Social Psychology
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Social Psychology explores the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social contexts. The course examines key concepts such as social perception, attitudes, group dynamics, conformity, prejudice, aggression, and interpersonal relationships. Through a combination of theoretical frameworks and empirical research, students learn how social influences shape behavior and identity. Real-world applications and classic experiments are discussed to help students understand both the everyday and extraordinary ways in which social forces impact individuals and society as a whole.
Recommended Textbook
Social Psychology 4th Edition by Tom Gilovich
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Chapter 1: An Invitation to Social Psychology
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Q1) Which of the following methods is most clearly suited for testing whether construals exert a causal effect on game performance?
A) manipulating the name of a game
B) manipulating room temperature during the game
C) manipulating moods after a game has been played
D) manipulating the age of study participants
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following scenarios is LEAST consistent with the fundamental attribution error?
A) When someone swerves into your lane while driving, you think to yourself, "This person is a terrible driver!"
B) When someone at a party smiles at you, you think to yourself, "This person smiles at everyone."
C) When you slip and fall down at a shopping mall, you think to yourself, "I was born clumsy!"
D) When someone talks loudly to his or her friend on the bus, you think to yourself, "This person might be talking to someone who has a hearing problem."
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: The Methods of Social Psychology
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Q1) A study shows that people who watch the local evening news believe the world is more dangerous than people who do not watch the evening news. On the basis of this study, a newspaper reporter concludes that watching the evening news causes people to believe the world is more dangerous than it actually is. This is a flawed conclusion because
A) the reporter has a bias because he works for the newspaper.
B) it confuses a correlational relationship with a causal relationship.
C) it fails to compare evening news viewers with newspaper readers.
D) one study does not provide enough evidence to make this type of conclusion.
Answer: B
Q2) A researcher measures the galvanic skin response (GSR), or degree of sweating, of people holding a clear plastic jar containing a spider. She compares the GSRs of people with spider phobias with the GSRs of people without spider phobias. In this experiment, the galvanic skin response functions as the
A) independent variable.
B) dependent variable.
C) control condition.
D) experimental condition.
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: The Social Self
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Q1) Self-schemas are
A) wishes and aspirations people have for themselves.
B) objective standards that people use to learn about their own abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
C) beliefs about the roles, obligations, and duties people assume in groups.
D) knowledge-based summaries of our beliefs and feelings about the self in particular domains.
Answer: D
Q2) According to Baumeister and his colleagues, high self-esteem has a dark side. These researchers have argued that
A) people with very high self-esteem are particularly sensitive to insults, which could then lead to violence.
B) most people with high self-esteem are psychopaths who lack the ability to empathize with others.
C) people with high self-esteem are more likely to become alcoholics.
D) few people with high self-esteem have the modesty and humility needed to sustain satisfying close personal relationships.
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Social Cognition: Thinking About People and Situations
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Q1) ________ are mental shortcuts that provide serviceable but often inexact answers to common judgmental problems.
A) Pluralistic judgments
B) Base rates
C) Mental deliberations
D) Heuristics
Q2) People sometimes work together on a project and later decide who should get the most credit. According to research by Michael Ross, this decision often entails ________ one's own contributions to joint projects. Moreover, this tendency arises from
A) overestimating; self-enhancement motives
B) overestimating; the availability heuristic
C) underestimating; self-enhancement motives
D) underestimating; the availability heuristic
Q3) You think of Jan as a very introverted person. The confirmation bias predicts that you will
A) look for examples of introverted behaviors in Jan.
B) look for examples of extroverted behaviors in Jan.
C) be likely to form a strong relationship with her.
Page 6
D) be unlikely to form a strong relationship with her.
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Chapter 5: Social Attribution: Explaining Behavior
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Q1) Someone with an optimistic explanatory style is likely to make which types of attributions for success?
A) internal, stable, specific
B) internal, stable, global
C) internal, unstable, global
D) external, unstable, specific
Q2) The self-serving bias tends to reflect all of the following EXCEPT
A) the motivation to feel good about oneself.
B) rational thought processes.
C) sound attributional reasoning.
D) the motivation to be in control.
Q3) Hannah and Damian disagree on the cause of Damian's recent automobile accident. Describe how the actor-observer difference might explain the disagreement between the two.
Q4) What is the just world hypothesis? In addition, explain how this hypothesis is relevant to the fundamental attribution error.
Q5) Why is it inaccurate to say that people from interdependent cultures do NOT commit the fundamental attribution error?
Q6) Compare and contrast the discounting and augmentation principles.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Emotion
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Q1) Which of the following approaches to understanding emotion assumes that the components of emotion allow adaptive responses to threats to survival?
A) the physiological approach
B) the evolutionary approach
C) the interdependent approach
D) the cultural approach
Q2) Steve is undergoing a medical procedure that only takes twenty minutes but will be very painful at the end. Deborah is undergoing a medical procedure that takes over two hours and will be very painful at the beginning, but the pain tapers off over the rest of the time. Afterward, which one will remember experiencing more pain?
A) Deborah will remember more pain, because her procedure lasted longer.
B) Steve will remember more pain, because his procedure was more painful at the end.
C) Steve and Deborah will remember equal amounts of pain.
D) Pain memory is impossible to predict.
Q3) Describe the four components of emotional intelligence and give an example of each.
Q4) Give two examples of how emotions can influence moral judgments.
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Chapter 7: Attitudes, Behavior, and Rationalization
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Q1) Lucy's family is poor. Although they wish they were more prosperous, they take comfort in the love and support they provide to each other and consider themselves quite happy. As a result, Lucy's family does not endorse proposed changes to the laws that would provide them with better health insurance. Their behavior can be explained by ________ theory.
A) self-perception
B) self-affirmation
C) system-justification
D) balance
Q2) What are self-affirmations and how can they be used to ward off cognitive dissonance?
Q3) According to what you learned in this chapter, ________ attitudes tend to be stronger than ________ attitudes.
A) new; old
B) old; new
C) negative; positive
D) positive; negative
Q4) In what ways does self-perception theory fall short in explaining the relationship between attitudes and behaviors?
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Chapter 8: Persuasion
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Q1) ________ exemplifies a message characteristic, whereas ________ exemplifies a source characteristic.
A) The credibility of a communicator; the attractiveness of a communicator
B) A logical argument; the content of a speech
C) The content of a speech; the credibility of a communicator
D) The attractiveness of a communicator; a logical argument
Q2) Define the concept of embodiment and give one example of how it can influence persuasion.
Q3) To what extent can subliminal messages influence people's attitudes and behavior?
Describe two studies that address this question.
Q4) Bill views himself as a Democrat. He is watching a television broadcast of a debate between two congressmen, a Republican and a Democrat. His roommate starts to vacuum the apartment. Bill asks his roommate to shut off the vacuum only when the Democrat is speaking. This scenario illustrates ________ in action.
A) peripheral processing
B) attitude inoculation
C) attentional bias
D) attitude reactance
Q5) Give three examples of how the media can shape our conception of social reality.
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Chapter 9: Social Influence
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Q1) Describe three specific strategies a person could use to resist social influence in a situation where he or she has a minority opinion.
Q2) Drawing on research described in the textbook, evaluate the claim that women conform more than men. Be sure to address the role of situational factors.
Q3) In the original Milgram experiment, participants found themselves in an agonizing conflict. Forces compelling them to complete the experiment included all of the following EXCEPT
A) advancing science.
B) avoiding the experimenter's disapproval.
C) a sense of fair play.
D) feeling empathy for the victim.
Q4) Imagine that you are developing an antilittering billboard. One of the members of your team suggests that the billboard should include statistics about the high prevalence of littering in order to convince people that it is a major problem. Drawing on your knowledge of descriptive and prescriptive norms, explain why this may not work and propose a more effective alternative.
Q5) Define conformity, compliance, and obedience and provide an example of each.
Q6) Describe the phenomenon of automatic mimicry and give two reasons why it occurs.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Relationships and Attraction
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Q1) In a study conducted by Art Aron and his colleagues, married couples engaged in one of two tasks: either they were tied together with Velcro and required to move a soft ball positioned between their heads across a long mat, or they each had to push a ball on their own across the mat with a stick. Couples in the first condition reported higher marital satisfaction after completing the task compared to couples in the second condition. How did the researchers interpret these results?
A) The first task encouraged participants to capitalize on the good in their relationship. B) The first task made couples physically closer, which led them to feel psychologically closer.
C) The first task was more arousing, leading to a misattribution of arousal to feelings about one's partner.
D) The first task was more challenging, leading couples to feel more pride after completing it.
Q2) Describe three positive behaviors that can strengthen romantic relationships and give an example of each.
Q3) Explain Caryl Rusbult's investment model of commitment and describe how each of the three determinants influences commitment.
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Chapter 11: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
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Q1) Based on the results of the Robbers Cave experiment, which of the following environments is most likely to foster cohesion across racial groups, and why?
A) low SES neighborhoods, because resources are scarce
B) the US military, because soldiers cooperate to accomplish the shared goal of defending the nation
C) Online social media users, because they feel more distanced from their racial identities.
D) college campuses, because curved grading can create competition among students
Q2) The ________ test has been shown to reveal unconscious prejudices of people who say they advocate universal equality for all groups.
A) implicit association
B) draw-a-person
C) internal attitudes
D) true beliefs
Q3) Evaluate the claim that positive stereotypes such as "Asians are good at math" are not harmful. Describe research presented in the textbook to support your arguments.
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Chapter 12: Groups
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Q1) Several military officials meet to plan battle strategy. Captain Biggs thinks that General Olsen's strategy will be ineffective and deadly for American soldiers, but Biggs does not speak out. He is worried that others will see him as an ignorant coward. Biggs's response in this situation best illustrates how the concept of ________ applies to groupthink.
A) social censure
B) intellectual isolation
C) self-awareness
D) self-censorship
Q2) Are decisions made in groups more likely to be risky or cautious? Justify your answer on the basis of social psychological research and theory.
Q3) Research on social ________ suggests that performance ________when novel tasks are performed in the presence of others.
A) facilitation; improves
B) facilitation; suffers
C) loafing; improves
D) loafing; suffers
Q4) Explain the role that physiological arousal plays in social facilitation and deindividuation.
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Chapter 13: Aggression
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Q1) Marcie is feeling as if her friends do not really like her, and she is imagining what her future would be like without any of her current friends. According to research on social rejection, how is Marcie likely to respond to someone who tries to cut in front of her in line at the cafeteria?
A) Marcie is more likely to be hostile to the person who cuts in front of her only if she knows the person, but not if the person is a stranger.
B) Marcie is more likely to respond passively, allowing the person to cut in front of her.
C) Marcie is more likely to respond in a friendly manner, seeking out a friendship with the person.
D) Marcie is more likely to be hostile toward the person who cuts in front of her.
Q2) When groups in conflict are able to communicate, they are more likely to A) become more aggressive if differences are not resolved.
B) reconcile and return to more peaceful relations.
C) overestimate the extremity of each other's attitudes.
D) dehumanize each other.
Q3) Describe two characteristics of rape-prone cultures.
Q4) Define culture of honor and describe its influence on aggression.
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Chapter 14: Altruism and Cooperation
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Q1) Daniel Batson has argued that there are three main motives for helping others. They are
A) reciprocity, kin selection, and social rewards.
B) social rewards, personal distress, and empathic concern.
C) sympathy, reputational advantages, and reciprocity.
D) personal distress, sympathy, and empathic concern.
Q2) Joseph Henrich and his colleagues (2001) recruited individuals from fifteen different small societies to play the ultimatum game. They found that individuals from cultures where people
A) are more competitive offered more money to the responder.
B) need to collaborate with others to survive offered more money to the responder.
C) are more independent offered more money to the responder.
D) are more altruistic offered more money to the responder.
Q3) Describe the procedure and results of the Good Samaritan study, and explain how it is an example of a situational determinant of altruism.
Q4) Define reputation and explain how knowledge of other people's reputations influences cooperation.
Q5) Describe the tit-for-tat strategy and evaluate its effectiveness.
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Chapter 15: Application Module-Social Psychology and Health
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Q1) Gabriel is experiencing psychosocial stress during a job interview. Which area of Gabriel's brain is responsible for initially processing information related to this threat?
A) the amygdala
B) the basal ganglia
C) the fusiform gyrus
D) the pineal gland
Q2) Supporting and connecting with others ________ oxytocin, which in turn ________ cortisol levels.
A) increases; decreases
B) decreases; decreases
C) increases; increases
D) decreases, increases
Q3) Explain how rumination may contribute to chronic stress and then describe one way that rumination can be reduced.
Q4) Explain how differences in the social and physical environments of upper- and lower-SES neighborhoods can contribute to health disparities.
Q5) Describe research that supports the role of perceived control in promoting good physical health.
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Chapter 16: Application Module- Social Psychology and Personal Finance
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Q1) Challenge the long-held assumption that people make rational financial decisions. Provide two pieces of evidence in support of your position.
Q2) Risk aversion is the
A) general human tendency to stay away from activities that are dangerous, even if they may be fun.
B) reluctance to choose an uncertain option that, on average, pays better than the certain payoff of a second option.
C) reluctance to enter into any transaction in which the outcome is not known with certainty.
D) tendency to seek out activities that are mildly dangerous but thrilling.
Q3) Describe three things a young person should consider when planning his or her financial future.
Q4) Define sunk cost fallacy and describe one research finding that demonstrates this phenomenon.
Q5) Explain what is meant by mental accounting and describe the disadvantages of mental accounting for financial decision making.
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Chapter 17: Application Module- Social Psychology and Education
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Q1) Javier and Greg have always abstained from alcohol on moral grounds. One day they read about research showing that people who drink a moderate amount of alcohol have a lower risk of heart disease. If Javier is majoring in psychology, and Greg is majoring in engineering, how might their responses to this research differ?
A) Javier is more likely than Greg to recognize that the research findings are correlational and therefore do not establish causation.
B) Javier is more likely than Greg to be concerned that the research findings suggest they may be at risk for heart disease.
C) Javier is more likely than Greg to discount the results as pseudoscience.
D) Javier is more likely than Greg to start drinking in moderation.
Q2) Entertainment-education is based on the work of the learning theorist
A) B. F. Skinner.
B) Nathan Aaronson.
C) Albert Bandura.
D) Philip Zimbardo.
Q3) How do incremental and entity theories of intelligence differ? How can a person's theory of intelligence impact his or her behavior?
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Chapter 18: Application Module- Social Psychology and the Law
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Q1) Sheila, an attorney, worries that she will be unable to pick good jurors. Instead, she hires a specialist to conduct surveys and compile statistics on what demographic qualities of jurors might predict support for her client. Sheila is using ________ to pick her jury.
A) scientific jury selection
B) peremptory challenges
C) logic
D) partiality testing
Q2) All of the following are true of death-qualified jurors EXCEPT they are more A) concerned about crime.
B) skeptical of civil liberties that protect the rights of the accused.
C) likely to convict the suspect.
D) distrusting of police.
Q3) In cases in which defendants are convicted and later proved innocent by DNA tests, as many as ________ had falsely confessed to the crime.
A) one-half
B) one-quarter
C) three-fourths
D) one-fifth
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