chapter 1 practice quiz

Socially shared beliefs are widely held ideas and values, which include our assumptions and cultural ideologies. This is a definition of:

A. nationality
B. race
C. social representations
D. culture

C. social representations

An experimenter exposed participants to different room temperatures to determine the effects on aggression. Aggression was the:

A. independent variable
B. dependent variable
C. control variable
D. confounding variable

B. dependent variable

A ______ is an integrated set of principles that can explain and predict observed events:

A. theory
B. hypothesis
C. fact
D. correlation

A. theory

Correlational research allows us to:

A. infer cause and effect
B. make predictions
C. uncover independent variables
D. control variables

B. make predictions

You are participating in a psychology research experiment and the researcher invites you to return after the experiment to learn more about it and to explore your feelings about it. This is called:

A. Informed consent
B. debriefing
C. demand characterization
D. experiment framing

B. debriefing

Which of the following is an example of how our attitudes and behaviors are shaped by external social forces?

A. Our personality disposition affects our choices
B. Our inherited human nature predisposes us to react in certain ways
C. our political attitudes influence our voting behavior
D. our standards regarding promptness, beauty, and equality vary with our culture

D.our standards regarding promptness, beauty, and equality vary with our culture

A theory:

A. is an agreed-upon statement
B. summarizes and explains facts
C. cannot be tested
D. is less than fact

B. summarizes and explains facts

Myers’ discussion of the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement concludes that:

A. self-esteem causes academic achievement
B. academic achievement causes self-esteem
C. both self-esteem and academic achievement are likely caused by a third variable
D. none of the above

C. both self-esteem and academic achievement are likely caused by a third variable

Those who consider under-the-skin (i.e., biological) and between the skins (i.e., social) influences on topics such as love and hate are referred to as:

A. social biologists
B. social neuroscientists
C. social sociologists
D. social anthropologists

B. social neuroscientists

Your decision to call someone a "terrorist" rather than a "freedom fighter" depends on your view of the cause. This is an example of how values can influence not only social psychology, but also:

A. emotions
B. actions
C. intuitions
D. everyday language

D. everyday language

Which of the following was the dependent variable in Boyatzis’ (1995) research study on the effects of television viewing on children?

A. lying to parents
B. aggressive behavior
C. poor academic performance
D. early sexual promiscuity

B. aggressive behavior

Deception in an experiment is:

A. unethical
B. always required
C. used only if it is essential and justified
D. useful in affecting subjects’ willingness to participate

C. used only if it is essential and justified

The cues in an experiment that tell the participants what behavior is expected are called:

A. subliminal messages
B. demand characteristics
C. deception tactics
D. confounding variables

B. demand characteristics

When explaining topics such as dating and mating, evolutionary psychologists consider how natural selection might:

A. predispose our attitudes
B. change our attitudes
C. account for similarities in our attitudes
D. reinforce our attitudes

A. predispose our attitudes

You are participating in a psychology research experiment and the researcher invites you to return after the experiment to learn more about it and to explore your feelings about it. This is called:

A. informed consent
B. debriefing
C. demand characterization
D. experiment framing

B. debriefing

You conduct a study that examines the role of exercise on depression alleviation. You assign the first 50 people who are motivated to sign up to the experimental group, and the second group of 50 people, who sign up much later, to the control group. After one month, you find that the experimental group (who exercised three times a week on average) is significantly less depressed than the control group (who exercised one time a week on average). Although you may be tempted to conclude that exercise helps stave off depression, you cannot because of a lack of ____ in your study.

A. random sampling
B. random assignment
C. random surveying
D. objectivity

B. random assignment

Social representations are:

A. value commitments within a culture
B. intuitive ideas that prove to be true
C. socially shared beliefs, including our assumptions and cultural ideologies
D. stereotypes that are rooted in racism rather than in reality

C. socially shared beliefs, including our assumptions and cultural ideologies

Regarding social-psychological research, Myers warns that we must be cautious about:

A. the use of random assignment
B. inferring cause and effect from experiments
C. the types of subjects used
D. generalizing from the laboratory to life

D. generalizing from the laboratory to life

When participating in a psychology research experiment, you are told that the purpose of the study is to find out if tall people are more prejudiced than short people. Because you want to behave accordingly, you agree with questions on a survey of prejudice more so than you would otherwise. Your behavior in this study is a result of:

A. your true attitudes
B. your repressed attitudes
C. the demand characteristics of the experiment
D. the sampling method of the experiment

C. the demand characteristics of the experiment

If you ask conservative, liberal, independent, and green party voters their opinions of political candidates, rather than just conservative voters, you are attempting to ensure that your sample is:

A. fair
B. large enough
C. representative
D. random

C. representative

In Snyder and Haugen’s research on obesity and social status (1994; 1995), male students were shown a picture of a normal or obese woman before having a conversation with a female student. In this study, the independent variable was the:

A. normal or overweight woman’s picture
B. social skills of the woman being interviewed
C. conversation topic chosen by the students
D. status of the male student

A. normal or overweight woman’s picture

What is NOT true about how values affect social psychology?

A. values influence the topics that are researched
B. the values that peoplehood influence those entering the field of study
C. social psychology research shows us what to value
D. social psychologists are very interested in studying values

C. social psychology research shows us what to value

Which one of the following is one of the purposes of a hypothesis according to the text?

A. Hypotheses allows us to test a theory
B. hypotheses provide explanations for research results
C. hypotheses prove theories
D. hypotheses communicate the results of research studies

A. Hypotheses allows us to test a theory

Which of the following was the independent variable in Boyatzis’ (1995) research study on the effects of television viewing on children?

A. aggressive behavior
B. poor academic performance
C. television viewing
D. early sexual promiscuity

C. television viewing

Which of the following is an example of how our attitudes and behaviors are shaped by external social forces?

A. our personality disposition affects our choices
B. our inherited human nature predisposes us to react in certain ways
C. our political attitudes influence our voting behavior
D. our standards regarding promptness, beauty, and equality vary with our culture

D. our standards regarding promptness, beauty, and equality vary with our culture

Socially shared beliefs are widely held ideas and values, which include our assumptions and cultural ideologies. This is a definition of:

A. nationality
B. race
C. social representations
D. culture

C. social representations

Which of the following topics is NOT an example of what social psychologists study?

A. love
B. conformity
C. intelligence
D. attitudes

C. intelligence

According to the text, values enter the work of social psychology when researchers:

A. collect data for their studies
B. present the results of their studies
C. summarize their studies
D. choose the topics of their studies

D. choose the topics of their studies

There is an example discussed in the text about how the meat lobby rejected a new U.S. food labeling law that required declaring meat as "30 percent fat" rather than "70 percent lean, 30 percent fat." This is an example of how ____ may influence human decisions and expressed opinions.

A. framing of questions
B. order of questions
C. wording of questions
D. response options

A. framing of questions

An important factor in survey research is how closely the sample reflects the population under study. This is referred to as sample:

A. fairness
B. strategy
C. size
D. representativeness

D. representativeness

Deception in an experiment is:

A. unethical
B. always required
C. used only if it is essential and justified
D. useful in affecting subjects’ willingness to participate

C. used only if it is essential and justified

If you wanted more people to donate organs upon their death, you would:

A. put nothing on their drivers’ license about organ donation
B. give a default option of ‘yes’ and a space to "opt out"
C. give a default option of ‘no’ and a space to check to donate
D. give them a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ choice to check

B. give a default option of ‘yes’ and a space to "opt out"

The degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants in real psychological processes refers to:

A. realistic experimentation
B. televised reality
C. mundane realism
D. experimental realism

D. experimental realism

Myers discusses how Maslow’s description of "self-actualized" people was based on a sample he personally selected. Had he selected other people to describe, his ensuing list of self-actualization characterizations may have been different. This is an example of how values can influence:

A. data
B. results
C. concepts
D. methodology

C. concepts

Social psychology is defined as the scientific study of how people:

A. motivate, persuade, and hurt one another
B. think about, influence, and relate to one another
C. manipulate, use, and betray one another
D. conform, help, and form attitudes about one another

B. think about, influence, and relate to one another

To get information from a survey that you can generalize to the whole country, you will need to get information from _____ people.

A. 150
B. 1,200
C. 5,000
D. 10,000

B. 1,200

Research on the wording of survey questions suggests that:

A. how questions are framed can influence how they are answered
B. how questions are framed has very little influence on how they are answered
C. wording is an unimportant element of survey research
D. framing the questions differently will not influence the results

A. how questions are framed can influence how they are answered

Two essential ingredients in a social-psychological experiment are:

A. deception and payment for participation
B. the use of surveys and the use of deception
C. framing and biases
D. control and random assignment

D. control and random assignment

Theories help social psychologists _____ their observations and _____ their hypotheses

A. test; organize
B. organize; test
C. objectify; refute
D. refute; objectify

B. organize; test

An experimenter exposed participants to different room temperatures to determine their effects on aggression. The room temperatures were the:

A. independent variable
B. dependent variable
C. control variable
D. confounding variable

A. independent variable

The best statement about objective reality is:

A. that it exists
B. that it does not exist
C. that we can all agree on an objective reality
D. that reality is filtered by our values and beliefs

D. that reality is filtered by our values and beliefs

Another name for the "I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon" is the:

A. retrospective bias
B. information bias
C. prediction bias
D. hindsight bias

D. hindsight bias

A testable proposition that describes a relationship which may exist between events is a:

A. statement
B. bias
C. correlation
D. hypothesis

D. hypothesis

Myers’ discussion of the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement concludes that:

A. self-esteem causes academic achievement
B. academic achievement causes self-esteem
C. both self-esteem and academic achievement are likely caused by a third variable
D. none of the above

C. both self-esteem and academic achievement are likely caused by a third variable

The difference between facts and theories is that:

A. facts explain theories
B. theories explain facts
C. facts are ideas
D. theories are statements

B. theories explain facts

The difficult 2008 world financial crisis due to lack of regulations and safeguards seems obvious now. This is an example of:

A. information bias
B. hindsight bias
C. prediction bias
D. retrospective bias

B. hindsight bias

The major purpose of random assignment in an experiment is to:

A. maximize the differences between groups
B. minimize the differences between groups
C. control the independent variable
D. control the dependent variable

B. minimize the differences between groups

Which one of the following is one of the purposes of a hypothesis according to the text?

A. hypotheses allow us to test a theory
B. hypotheses provide explanations for research results
C. hypotheses prove theories
D. hypotheses communicate the results of research studies

A. hypotheses allow us to test a theory

The variable being measured in an experiment, so called because it may depend on manipulations of another variable, is called the ______ variable.

A. experimental
B. control
C. independent
D. dependent

D. dependent

The finding that obese women earned lower salaries than women in a non-obese comparison group was the result of which type of research study?

A. experimental
B. correlational
C. laboratory
D. field

B. correlational

Which of the following is FALSE?

A. Social psychologists use experimentation more than sociologists.
B. Social psychologists focus less on individual differences than personality psychologists.
C. Sociologists focus more on groups than social psychologists.
D. Personality psychologists use experimentation more than social psychologists.

D. Personality psychologists use experimentation more than social psychologists.

Random sampling helps researchers _______, while random assignment helps researchers _______.

A. who are conducting correlations; who are conducting surveys
B. infer cause and effect; generalize to a population
C. generalize to a population; infer cause and effect
D. determine cause and effect; develop correlations

C. generalize to a population; infer cause and effect

In 1936, the news magazine Literary Digest
obtained the opinions of over two million Americans regarding the presidential election. The results suggested that Landon would win in a landslide over Franklin D. Roosevelt. A few weeks later, FDR won in a landslide. The results of the survey were not valid, and this was due to:

A. a lack of random assignment.
B. a sampling bias
C. poor wording of questions’ variables
D. a lack of experimental control

B. a sampling bias

According to the text, _______ realism is not as important in social psychological research as _______ realism is.

A. mundane; experimental
B. social; psychological
C. experimental; mundane
D. psychological; social

A. mundane; experimental

Time-lagged correlations, according to the text, are an advanced correlational technique that can reveal the _______ variables or events, such as achievement and self-esteem.

A. relationship between
B. differences between
C. sequence of
D. confounding

C. sequence of

A serious shortcoming of a correlational study is that it cannot:

A. predict one variable from another
B. determine when there is a lack of a relationship between two variables
C. identify which variable causes the other variable
D. show relationships between naturally occurring factors

C. identify which variable causes the other variable

As a result of random assignment, the people in both groups of an experiment:

A. differ in important ways
B. do not know which group they are in
C. are less likely to be alive
D. are more likely to be about the same in every way

D. are more likely to be about the same in every way

_____ helps researchers generalize to a population.

A. random sampling
B. random assignment
C. random surveying
D. informed consent

A. random sampling

Myers argues that the major strength of correlational research is the:

A. cause-effect sequencing of events
B. ambiguity of the results
C. ability to extract the influence of confounded variables
D. fact that it occurs in real-world settings

D. fact that it occurs in real-world settings

The degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations refers to:

A. realistic experimentation
B. televised reality
C. mundane realism
D. experimental realism

C. mundane realism

Imagine you are approached by a large dog. You assume the dog is unfriendly, so you start screaming at it to go away. The dog assumes you want to hurt it, so it defends itself by biting your ankle. This is an example of a:

A. self-fulfilling belief
B. self-defacing belief
C. self-defense belief
D. self-worth belief

A. self-fulfilling belief

A sample in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion is called a _____ sample.

A. mixed
B. diverse
C. fair
D. random

D. random

The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates in a study is called the ______ variable.

A. control
B. independent
C. dependent
D. correlational

B. independent

Good theories do all of the following except:

A. summarize observations
B. make predictions that prove theories
C. make predictions that generate new research projects
D. suggest practical applications

B. make predictions that prove theories

The degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants in real psychological processes refers to:

A. realistic experimentation
B. televised reality
C.mundane realism
D. experimental realism

D. experimental realism

_____ is an ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

A. a demand characteristic
B. deception
C. mundane realism
D. informed consent

D. informed consent

A major requirement of the ethical principles of social-psychological research is that a researcher:

A. use random sampling and assignment
B. protect participants from harm and significant discomfort
C. refrain from using any deception in the research design
D. ensure that all participants know what is expected of them

B. protect participants from harm and significant discomfort

The analogy used in the text to describe what happens when old theories are discarded employs a discussion of how:

A. old cars are kept as antiques.
B. old cars are replaced by newer and better models.
C. new cars are often not built as well as older models.
D. new cars are frequently more fuel efficient than older models.

B. old cars are replaced by newer and better models.

Ann Landers’ 1984 survey of women readers’ opinions about romantic affection and sex was probably:

A. not valid because it did not include men
B. flawed because it was not representative of the population
C. worthless because the sample size was too small
D. as valid and informative as other more "scientific" surveys

B. flawed because it was not representative of the population

Myers points out that our social behavior is shaped by:

A. our intelligence and learning.
B. our personal preferences.
C. how we were nurtured by our parents.
D.other people, our attitudes and personality, and our biology.

D.other people, our attitudes and personality, and our biology.

Putting participants in one of two conditions by flipping a coin illustrates:

A. random sampling.
B. sampling bias.
C. random assignment.
D. representative sampling.

C. random assignment.

According to Myers’ discussion of intuition, which statement is TRUE?

A. Our intuitions about ourselves are usually true.
B. Intuitions are carefully considered beliefs.
C. Intuition is both powerful and perilous.
D. Intuition is not important.

C. Intuition is both powerful and perilous. D. Intuition is not important.

Asking students to come to a laboratory at 3 p.m. in order to participate in a study on university students’ usage of cellular phones is an example of what type of research?

A. correlational research
B. experimental research
C. laboratory research
D. field research

C. laboratory research

The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition is referred to as:

A. random sampling.
B. random assignment.
C. random surveying.
D. representativeness.

B. random assignment.

Standing in the campus courtyard with a clipboard to record your observations of university students’ usage of cellular phones is an example of what type of research?

A. correlational research
B. experimental research
C. laboratory research
D. field research

…

_____ occur(s) in research when participants are misinformed or misled about the method and purposes of the study.

A. Nonrandom sampling
B. Nonrandom assignment
C. Deception
D. Demand characteristics

C. Deception

Research done in natural, real-life settings outside the laboratory is referred to as:

A. correlational research.
B. experimental research.
C. laboratory research.
D. field research.

D. field research.

The attributions a person makes for his or her spouse’s acid remark depends upon the happiness of the marriage. What concept does this portray?

A. Social behavior is a function of what we believe.
B. Social behavior is a function of the objective situation.
C. Social behavior is a function of how a situation is construed.
D. Social behavior is a function of both the objective situation and how it is construed.

D. Social behavior is a function of both the objective situation and how it is construed.

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next is referred to as:

A. nationality.
B. race.
C. social representations.
D. culture.

D. culture.

You are participating in a social-psychological research experiment, and the researcher reads the instructions to you and the other participants so that each of you hears exactly the same instructions. By standardizing the instructions, the researcher is attempting to control the:

A. dependent variable.
B. experimental outcome.
C. demand characteristics.
D. framing effect.

C. demand characteristics.

A major requirement of the ethical principles of social-psychological research is that the researcher:

A. use random sampling and assignment.
B. protect participants from harm and significant discomfort.
C. refrain from using any deception in the research design.
D. ensure that all participants know what is expected of them.

A. use random sampling and assignment.