of three determining factors that contribute to attribution theory perceptions. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations.

Question 13

According to the attribution theory, which of the following behaviors is most likely to be attributed to an external cause?
A) a behavior that scores high on consensus
B) a behavior that scores low on distinctiveness
C) a behavior that scores high on consistency
D) a behavior that scores low on traceability
E) a behavior that scores high on rigidity

Accepted Answer

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores high on consensus, we tend to attribute it to external causes.

Question 14

Megan Cardova, who works as a sales executive at Orbit Bank, has been failing to meet her sales targets for the last 10 months. Recently, she had a face-to-face discussion with her manager where she said that the unrealistic targets were the reason for her underperformance. The manager, however, noticed that all the other team members were achieving their targets and sometimes were even achieving more than the set numbers. Which of the following is Cardova's behavior most likely to be characterized as according to the attribution theory?
A) low distinctiveness
B) high rigidity
C) high traceability
D) low consensus
E) low consistency

Accepted Answer

If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say that the behavior shows consensus.

Question 15

When individuals observe another person's behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused. Which of the following attempts to explain this phenomenon?
A) Pygmalion effect
B) emotional dissonance
C) attribution theory
D) two-factor theory
E) framing effect

Accepted Answer

Attribution theory is an attempt to determine whether an individual's behavior is internally or externally caused. We judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused.

Question 16

________ bias indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his or her own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.
A) Status quo
B) Self-serving
C) Distinction
D) Congruence
E) Anchoring

Accepted Answer

Individuals and organizations tend to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as ability or effort and place the blame for failure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-workers. This is known as a self-serving bias.

Question 17

Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others?
A) fundamental attribution error
B) bandwagon effect
C) contrast effect
D) emotional dissonance
E) self-fulfilling prophecy

Accepted Answer

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others is referred to as the fundamental attribution error.

Question 18

Janice Yoder works in an environmental campaigning organization and often needs to interact with a large team for project implementation activities. However, she always finds it difficult to work as a part of a team. She always seems to have major disagreements with team members which lead to antagonistic relations between them. Though she has moved from one team to another, her relations with colleagues always seem to be hostile and cold. How would the attribution theory describe this behavior?
A) low on consensus
B) high on reliability
C) high on adaptability
D) high on consistency
E) low on distinctiveness

Accepted Answer

Consistency in a person's actions means that the person responds the same way over time to the same situation. Yoder has had hostile relationships with colleagues over a long period of time. Thus, her behavior shows consistency.

Question 19

If a person responds to a particular situation in the same way over a long time period, then the attribution theory states that the behavior demonstrates ________.
A) distinctiveness
B) consensus
C) consistency
D) discontinuity
E) traceability

Accepted Answer

Consistency in a person's actions means that the person responds in the same way to the same situation over a long period of time. For instance, an employee who has not been late for several months is perceived differently from an employee who is late two or three times a week. The regularly late employee demonstrates high consistency in tardiness.

Question 20

Samantha is never late for work, but last Monday she arrived an hour late because of heavy traffic. According to the attribution theory, Samantha's behavior on that day scores ________.
A) high on reliability
B) low on distinctiveness
C) high on traceability
D) low on consistency
E) high on stability

Accepted Answer

If a person responds the same way over time then his or her behavior displays consistency. Since Samantha is generally in the office on time, her behavior scores low on consistency.

Quiz 6: Perception and Individual Decision Making

Janice is late for work each day by about ten minutes. How would attribution theory describe this behavior?

Individuals engage in ________ because it is impossible for them to assimilate everything they see and can take in only certain stimuli.

According to the attribution theory, if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows ________.

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to internal causes.

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to external causes.

According to the attribution theory, ________ is one of the three main factors which attempt to determine an individual's behavior.

With reference to the attribution theory, which of the following terms indicates the extent to which an individual displays different behaviors in different situations?

According to the attribution theory, which of the following behaviors is most likely to be attributed to an external cause?

When individuals observe another person's behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused. Which of the following attempts to explain this phenomenon?

________ bias indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his or her own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others?

If a person responds to a particular situation in the same way over a long time period, then the attribution theory states that the behavior demonstrates ________.

Samantha is never late for work, but last Monday she arrived an hour late because of heavy traffic. According to the attribution theory, Samantha's behavior on that day scores ________.