Social Cognition Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Social Cognition explores how people perceive, think about, and interpret information regarding themselves, others, and social situations. This course examines the mental processes underlying social interactions, including the formation of impressions, attribution of causes to behavior, stereotypes, attitudes, and decision-making. Students will analyze how cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and reasoning contribute to understanding and predicting social behavior, as well as the influence of culture, emotion, and individual differences. The course integrates empirical research, theoretical models, and practical applications relevant to social understanding and communication.
Recommended Textbook
Social Psychology and Human Nature Comprehensive Edition 3rd Edition by Roy F. Baumeister
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19 Chapters
2695 Verified Questions
2695 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Mission and the Method
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215 Verified Questions
215 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/4918
Sample Questions
Q1) Explain the difference between applied and basic research.
Answer: Applied research is focused on a particular, substantive problem found in the real world. For example, a scientist may be very interested in reducing discrimination in urban housing. Basic research, in contrast, focuses more on identifying principles of behavior that will generalize across contexts of study. For example, a scientist may be interested in understanding the cognitive processes that underlie stereotyping, prejudice, and ultimately discrimination without focusing on a particular setting (like urban housing) in which these processes take place.
Q2) The ability of a measure to predict an outcome that should be related to the measure is ____ validity.
A) convergent
B) divergent
C) measurement
D) face
Answer: C
Q3) What separates psychology from philosophy is psychology's emphasis on the ____________________.
Answer: scientific method
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3
Chapter 2: Culture and Nature
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180 Verified Questions
180 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to your text, which of the following makes us most human?
A) The size of our brain size relative to our body size
B) The fact that we walk upright
C) The fact that we communicate by talking
D) The degree to which our life is enmeshed with culture
Answer: D
Q2) Across evolution, humans have competed most with ____ when trying to pass their genes passed down to subsequent generations.
A) other opposite-sex humans
B) other same-sex humans
C) other animal species
D) natural environmental forces
Answer: B
Q3) Keith Chen's work on money use in monkeys indicates that monkeys were able to learn rudimentary aspects of money handling.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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4
Chapter 3: The Self
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180 Verified Questions
180 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Self-presentation is best defined as any behavior that is ____ intended to make ____ impression on others.
A) consciously; some sort of B) consciously; a positive
C) consciously or unconsciously; some sort of
D) consciously or unconsciously; a positive
Answer: C
Q2) Nearly all children start talking about standards at age _____, which is the age at which _____.
A) one; they first learn to speak
B) two; self-awareness blossoms
C) five to six; they begin to form a clear gender identity
D) eleven to twelve; puberty usually sets in
Answer: B
Q3) Humans appear to be the only animals that can take on multiple social roles across their lives.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Choices and Actions: The Self in Control
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185 Verified Questions
185 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The existence of absolute free will is undisputed amongst social psychologists.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When people make multiple demands upon themselves (when they must complete or persist at multiple tasks), their capacity for change (their willpower) sometimes seems to get "used up." Research shows that in fact, ____.
A) this effect is solely due to fatigue
B) this effect is solely due to emotions
C) this effect is solely due to attitudes about the tasks
D) willpower really does seem to get depleted; it appears that only so much willpower is available to people at a time
Q3) Movies with "R" ratings tend to be more appealing to children and teens than similar movies with "G" or "PG" ratings. This finding is good evidence of ____.
A) error management theory
B) self-monitoring theory
C) reactance theory
D) temporal bias
Q4) What factors tend to promote decision avoidance?
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Chapter 5: Social Cognition
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177 Verified Questions
177 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jason is buying a new iPhone this semester, as are most of his friends. According to Malle's work on attribution, what will Jason most likely think when he sees his friends buying an iPhone?
A) "Maybe I won't buy the iPhone."
B) "I want to be just like them!"
C) "What a bunch of conformists!"
D) "My friends have done their research."
Q2) Kelly runs by the bank to check her balance and get cash before visiting her grandparents. Normally when she visits her grandparents, she walks with them slowly, at their pace. Today, though, after her earlier visit to the bank, she finds herself walking faster than them. This is because the visit to the bank probably produced a(n) ____.
A) dissimilarity mindset
B) availability bias
C) anchoring bias
D) similarity mindset
Q3) When the illusory correlation occurs after only one exposure to a behavior performed by a member of an unfamiliar group, the ____________________ has occurred.
Q4) Describe how one might reduce cognitive errors in processing social information.
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Chapter 6: Emotion and Affect
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191 Verified Questions
191 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the ____ theory of emotion, when people are presented with stimuli that trigger emotions, the thalamus in the brain sends two messages at the same time: one message that produces a conscious emotional experience and one message that produces a physiological response.
A) James-Lange
B) Cannon-Bard
C) Schachter and Singer
D) excitation transfer
Q2) A famous study conducted by social psychologists Aron and Dutton, found that a female experimenter was most likely to be called by participants after they had walked across a scary, narrow bridge as opposed to after they had walked across a normal, stable bridge. This finding can be most easily explained by ____.
A) the Yerkes-Dodson law
B) sham
C) catharsis
D) excitation transfer
Q3) The scale to measure the four branches of emotional intelligence is called the ____________________.
Q4) Emotions are inner processes that help promote ____________________ relations.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Attitudes, Beliefs and Consistency
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185 Verified Questions
185 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The so-called "A-B problem" refers to the fact that people's stated attitudes are often inconsistent with their behaviors.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) performed a famous experiment on cognitive dissonance in which subjects were asked to lie to a fellow student (about how fun a psychology experiment was) for either $1 or $20. For subjects in the $1 condition, dissonance was created because these subjects thought to themselves: "I am a nice, ethical person, but I have just been mean and told a lie." It appears that the $1 subjects were ultimately able to reduce this dissonance by thinking to themselves: ____.
A) "I did not really tell a lie because the experiment was not that boring. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that it was kind of fun!"
B) "I know I told that person a lie. But so what? There are bigger problems in this world!!"
C) "Lying is a terrible thing. I swear that I will never do it again."
D) "Whatever! I got $1 for doing almost nothing! Good deal!!"
Q3) Fritz Heider's balance theory is also sometimes referred to as the ____________________ theory.
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Chapter 8: Social Influence and Persuasion
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183 Verified Questions
183 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/4925
Sample Questions
Q1) The so-called limited-number technique is a persuasive technique based upon the principle of ____________________.
Q2) Some research has looked at whether or not giving people warnings that someone is about to try to persuade them of something has an impact on the degree to which they are persuaded. Such research has found that people are ____ likely to be persuaded by the argument when they receive a warning beforehand; the amount of advance notice they receive ____ this effect.
A) less; heightens
B) less; has no impact
C) more; heightens
D) more; has no effect
Q3) Describe the major results from Hovland's research program on persuasion.
Q4) Which of the following is a social influence technique that is based on commitment and consistency?
A) The door-in-the-face technique
B) The pique technique
C) The disrupt-then-reframe technique
D) The foot-in-the-door technique
Q5) The labeling technique is based on ____________________ principles.
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Chapter 9: Prosocial Behavior: Doing Whats Best for Others
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184 Verified Questions
184 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Recall Milgram's classic research on obedience to authority. One interesting finding here was that numerous participants who went ahead and administered shocks at relatively high levels ____.
A) started kicking, hitting, and even biting themselves while doing so
B) showed general signs of intense distress while doing so
C) told the experimenter that they did not want to be compensated at all for participating in the study
D) asked the experimenter to compensate them more for doing so
Q2) Social psychologists often make use of a game called the ____ to study people's tendencies to cooperate versus compete.
A) commons dilemma
B) prisoner's dilemma
C) matching game
D) naïve bystander circle
Q3) Based on Vohs et al.'s (2006) findings, wealthy people are ____.
A) less likely to ask for help when they need it
B) more likely to ask for help when they need it
C) as likely to ask for help when needed as anyone else
D) more likely to give help to a neighbor in need
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
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184 Verified Questions
184 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social psychologists Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen found that, in the U.S., men from the South tend to respond to insults more aggressively compared to men from the North. They argued that a key reason for the difference is the fact that ____.
A) Southerners come from warmer climates
B) there is a southern culture of honor
C) Southerners tend to have spicier diets
D) there is more violent media in the South than in the North
Q2) Jayson is walking down a busy sidewalk, when someone going the opposite direction bumps into him. Jayson thinks the person meant to bump him to be rude. Jayson is most clearly exhibiting the ____.
A) hostile attribution bias
B) hostile expectation bias
C) hostile perception bias
D) indirect perception bias
Q3) Which of the following is NOT a good example of antisocial behavior?
A) Cruelly gossiping about an enemy
B) Boxing in a professional boxing match
C) Refusing to leave the house or talk to any friends or family
D) Killing someone for pay (as a "hit man")
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Attraction and Exclusion
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188 Verified Questions
188 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ____ is an example of familiarity reducing rather than increasing liking.
A) bystander effect
B) propinquity effect
C) bad apple effect
D) social allergy effect
Q2) Brian has about five close friends but not many casual acquaintances. If he is like most people, then ____.
A) he is probably satisfied
B) he probably wants more close friends and more casual acquaintances
C) he probably wants more close friends but does not necessarily feel that he needs more casual acquaintances
D) he probably feels that he has more close friends than he needs
Q3) In Festinger, Schachter, and Back's (1950) study of friendship formation in a dormitory, ____________________ predicted who would be come friends with each other.
Q4) The need to belong drives people to ___.
A) associate with others (only)
B) associate with others and commit to relationships (only)
C) associate with others, commit to relationships, and stay in relationships
D) stay in relationships (only)
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Close Relationships: Passion, Intimacy, and Sexuality
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178 Verified Questions
178 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/4929
Sample Questions
Q1) Social psychologists have identified several different types of love. Which of the following types of love refers to strong feelings of longing, desire, and excitement toward a special person?
A) Passionate love
B) Companionate love
C) Committed love
D) Affectionate love
Q2) The so-called ____________________ model makes use of three factors-satisfaction, alternatives, and investments, to explain why people stay with their long-term relationship partners.
Q3) Andre really believes in himself and doesn't suffer much in the way of social anxiety. Yet he has a hard time trusting his girlfriend (even though she has given him no reason for this). His girlfriend feels frustrated with the relationship, because Andre seems so aloof and far away. Andre probably has a ____ attachment.
A) secure
B) preoccupied
C) dismissing avoidant
D) fearful avoidant
Q4) Is sex better within the context of marriage or when one is single?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
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176 Verified Questions
176 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most people assume that outgroup members are relatively similar to one another, while ingroup members are relatively different from one another. This tendency is known as the ____.
A) outgroup homogeneity bias
B) scapegoat effect
C) minimal group effect
D) superordinate group bias
Q2) Social psychologists use the term ____________________ to refer to the unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or categories to which they belong.
Q3) It would be most accurate to say that the majority of stereotypes are ____ and, the majority of stereotypes, when scrutinized, turn out to be ____.
A) positive; accurate reflections of reality
B) positive; flat-out inaccurate
C) negative; accurate reflections of reality
D) negative; flat-out inaccurate
Q4) A group of students is working on a puzzle. Each student has two pieces necessary to complete it. All the students want to complete it. This is an example of a(n)
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Chapter 14: Groups
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179 Verified Questions
179 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In one of the earliest social psychological experiments to be conducted, Norman Triplett examined the records of teams of cyclists. He found that cyclists who raced against each other ____ than those who raced alone (against the clock).
A) were more aggressive after the race
B) got into more accidents
C) cycled more quickly
D) enjoyed the race less
Q2) How much work has social psychology done, as a discipline, in the areas of power and leadership?
A) A great deal of work in both areas
B) A great deal of work on power, but very little work on leadership
C) A great deal of work on leadership, but very little work on power
D) Little work in either area
Q3) Research on social facilitation would suggest that, in general, runners would ____ when running alongside others as opposed to running alone.
A) run faster
B) run slower
C) be more likely to fall
D) be more likely to injure themselves
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Applying Social Psychology to Consumer Behavior
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22 Verified Questions
22 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ali is having a garage sale. He is trying to sell an old alarm clock for $20, an old pair of sneakers for $40, and an old TV set for $100. These prices are way too high. Since Ali owns these products, they seem to him to be more valuable than they really are. This phenomenon is known by social psychologists as ____.
A) lateral shrinkage
B) product affinity
C) personal use shrinkage
D) the mere ownership effect
Q2) Tim is simultaneously talking on his cell phone, checking an instant message, listening to a CD, and browsing the web. Consumer psychologists would say that he is engaged in ____.
A) time shrinkage
B) lateral cycling
C) polychronic activity
D) multilateral activity
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Chapter 16: Applying Social Psychology to Health
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is most directly concerned with the stages that people go through-and the themes present at each stage-when they are trying to change a specific behavior?
A) The theory of planned behavior
B) The general adaptation syndrome
C) The cognitive appraisal model
D) The transtheoretical model
Q2) The Student Stress Scale assesses a person's stress level by ____.
A) gauging basic lifestyle habits (e.g., hours of sleep received per night)
B) taking a read of various physical phenomena that are known to be stress-related (e.g., headaches, teeth-grinding)
C) asking questions about a person's mood and emotions
D) taking an inventory of recent life changes a person has experienced
Q3) It is estimated that ____ of all deaths in the United States could have been postponed or avoided had people changed unhealthy behaviors.
A) 5%
B) 20%
C) 50%
D) 90%
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Page 18
Chapter 17: Applying Social Psychology to the Workplace
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22 Verified Questions
22 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Women who work longer hours tend to eat ____ snacks than men who work the same number of hours.
A) more high fat and high sugar
B) more high fat but fewer high sugar
C) more high sugar but fewer high fat
D) less high fat and high sugar
Q2) If an employee compares how much effort he puts in at work and feels undercompensated for that effort, he may reduce his effort in the future, according to ____.
A) job satisfaction theory
B) equity theory
C) transformational leadership theory
D) ONET theory
Q3) Mia has pictures of half-naked men all over her cubicle, and she is constantly making lewd jokes about sex and men as sex objects. Mia is engaged in ____.
A) affective commitment
B) quid pro quo harassment
C) hostile work environment harassment
D) leadership
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Page 19
Chapter 18: Applying Social Psychology to the Law
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22 Verified Questions
22 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Suppose that, during jury selection for a burglary trial, the lawyer for the prosecution determines that she does not want a potential juror named Ingrid Malone on the jury. Ingrid has stated that she has been in and out of mental institutions her whole life, and that she sees nothing wrong with a little burglary now and then. Ingrid even offers up the idea that "all burglars should be free to burgle." The prosecution lawyer suggests to the judge that Ingrid is highly biased and should be removed from the jury panel. The judge agrees, and has her quickly removed. This process is known as ____.
A) venire
B) voir dire
C) challenge for cause
D) peremptory challenge
Q2) In a properly conducted lineup, wherein eyewitnesses are asked to identify criminals who they saw commit a crime, the foils in the lineup are people who ____.
A) are all suspects of the crime
B) are all known to be innocent of the crime
C) do not match the physical description of the suspect
D) do not match the psychological profile of the suspect
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Page 20
Chapter 19: Applying Social Psychology to the Environment
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22 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the following approaches to encouraging people to conserve water and energy, which has been most effective?
A) Education
B) Prompts
C) Simple reasoning
D) Having people make public commitments
Q2) According to social psychological research, which of the following is NOT a particularly effective way to shift people's attitudes and behaviors regarding the environment?
A) Provide people with feedback about their impact on the environment.
B) Make people's environment-related behaviors public.
C) Focus on specific actions rather than general or abstract behaviors.
D) Make nonemotional appeals to general attitudes in the public.
Q3) People are less likely to engage in the commons dilemma when ____.
A) they communicate with others
B) others are behaving badly
C) they are anonymous
D) they are highly self-interested
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