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to Psy 3510 SyllabusFor a chapter-by-chapter quiz PLUS a variety of different exercises to help practice your understanding of the material, please go to the textbook student resources on Houghton Mifflin's website.
Also use your hard copy study guide, if you purchased this. You can purchase additional study materials from the textbook publisher.
I strongly recommend that you download Prof. Handelsman's PDF file entitled "How to Take This Course." You may access this on his website. He has compiled the best resource I have ever seen regarding effective study practices (or ESP!).
I also recommend that you consult USU's Academic Resource Center, as well as consulting their resources regarding effective study habits.
To test your overall knowledge (across all chapters studied) and to gain an idea of the absolute minimum that you need to know, you can routinely take the MEGA practice test below. Heidi Eyre created this and it is a wonderful resource for you.
This MEGA test is designed to help you
review some of the basic concepts covered in class. It covers more of
the definitions of key concepts than the application of these
concepts. The actual tests will, in fact, test primarily application,
not definitions. So, this practice test is simply a springboard to
help you. Remember that this one practice test covers all of
the chapters covered this semester. The link to the answer key is at
the bottom of this page.
1. Social psychology is the
a. scientific study of the way that social groups are created, develop and change over time, and interact with each other.
b. discipline that examines how people's psychological make-up affects their behavior in applied, social settings.
c. scientific study of the way individuals think, feel, desire, and act in social situations.
d. systematic study of how and why individuals differ from one another in social situations.
2. Jean is a sociologist, Dan is an anthropologist, and Wendy is a social psychologist. Relative to that of Jean and Dan, Wendy's research is more likely to focus on
a. hypotheses.
b. theories.
c. groups.
d. individuals.
3. A serious disadvantage of correlational research is that it
a. cannot be used to determine whether a person's response to one variable predicts his or her response to another variable at some future time.
b. is often biased by cultural norms and preconceptions.
c. cannot demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship.
d. cannot be used to test scientific hypotheses.
4. For her study of attitudes toward women, Alexis asks people entering the supermarket in town to fill out an attitude survey. These subjects are a
a. random sample.
b. control group.
c. convenience sample.
d. representative sample.
5. Motivation that is driven be rewards and punishments is called
a. instrumental motivation.
b. behavioral motivation.
c. extrinsic motivation.
d. egoistic motivation.
6. People hold beliefs about themselves that guide the processing of self-relevant information. These beliefs are called
a. traits.
b. dispositions.
c. self-schemas.
d. prototypes.
7. Which of the following theories predicts that self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies?
a. self-complexity theory
b. self-verification theory
c. self-perception theory
d. self-awareness theory
8. A person who attempts to shape others' impressions in specific ways in order to gain power, influence, sympathy, or approval is said to be engaged in
a. social comparison.
b. normative approval.
c. strategic self-presentation.
d. the egocentric bias.
9. Compared to high self-monitors, low self-monitors are more likely to
a. gather information about others.
b. maintain consistency in behavior.
c. know the rules of appropriate action.
d. adjust their behavior to fit the setting.
10. Attribution theory is primarily concerned with the ways in which people
a. perceive nonverbal behavior.
b. influence others based on their expectations.
c. make errors in their decision making.
d. explain other people's behavior.
11. Yolandra observes Bernadette behave in a particular way. If Yolandra uses correspondent inference theory to decide whether or not Bernadette's behavior corresponds to her disposition, which of the following factors should have been least relevant to her decision?
a. the degree of choice Bernadette had in behaving as she did
b. the expectedness of Bernadette's behavior
c. whether Yolandra used summation or averaging to integrate the behavioral information
d. whether Yolandra thought that Bernadette intended her behavior to have desirable consequences
12. The actor-observer effect refers to people's tendency to
a. act differently as a function of who is observing them.
b. attribute their own behavior to situational causes and others' behavior to personal factors.
c. make idiosyncratic attributions when the distinction between someone's actions and true dispositions becomes salient.
d. focus on the situations of observers but on the actions of actors.
13. Implicit stereotyping may be adaptive inasmuch as it
a. derogates others.
b. leads to accurate perceptions.
c. frees up cognitive resources.
d. creates self-fulfilling prophecies.
14. Intergroup conflict involving two groups that are competing and displaying animosity can be remedied through
a. intense negotiation.
b. controlled processing.
c. informal communication.
d. cooperative work on superordinate goals.
15. The tendency to discriminate in favor of ingroups over outgroups is called
a. social categorization.
b. relative deprivation.
c. ingroup favoritism.
d. gender orientation.
16. One noteworthy feature of gender stereotypes is that they influence people's reactions to others starting
a. at birth.
b. in childhood.
c. at puberty.
d. in adulthood.
17. People in a positive mood are
a. less likely to help others.
b. more likely to help others.
c. neither more nor less likely to help others.
d. more likely to help family members but not other people.
18. Barbara is in a good mood because she just got an A on her social psychology exam. When her roommate asks her for help with her English assignment, she gladly agrees. Barbara most likely helps her roommate because
a. she is afraid her roommate might get mad.
b. she is a genuinely helpful person.
c. she is overcome by the situation.
d. her good mood has led to positive thoughts about helping.
19. Upon hearing about a family who lost all of their possessions in a fire, Janet imagines what it would be like if the fire had struck her own family. On behalf of the victims she is likely to feel
a. compassion, sympathy, and tenderness.
b. upset, alarmed, and troubled.
c. guilty, confused, and distraught.
d. angry, agitated, and alarmed.
20. People are least likely to help a victim when the latter's difficulties are attributable to
a. controllable factors.
b. kinship selection.
c. pluralistic ignorance.
d. audience inhibition.
21. The phenomenon whereby one group member assumes that the reason for his or her own behavior is different from the reason other group members are acting in the same way is called
a. pluralistic ignorance.
b. confusion of responsibility.
c. diffusion of responsibility.
d. bystander calculus.
22. The critical characteristic of emotional aggression is that the aggressor
a. has previously been frustrated by someone or something.
b. acts impulsively rather than with thought or deliberation.
c. experiences hostility, anger, or some other strong emotion.
d. inflicts harm for its own sake rather than as a means to an end.
23. The proposition that frustration always elicits a motive to aggress is a critical argument of the
a. negative affect theory.
b. frustration-aggression hypothesis.
c. arousal-affect model.
d. excitation-transfer model.
24. The concept of catharsis has been undermined by findings suggesting that engaging in or witnessing aggression often
a. reduces the likelihood of cultivation.
b. produces displacement.
c. causes habituation.
d. chips away at restraints against aggression.
25. In which of the following processes is the intensity rather than the type of emotion emphasized as a cause of aggression?
a. excitation transfer
b. social learning
c. cognitive neoassociation
d. negative affect escape
26. Research has shown that repeated exposure to nonviolent pornography leads to an increase in
a. restraints against violent behavior.
b. negative attitudes toward women.
c. aggression toward same-sex partners.
d. physiological arousal.
27. Conformity, compliance, and obedience differ mainly in terms of the
a. degree of pressure on the individual.
b. target of influence.
c. extent to which the influence is directed at a single person or group.
d. nature of the individual's behavior.
28. A change in behavior elicited by direct requests is called
a. reactance.
b. compliance.
c. obedience.
d. conversion.
29. The unspoken rule dictating that we should treat others as they have treated us is called the
a. social impact theory.
b. norm of reciprocity.
c. dual-process approach.
d. equity principle.
30. One explanation for the effectiveness of low-balling is that it's based on the psychology of
a. conformity.
b. commitment.
c. salience.
d. vigilance.
31. Which of the following statements is not accurate regarding Milgram's research on destructive obedience?
a. Women tended to obey and to give the maximum number and intensity of shocks as frequently as men did.
b. Most subjects did not question the experimenter but instead obeyed without hesitation.
c. Even when the experimenter was not physically present in the room with the subjects, about one in five subjects obeyed fully.
d. In a condition requiring subjects to physically grasp the learner's hand and force it onto a metal shock plate, about 30 percent obeyed fully.
32. The idea that social influence depends on the strength, immediacy, and number of source persons relative to target persons is most consistent with
a. the foot-in-the-door technique.
b. the law of diminishing returns.
c. social impact theory.
d. authoritarian personalities.
33. Horace really likes cars, has bought a lot of cars, and thinks about cars all the time. His attitude toward cars seems to correspond with the
a. functional approach to attitudes.
b. tricomponent view.
c. theory of planned behavior.
d. attitude processing model.
34. An attitude is stronger and more predictive of behavior when it is based on
a. social norms.
b. cultural values.
c. philosophical issues.
d. personal experience.
35. The process of thinking about and scrutinizing the arguments contained in a persuasive communication is called
a. elaboration.
b. dissonance.
c. reactance.
d. heuristics.
36. The peripheral route to persuasion is more likely to be chosen than the central route when the
a. source speaks clearly.
b. message is important.
c. audience is distracted.
d. audience is interested.
37. Messages presented first may seem more persuasive than equivalent messages presented last because of the
a. sleeper effect.
b. recency effect.
c. primacy effect.
d. elaboration effect.
38. In theory, people who are high in the need for cognition are most likely to be persuaded by a message that is
a. information oriented.
b. fear arousing.
c. self-affirming.
d. one-sided.
39. An unpleasant psychological state often aroused when people hold two conflicting cognitions is called
a. cognitive dissonance.
b. attitudinal ambivalence.
c. functional inconsistency.
d. self-persuasion.
40. A condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward is called
a. a need for cognition.
b. psychological inoculation.
c. insufficient justification.
d. insufficient deterrence.
41. The idea that change is motivated by threats to the self is most consistent with
a. dissonance theory.
b. self-perception.
c. impression management theory.
d. self-affirmation theory.
42. In the second step of Zajonc's model of social facilitation, increased arousal enhances a person's tendency to perform a(n)
a. dominant response.
b. superordinate goal.
c. integrative agreement.
d. social dilemma.
43. Zajonc's model of social faciliation predicts that the presence of others impairs performance on
a. well-learned tasks.
b. complex tasks.
c. simple tasks.
d. familiar tasks.
44. Social loafing can be reduced or eliminated in situations where people think that their contributions are
a. identifiable.
b. redundant.
c. additive.
d. minimal.
45. People in crowds seem to lose their sense of
a. consciousness.
b. direction.
c. identity.
d. facilitation.
46. A pressure exerted on a group that pushes its members closer together can be described as
a. adhesiveness.
b. a value.
c. cohesiveness.
d. a leadership style.
47. The exaggeration, through group discussion, of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members is called
a. idea brainstorming.
b. social monitoring.
c. social facilitation.
d. group polarization.
48. According to Janis, another symptom of groupthink is
a. integration.
b. creative thinking.
c. egalitarianism.
d. pressure for uniformity.
49. In which of the following tasks is the group product determined by the group member with the best individual performance?
a. an additive task
b. a conjunctive task
c. a disjunctive task
d. a collective task
50. A strategy for the unilateral, persistent pursuit of trust and cooperation in a dispute is called
a. PDG.
b. GRIT.
c. groupthink.
d. entrapment.
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to Psy 3510 Syllabus© Copyright 2005 Tamara J Ferguson (with kudos and thanks to Heidi Eyre!)
Send e-mail comments regarding this site to: fatamara@cc.usu.edu