Terms
beliefs and opinions that can predispose individuals to behave in certain ways
Attitudes
the tendency to attribute other’s behavior to internal (personal) causes
fundamental attribution error
This theory asserts that people want to be known and understood by others according to their own firmly held beliefs and feelings about themselves – that is, their self views.
Self-Verification Theory
An actress portrays a philanthropist in a TV series. In each show, she performs an act of kindness toward a downtrodden individual or group. The actress receives a great deal of mail from fans who tell her what a fantastic person she is because she is so willing to share her time and wealth with others who are in need. The response of the actress's fans illustrates which of the following.
the ultimate attribution error
the fundamental attribution bias
the self-serving bias
the selectivity bias
The Correct Answer is “2”
The fundamental attribution bias (error) refers to the tendency of people to overestimate the contribution of dispositional factors to an actor's behavior. In the situation described in the question, the actress's fans attribute her good deeds to her rather than to the role she plays in the TV series
According to Weiner's attribution theory, a person with high-self esteem is most likely to attribute success on an achievement-related task to
effort.
ability.
luck.
the easiness of the task.
The Correct Answer is “1”
Weiner's attribution theory has to do with reasons people use to explain causes of behavior, events, and outcomes. According to Weiner, these explanations or attributions have three dimensions: locus-of control (internal-external), stability (stable-unstable), and controllability (controllable-uncontrollable). This makes for eight possible attribution types: internal-stable-controllable, internal-stable-uncontrollable, and so on. The focus of this theory is on attributions for achievement, and Weiner identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck and the most important explanations of achievement. The theory has a number of applications in a variety of settings. For example, students who attribute success to ability, an internal, stable, and uncontrollable factor, are likely to have higher self-esteem. Students who attribute academic successes and failure to effort (an internal, unstable, controllable factor) are more likely to persist at tasks.
inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others’ behaviors, and their own behaviors
attributions
endency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
confirmation bias
asserts that people want to be known and understood by others according to a drive for positive evaluations
self-enhancement theory
The "pseudopatients" who were admitted to mental hospitals in Rosenhan's (1973) study were:
all discharged from the hospitals within72 hours due to their "remission"
identified by hospital staff as being "normal" during the second week of their stay
identified by other patients but not staff members as being "normal"
identified by staff members as being "normal" only after they stopped feigning symptoms
The Correct Answer is “3”
Rosenhan's famous "pseudopatient study" involved 8 confederates who presented themselves to mental hospitals complaining of hearing voices. All were admitted to the hospital and7 of the 8 were given the diagnosis "Schizophrenia." Once admitted, they all stopped feigning any symptoms and behaved normally. Nevertheless, their hospital stays ranged from7 to 52 days with an average stay of 19 days and although nearly one-third of the other patients recognized the pseudopatients as "normal," none of the hospital staff recognized them as such.
The tendency to be easily provoked by others, to have difficulty controlling impulses, and to react aggressively when interacting with others is referred to as:
hostile attribution bias
passive aggression
reactive aggression
proactive aggression
The Correct Answer is “C”
Relational aggression is described as any behavior that is intended to harm someone by damaging or manipulating relationships with others (Crick, 1995). The two types of relational aggression are proactive and reactive. Proactive (d.) relational aggression is when behaviors are a means for achieving a goal, such as excluding someone from a group in order to maintain one’s own social status. Reactive relational aggression is behavior that is in response to provocation, with the intent to retaliate. Some of the manifestations of relational aggression include: ignoring, teasing, exclusion, insults, malicious gossip and rumor spreading, intimidation, alliance building, withdrawing affection and cyberbullying. The motivation for relational aggression is varied, however, often includes: power, control, fear, popularity and/or security. Hostile attribution bias (a.) is the tendency to believe that others are trying to cause harm even in neutral or unclear situations. Research indicates hostile attribution bias may be due to deficits in social information processing. Findings show children with peer relationship difficulties are less accurate in interpreting the intentions of other children and are more likely to attribute hostile intent to neutral or ambiguous peer behavior (de Castro et al., 2002). Likewise, studies of aggressive children indicate they are more likely than nonaggressive children to interpret the ambiguous behaviors of peers as intentionally hostile and, therefore, to react to those peers with aggressive, hostile behaviors. (See: Crick, N. R. (1995). Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, provocation type, and feelings of distress. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 313-322; de Castro, B. O., Veerman, J. W., Koops, W., Bosch, J. D. & Monshouwer, H. J. (2002) Hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior: a meta-analysis. Child Development, 73, 916–934. )
the conflict that arises when a person holds two or more attitudes that are inconsistent
cognitive dissonance
type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his or her character
halo effect
people help each other when there is a positive cost-benefit analysis; when the benefits outweigh the costs.
Social Exchange Theory
Which of the following refers to an acceptance by members of stigmatized races of negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth?
personally mediated racism
internalized racism
subtle racism
institutional racism
The Correct Answer is “2”
Internalized racism refers to acceptance of negative messages about the abilities and intrinsic worth by members of the stigmatized races and manifests in embracing “whiteness”, self-devaluation, and resignation, helplessness, and hopelessness. Personally mediated racism (a.) refers to prejudice and discrimination at the individual level, whether intentional or unintentional, and manifests as lack of respect, suspicion, devaluation, scapegoating and dehumanization. Subtle racism (c.) refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals (rather than institutions) and is a less obvious form of racism, which has been proposed to have replaced overt or “old-fashioned” prejudice and discrimination. Institutional racism (d.) is defined as, “the structures, policies, practices, and norms resulting in differential access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society by race… often evident as inaction in the face of need” and manifests in restriction or denial of material conditions and access to power to members of minority groups (Jones, 2000).
Morgan developed the _________________ model to help explain the relationship between personality mood states and athletic success.
normative
mental health
psychological
psychopathology
he Correct Answer is “2”
Morgan's mental health model (MHM) of sport performance proposes an inverse relationship exists between psychopathology and sport performance. In other words, positive mental health is directly related to athletic success and high levels of performance whereas performance lessens as mental health worsens. Morgan found successful athletes tend to be vigorous and have little tension, depression, confusion, anger, and fatigue, a combination known as the iceberg profile. Other studies have shown that using general psychological measures of personality structure and mood state can identify between 70 and 85% of successful and unsuccessful athletes, which is a level superior to chance but still insufficient for the purpose of selecting athletes. MHM is a considered a means to help maintain the mental and physical health of athletes, such as mood state monitoring to prevent staleness syndrome in overtraining athletes, but not for use as a selection tool. (See: Morgan W.P. (1985). Selected psychological factors limiting performance: a mental health model. In: Clarke DH, Eckert HM, editors. Limits of human performance. Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics, 70-80. )
the loss of identity as a result of being part of a large group
Deindividuation
tendency to attribute behavior that results in a good outcome for us to internal causes and to attribute behavior that results in a bad outcome to external (situational) factors.
self-serving bias
we favor the groups to which we belong in order to enhance our self-esteem.
Social Identity Theory
An aggressive child was probably
Spanked often and inconsistently
Never given proper boundaries
Spanked for specific naughty behaviors
Encouraged to think about the end results of her behaviors
The Correct Answer is “1”
According to Jerry Patterson and his colleagues, aggressive behavior often develops from the parent's style of parenting; an aggressive child's parent used lots of directives combined with inconsistent harsh physical punishment.
Which of the following would most likely improve the quality of decision making in a group?
increasing the cohesiveness of the group
decreasing the cohesiveness of the group
increasing emphasis on group consensus
use of a directive leader
The Correct Answer is “2”
Groupthink is an intensive tendency to seek agreement among members of the group which often results in poor decision-making. You should be familiar with the factors which contribute to groupthink, which include high cohesiveness, homogeneous backgrounds and values, and a strong, directive leader. Since increasing cohesiveness increases the pressure to conform, it is likely that decreasing the cohesiveness of a group should decrease the pressure to conform. In some circumstances, seeking consensus or unanimity can actually improve decision-making; however, it often becomes detrimental when the drive for consensus prevents full consideration of alternative decisions
occurs when children and adults learn behaviors by observing others
modeling/observational learning
cognitive bias or assumption suggesting that a person’s actions are inherently inclined to bring about morally fair and fitting consequences to that person – all noble actions are eventually rewarded and all evil actions are eventually punished.
belief in a just world
People like those whose behavior is rewarding to them or whom they associate with rewarding events
People like and are attracted to others who are similar, rather than dissimilar, to themselves
Theory of Attraction
Research on the relationship between group size and the size of tips in restaurants has lent credence to the construct of diffusion of responsibility in its findings that as group size increases, the average tip per customer
decreases.
increases.
decreases only when diners are charged separately.
increases only when diners are charged separately.
The Correct Answer is “1"
Diffusion of responsibility refers to the notion that the presence of others reduces people's feeling of personal responsibility for events, as individuals tend to shift responsibility to others present. Both laboratory and field studies have shown that the presence of others does in fact reduce individual helping, charitable giving, task effort, and other types of non-mandatory giving behaviors, including restaurant tipping. The results of such studies are often explained as examples of diffusion of responsibility.
When men and women are asked to judge photos of women's faces:
attractive women are viewed as less intelligent.
there is no relation between ratings of beauty and personality.
unattractive women are rated as having less positive personalities.
women and men disagree on standards of facial beauty.
The Correct Answer is “3”
Researchers find a consistently moderate positive correlation between ratings of facial beauty and ratings of personality and intelligence, regardless of whether the faces are female or male. This is an example of the halo effect. In other words, attractive people are rated as having better personalities and unattractive people are rated less positively.