Social Cognition
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Social Cognition explores the mental processes that underlie individuals' understanding, interpretation, and interaction within the social world. The course covers key topics such as perception of self and others, attribution theory, social categorization, stereotypes, and the influence of emotions on social judgments. Students will examine how people develop and maintain beliefs about themselves and others, how social contexts shape cognitive processes, and the impacts of these processes on behavior. By integrating theory and empirical research, the course fosters a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms driving social thought and their implications in everyday social interactions.
Recommended Textbook
Social Psychology 9th Edition by Elliot Aronson
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16 Chapters
2963 Verified Questions
2963 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Julie and Tina have a very exclusive club.In order to make new members loyal and really enjoy being part of the club, Julie says new members should be rewarded for their good behaviors in the club.Tina, however, suggests that they use an embarrassing initiation.In this example, Julie is taking a ________ approach, while Tina is taking a ________ approach.
A) behaviorist; self-esteem
B) self-esteem; Gestalt
C) Gestalt; behaviorist
D) self-esteem; behaviorist
Answer: A
Q2) Social psychologists' emphasis on construals of social situations has its roots in ________ psychology.
A) personality
B) cognitive
C) Gestalt
D) behavioral
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research
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251 Verified Questions
251 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Given that field experiments are high in external validity, why is it that social psychologists still rely on laboratory studies?
A) Laboratory studies are more psychologically realistic.
B) Laboratory studies help to control for extraneous variables.
C) Laboratory studies permit random assignment of participants.
D) Laboratory studies are more reliable.
Answer: B
Q2) The variable that the researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect is called the
A) interjudge reliability.
B) independent variable.
C) dependent variable.
D) correlation coefficient.
Answer: B
Q3) A cover story is
A) the result of experimental findings of interest to the media.
B) a "false" description of the purposes of a study.
C) an explanation provided to participants when the study is over.
D) a way to make sure that an experiment is ethical.
Answer: B
Page 4
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Chapter 3: Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World
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235 Verified Questions
235 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) More recent research suggests that cultural differences in thinking styles may stem from
A) physiological differences across races.
B) differences in the environments across cultures.
C) political differences across nations.
D) religious differences between countries.
Answer: B
Q2) Your roommate is a case study in faulty and biased social thinking.You've just read Chapter 3, and you notice his inappropriate use of schemas and judgmental heuristics.How might you combat these troublesome tendencies?
Answer: You might combat his overconfidence barrier, making him a little more humble in his assessments of his own cognitive prowess; more specifically, you might ask him to consider the opposite point of view-to consider how things might have come out otherwise. You might recommend that he take a college or university course in statistics or the scientific method or that he pursue graduate work in psychology.
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Chapter 4: Social Perception: How We Come to Understand
Other People
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204 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Professor DeVeaux reads an essay in which a student argues in favor of full nuclear war to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.Initially she thinks, "Whoa, what an extremist!" Then she recalls that the student had been assigned to advocate nuclear war as part of the assignment.Why would Professor DeVeaux still be likely to view the student as a political extremist?
A) Although she adjusted her beliefs, she did not adjust them enough to fully account for the power of the situation.
B) Because, as research has shown, people who put extreme beliefs in writing tend to actually believe in them more strongly.
C) Clearly this student is an extremist, as demonstrated by the essay he or she wrote.
D) She has already formed a stereotype about this student, and will have difficulty adjusting it quickly.
Q2) "Belief in a just world" is best characterized as a form of
A) perceptual bias.
B) availability heuristic.
C) defensive attribution.
D) fundamental attribution error.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context
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Sample Questions
Q1) Researchers asked participants to keep journals of their daily moods and of other variables, such as the weather and how much sleep they got the night before.When asked, many participants reported the amount of sleep the night before was correlated with their moods.When information recorded in the journals was subjected to more systematic statistical analysis, it was found that amount of sleep was not related to participants' self-reported moods.This is most likely because participants
A) relied on causal theories about the relation between mood and sleep.
B) underreported the amount of sleep they actually got.
C) were distracted when they wrote in their journals.
D) were in a bad mood from having to keep the journal.
Q2) Complete the following analogy.Behavioral self-handicapping: ________ :: reported self-handicapping: ________.
A) using drugs and alcohol; blaming bad mood and test anxiety
B) blaming bad mood and test anxiety; using drugs and alcohol
C) being a narcissist; being a non-narcissist
D) being a non-narcissist; being a narcissist
Q3) Briefly describe the tenets of self-awareness theory, and explain some cognitive and behavioral consequences of self-awareness.
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Chapter 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions: the Costs and Benefits
of Dissonance Reduction
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197 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Two weeks after making a public statement at odds with his previous positions, which politician is most likely to report to his close friends that he sticks by his most recent (contradictory) statement?
A) a candidate who spoke at a $1,000 a plate fundraiser
B) a candidate who was far behind in the polls and had to shift tactics
C) a candidate who was "cornered" by demonstrators
D) a candidate who couldn't quite figure out why he contradicted himself
Q2) ________ is to dissonance-induced attitude change as ________ is to no attitude change.
A) Counterattitudinal advocacy; internal justification
B) External justification; internal justification
C) Internal justification; counterattitudinal advocacy
D) Internal justification; external justification.
Q3) Research using MRIs suggests that when people experience cognitive dissonance, they
A) rely heavily on reason and logic.
B) repress the memory of such events.
C) do not rely on reason much at all.
D) experience anger and fear.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing
Thoughts and Feelings
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Sample Questions
Q1) Researchers suggest that some attitudes are linked to genetic influences.According to these researchers, how is it possible that we might inherit from our parents a love of something like classical music?
A) The influence of genes is modified by early childhood experiences.
B) Genes influence temperament and personality, which are in turn related to attitudes.
C) Genes that influence attitudes are dominant genes, not recessive genes.
D) There are specific genes related to musical preferences, but not to other attitudes.
Q2) You're convinced that if your self-esteem were only higher, you would achieve more in your work and be happier in your life.Should you purchase an audiotape containing subliminal messages to raise your self-esteem? Why or why not?
Q3) How can cognitive dissonance create attitude change? Why isn't it used on mass scales in advertising?
Q4) Do fear-arousing messages work? A social psychologist would probably say, "It depends." It depends on what?
Q5) Describe the theory of planned behavior as it relates to the power of attitudes to predict deliberative behaviors.
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Chapter 8: Conformity: Influencing Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Rachel is attending Catholic mass for the first time with her best friend Maria.Rachel is unfamiliar with when to sit, when to kneel, or when to stand, and doesn't know when to respond to what the priest says and when to remain silent.When it is time for parishioners to receive Communion, Rachel looks quizzically to Maria, who silently shakes her head.Rachel remains seated while the rest of the congregation files toward the altar.This situation best exemplifies
A) a crisis of conversion.
B) normative social influence.
C) informational social influence.
D) the power of cultural norms.
Q2) Pierre joins the other concertgoers in giving the symphony a standing ovation, even though he thought the performance was merely adequate.The next morning, Pierre confides to his girlfriend that the performance was "satisfactory, but not overwhelming." In joining the standing ovation, Pierre displayed what kind of conformity?
A) private acceptance
B) mindless conformity
C) public compliance
D) social deviance
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Chapter 9: Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the contingency theory of leadership, in ________ situations, the leader has good relationships with subordinates, is perceived as powerful, and directs structured and well-defined tasks.
A) autocratic
B) low-control
C) contingent
D) high-control
Q2) Negotiation as a means of resolving conflict doesn't work as often as it might because in most conflicts
A) one party has more power than the other.
B) adversaries tend to overlook common interests.
C) adversaries refuse to communicate with one another.
D) adversaries refuse to involve objective mediators.
Q3) Which of the following will give the greatest sense of belonging to a group and a sense of distinctiveness from others?
A) being a student at the University of X
B) being a member of the psychology honors society
C) being an employee of Target
D) being a supporter of the New York Yankees
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Chapter 10: Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships
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198 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Researchers provided men with photographs of either attractive women or unattractive women and told the men that their conversation partner was the woman in the photograph.They found that men who believed they were talking with an attractive woman ________ than did men who thought they were talking with an unattractive woman.
A) talked less
B) behaved in a warmer way
C) were more nervous
D) were more confident
Q2) Stanley is building a robot in the year 2054.Fulfilling a fantasy and taking advantage of the technology available, he decides to make his robot have a female form and be physically appealing.To have the most success in this, what should he do?
A) Make sure to use only faces from his own culture as the basis for his robot's face.
B) Have his robot have highly unique and unusual exotic features.
C) Create a robot with a face that is the composite of highly attractive faces.
D) Avoid using babyface features for his robot's face.
Q3) In what sense is the concept of romantic love culture-specific?
Q4) Compare and contrast social exchange theory and operant conditioning.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help
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Sample Questions
Q1) Recall that Latané and Darley (1970) had participants complete questionnaires alone, or in the presence of two others.When the experimental room filled with "smoke," participants who were alone reported the potential emergency more quickly than did those who worked on the questionnaire in the company of others.These results provide support for the concept of
A) diffusion of responsibility.
B) social exchange theory.
C) evaluation apprehension.
D) pluralistic ignorance.
Q2) According to a research study presented in the text, participants played a trivia game against four other students.Participants were allowed to help the other players, even though it could cause them to lose the game.Under what conditions were participants more likely to help other players? When they
A) were new to the group.
B) had been in the group longer.
C) had a clear lead in the game.
D) were the only female.
Q3) Discuss the role of media in helping.
Q4) Briefly summarize the social exchange perspective of helping behavior.
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Chapter 12: Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People Can
We Prevent It
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Sample Questions
Q1) Your boss is upset at you for being late so often.Assuming you've already apologized, if you wanted to assuage your boss's anger, one good strategy is to
A) give her a punching bag so that she can vent.
B) let her vent at you verbally.
C) try to evoke empathy in her.
D) yell at her for being unreasonable first.
Q2) According to Pennebaker (1990), talking about our angry feelings and their sources can be physically and psychologically beneficial because
A) "opening up" and venting our feelings enhances mutual understanding.
B) such self-disclosures often result in insights and increased self-awareness.
C) such self-disclosures often yield apologies from the offending party.
D) "opening up" and venting reduce our aggressive impulses.
Q3) Hostile aggression differs from instrumental aggression in that instrumental aggression
A) often follows from anger or frustration.
B) is more destructive than hostile aggression.
C) is more likely to result in retaliation.
D) involves inflicting pain as a means to an end.
Q4) Explain the nature of the gender differences in aggression in humans.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Prejudice: Causes Consequences and Cures
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Sample Questions
Q1) Researchers (Word, Zanna, & Cooper, 1974) tested the self-fulfilling prophecy as it relates to prejudice.They observed the differential behaviors of white interviewers who interviewed either African-American or white job candidates.They then trained other interviewers to manifest these two different interview styles.When the new interviewers later interviewed white job applicants, the applicants who were treated as African Americans in the first study
A) confronted the interviewers and terminated the conversation.
B) actually behaved in less effective and comfortable ways.
C) experienced a loss of self-esteem.
D) became more convinced that their initial negative expectations were confirmed.
Q2) Researchers presented participants with just one or two examples of information that strongly challenged their pre-existing stereotypes.These researchers found that, when presented with just one or two examples that challenge a strongly held stereotype, people
A) created new subtypes.
B) dismissed the new information and strengthened their stereotypic beliefs.
C) abandoned their stereotypes.
D) revised their stereotypes, as the bookkeeping model would predict.
Q3) What is stereotype threat, why does it arise, and what are the consequences?
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Making a Difference With Social Psychology: Attaining a Sustainable Future
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Sample Questions
Q1) Research (Van Vugt & Samuelson, 1999) in which water meters were installed in houses in one community, suggests that when people can monitor their own use of a scarce common resource, they may use less of that resource because
A) using less helps them save money.
B) they become concerned for the collective good.
C) people become competitive and vie to use less.
D) They won't use less; installing the meters makes everyone want to make sure they "get their fair share," and use goes up.
Q2) Recently, a new psychological intervention has been publicized in the media and hailed as a surefire way to eliminate bullying in schools.The local school board has asked you to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.Explain how you would do this.
Q3) In order to test the effectiveness of an intervention using an experiment, it is best to have a
A) visible independent variable.
B) randomly assigned control group.
C) representative control group.
D) double-blind study.
Q4) What is the role of money in determining how happy a person will be?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Social Psychology and Health
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92 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what way might perceived control be a detriment to dealing with an illness? Perceived control
A) may lead patients to blame themselves for the disease or for failure to recover.
B) may make a patient feel better, but actually increases the severity of the physical symptoms.
C) alleviates physical symptoms, but decreases immunity toward other diseases.
D) may lead a patient to ignore the advice of medical professionals.
Q2) Based on information from your text on an internal sense of control, who is most likely to be psychologically well-adjusted?
A) Adam, who blames himself for getting lung cancer
B) Lola, who is HIV positive and feels she can control her daily activities
C) Charles, who blames his mother for his being schizophrenic
D) Tyler, who feels it is his own actions, as well as chance, that made him an alcoholic
Q3) Research has demonstrated the benefits of writing about a traumatic event.How does writing help people cope with negative life events?
Q4) Given daily and even more major life stressors, explain how people tend to respond.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Social Psychology and the Law
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Sample Questions
Q1) A social psychologist would say that the story order of presenting evidence is most effective because it
A) establishes a schema for the event in question.
B) raises the self-esteem level of the jurors.
C) overrides the prejudices of the jurors.
D) unlocks repressed memories.
Q2) Austin is a social psychologist working for the police department.As he advises department detectives about procedures for a police lineup, what is he LEAST likely to advise?
A) "Don't always include the suspect in the initial lineup."
B) "Ask your witnesses for confidence ratings about their identifications before you say anything to them about their performance."
C) "Make sure that the lineup contains a wide variety of people who look quite different from each other."
D) "Tell the witness that the suspect may or may not be in the lineup."
Q3) Our minds are not video cameras that objectively record and play back all events we see and hear.One reason eyewitness information is often unreliable is that one or more memory processes can be affected.What are those three processes, and what factors can bias them?
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Page 18