Social Psychology - Ch. 1

Front 1

The social psychological theory known as “social exchange theory” is based MOST obviously on which of the following other social sciences?

Back 1

Economics

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MOST social psychological research has been conducted in

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the U.S. and a few similar western European nations.

Front 3

Behaviorism seeks to explain human behavior in terms of

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learning principles such as rewards and punishments

Front 4

If a study is high in external validity, then

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the research situation physically resembles a real-world situation.

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When findings from a study are likely to generalize to other people and other settings, the study is said to have

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External validity

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Researchers tend to use quasi-experimental research designs when they are able to manipulate an independent variable but NOT able to

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use random assignment

Front 7

The idea that behavior is a function of both the person and the situation was proposed by _____ in the first half of the 20th century.

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Kurt Lewin

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In recent years, the line between social psychology and __________ has become especially blurred.

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Personality psychology

Front 9

According to the textbook, psychology can be thought of as a kind of "experimental philosophy" because psychology __________, but psychology relies on the experimental method.

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also grew out of the mathematical sciences

Front 10

Martin believes that his blue coat is warmer than his red coat. Ted thinks that he might want to have kids sometime in the next few years. Yesi remembers playing baseball with her friends as a child. These are all examples of

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cognitions

Front 11

Dr. Taylor is conducting a study to test the effect of a new drug on people's ability to concentrate at work. His research sample consists of 100 US adults. During a 14-week period, half of the sample is administered the drug and the other half is administered a placebo, and participants' concentration abilities are continually tracked. In the context of this study, if Dr. Taylor uses random assignment, it means that

Back 11

each research participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each level of the independent variable (e.g., the placebo group or the drug group).

Front 12

Dr. Tsuei is studying the effects of sleep deprivation on interpersonal skills. He is testing the interpersonal skills of 20-25 year-old males who have been sleep deprived for 24 hours, 36 hours, or 48 hours. In this study the dependent variable is

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the interpersonal skills of the research participants.

Front 13

Until recently, the relationship between developmental and social psychology was

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that developmental psychology tended to draw more on social psychology.

Front 14

Can correlational studies or experiments ever be conducted outside of the laboratory?

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Both correlational studies and experiments can be performed in the lab or in the "real world;" when experiments are performed in the "real world" they are called field experiments.

Front 15

Jackson is interested in the effects of violent movies on aggressive behavior. He has some participants in his study watch Grand Torino (his “violent” movie) and others watch Marley and Me (his “nonviolent”movie). Unfortunately, in addition to these movies being very different in their violence level, they also differ in a lot of other ways (one is a comedy, the other isn’t, and so forth). This means that Jackson’s study has a

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Confound

Front 16

Dr. Khanmohamed is conducting a research project with young children to examine the effect of exposure to different cultural groups on the development of empathy. The independent variable in this research is

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exposure to different cultural groups.

Front 17

Which of the following branches of psychology is MOST closely affiliated with social psychology?

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Personality psychology

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Social psychology is best defined as the study of

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how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by other people.

Front 19

Most social psychologists perform research by

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Conducting experiments

Front 20

According to the textbook, if you conduct a research study, write up all of the results in a paper, and submit the paper to a top academic journal, you have a __________ chance of getting your paper published.

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10-20%

Front 21

Suppose that a researcher decided to study everyday altruism towards men versus women by leaving (fake) fully addressed college applications in airport lobbies (identical except with male versus female applicant names), and then tracking the number of people who send in the application. What kind of study of this?

Back 21

A field experiment

Front 22

Replication is an important part of

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A self-correcting nature of science

Front 23

Zhao’s research interest is to determine if poverty causes one to be more politically liberal. However, he cannot randomly assign people to conditions of poverty versus wealth because (aside from the practical difficulty) it would be unethical to do so. Zhao will have to

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take a correlational approach.

Front 24

Dr. Zink and Dr. Vasquez are designing a new study. They have come up with a good hypothesis for the study, but they are having trouble thinking of operational definitions for their variables. In other words, they are concerned that their research might be low in

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construct validity

Front 25

You want to ask a friend to help you with the homecoming float your sorority is supposed to put together for a competition in the upcoming homecoming parade. You know that your friend is really reliable and trustworthy, but you also know that this next week (when the work has to be done) she is extremely swamped with the start of her internship and midterm exams. You decide not to ask her since she might be too busy to follow through. Knowing that your friend is reliable is an example of ____ information, and knowing she is busy is an example of ____ information, according to Kurt Lewin’s analysis of human behavior.

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person, situation

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Social psychologists typically derive __________ based on __________.

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hypotheses, theories

Front 27

In the context of research, an operational definition of a variable is a precise description of

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how the variable will be defined (i.e., how it will be manipulated or measured).

Front 28

Suppose that you are planning to conduct a study to look at the effect of pet ownership on empathy, but that you cannot find any good measures of empathy (all of the measures that you find seem to fall short of your understanding of what empathy is, or to miss the mark completely). Unless you can find a measure that you are satisfied with, your research may end up being low in

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construct validity of the effect.

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T/F
Consider the following study: Participants either perform a complex task in front of others or a simple task alone. The experimenter plans to examine the effects of task complexity and the presence of others on performance.

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T

Front 30

The effect of a single independent variable by itself, ignoring the effects of other independent variables, is called a(n)

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Main effect

Front 31

When a researcher conducts an experiment and is fairly certain that changes in the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable, that experiment is said to be high in

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internal validity

Front 32

Which of the following fields is NOT focused solely on what happens in the brain, nervous system, and other bodily processes?

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social neuroscience

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Compared to true experiments, MOST correlational studies are low in

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internal validity

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Compared to laboratory experiments, field experiments tend to be

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low in internal validity and high in external validity.

Front 35

During the first half of the 20th century, __ argued that attitudes were the most important and useful concept in social psychology.

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Gordon Allport

Front 36

Consider the following two American adages, which seem to contradict one another: "Birds of a feather flock together" and "opposites attract." The authors of the textbook would probably say that

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the contradiction is not surprising at all, since "common sense" theories are often poorly defined, and that most people would probably say that both of these things are true (if you asked them at different times).

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A study is said to have internal validity if the researcher can be relatively confident that

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changes in the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable.

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Dr. Otten studies the relationship between crime rates and childrearing practices. Dr. Otten is MOST likely

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a sociologist

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When an experiment includes more than one independent variable, it is a(n)

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factorial design

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T/F
Neuroscience is the field that integrates the study of social psychology and biological psychology.

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F

Front 41

"Applied researchers" are BEST defined as social scientists who

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focus on concrete problems—such as how to boost literacy rates or how to increase water conservation.

Front 42

Suppose that you conducted an experiment to test the effects of violence in TV shows on aggressiveness in children. The dependent variable in this study would be

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how aggressive the children were.

Front 43

The textbook discusses the "self-correcting nature of science" as it applies to social psychology. The idea here is that, over time, erroneous conclusions are revised appropriately, because

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most research in social psychology builds off of prior research relatively slowly and systematically.

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In social psychology, a "statistically significant" result is denoted by

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&μιχρο; > 0

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Xavier does a study in which he compares group brainstorming to individual brainstorming in face-to-face versus computer-mediated (i.e., chat room) communication conditions. He finds that groups are generally less productive at brainstorming than individuals, but that in chat room conditions that the difference is a lot less. The fact that the effect of group versus individual condition depends on which communication medium was used illustrates a(n)

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interaction effect.

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Following the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, social psychology’s focus on conflict

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emphasized racial/ethnic conflict.

Front 47

What is the main advantage of an experiment over a correlational study?

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The researcher is better able to draw conclusions about cause and effect.

Front 48

A literature review that averages together the statistical results from different studies conducted on the same topic is called a

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meta-analysis.

Front 49

If a study is high in internal validity, then the researcher can be fairly certain that changes in __________ were indeed due to changes in the __________.

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independent variable, dependent variable

Front 50

Dr. Hon is a researcher who studies methods for increasing condom usage among sexually active teens. Dr. Hon would probably be BEST described as

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an applied researcher

Front 51

Researchers often attempt to design studies that will be high in both experimental realism and mundane realism. However,

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experimental realism is generally considered to be far more important.

Front 52

When the effects of two variables cannot be separated, ___ has been said to occur.

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confounding

Front 53

Suppose that you are interested in knowing whether there are gender differences in suicide (i.e., whether one gender commits suicide more frequently than the other). The only way to study this precise question would be to conduct

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correlational research looking at archival data (existing data).

Front 54

With which of the following social sciences has social psychology had the LEAST interaction until recently?

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History

Front 55

What do we call the field that combines the interests of social and biological psychology?

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Social neuroscience

Front 56

True experiments have two key features that make them different from other studies. First, in a true experiment, the researcher manipulates (varies) one or more independent variables. Second, the researcher makes use of

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Random assignment

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If you conduct a study and predict that X causes Y, then X is the

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independent variable.

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T/F
Social psychology primarily relies on the experimental method.

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T

Front 59

Most social psychological research has been conducted in the U.S. and a few very similar nations. According to the textbook, how well do findings generalize to other cultures?

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It is not yet known; not enough research has been replicated cross-culturally.

Front 60

In recent years, __________ has emerged as an important subfield of social psychology that explores the ways in which people think about social situations.

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social cognition

Front 61

How are social psychologists generally similar to behaviorists?

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They both tend to favor experiments and the scientific method

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As a rule, social psychologists are primarily interested in

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normal adult human beings.

Front 63

In an experiment on the effects of communication on cooperation, researchers observed higher rates of cooperation if members got to communicate with each other prior to doing the cooperative task than if they were not allowed prior communication. This illustrates a(n) __ effect of communication on cooperation.

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main

Front 64

Which of the following topics is a personality psychologist MOST likely to study?

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Individual differences in leadership ability

Front 65

Suppose that a cereal manufacturer tried out a new cereal box design for a few months, and—during the same time period—notices that its sales have tripled. One of the cereal executives, Mr. Correl, boasts that the new cereal box must have sparked the increase in sales. But another executive, Mr. Scien, points out that the increase could be due to the new advertising campaign that the company is using, or to new distribution practices that have taken hold, or to the fact that more and more people are eating cereal these days. That is, Mr. Scien suggests that the company's "test" of the new cereal box design is low in

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internal validity

Front 66

There is a moderately strong, positive relationship between different forms of prejudice: People who are prejudiced against Group X also tend to be prejudiced against Group Y. Given this information, we should expect the correlation between anti-Jewish prejudice and anti-Asian prejudice to be about

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0.4

Front 67

Suppose that Roger holds a number of negative stereotypes about women; he thinks that most women are manipulative, vain, and lazy. In trying to understand why Roger holds these stereotypes, which of the following questions would a social psychologist be MOST likely to ask?

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Has Roger been exposed to these stereotypes in the media, or has he perhaps had a few limited (but negative) interactions with women that might have helped to perpetuate these stereotypes?

Front 68

If an experiment gets participants psychologically involved and engaged, but the setting does not resemble the real world, then the experiment would be said to be

Back 68

high in experimental realism and low in mundane realism.

Front 69

T/F
The term "experimental realism" refers to whether the physical setting of a research study resembles the "real world."

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F

Front 70

According to the textbook, social psychology's reliance on college student samples

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is an issue that deserves continued attention, but not necessarily a serious problem for most social psychological research.

Front 71

Many areas of study in social psychology evoke a lot of passion from the researchers invested in that arena. Although doing research to make the world a better place is great motivation, one of the hazards of this motive is that

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ideals and political beliefs may cloud scientific judgment.

Front 72

Although sociologists and social psychologists are both interested in group behavior, sociologists tend to focus on __________, whereas social psychologists tend to focus on __________.

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the group as a single unit, individual members within the group

Front 73

Which of the following research designs allows researchers the MOST control over the variables they are studying?

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Laboratory experiments

Front 74

An interaction effect refers to

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the joint effects of more than one independent variable

Front 75

Which of the following is the best example of "cognition"?

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Thinking that it is a good day to go to the beach

Front 76

In a __________, the researcher is able to manipulate an independent variable but NOT able to use random assignment.

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quasi-experiment

Front 77

Suppose that Ed just stole $50 from his parents. In trying to understand why Ed did this, which of the following questions would a social psychologist be MOST likely to ask?

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Does Ed have friends or other role models who are also stealing

Front 78

When psychologists talk about "cognitions," they are typically referring to

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thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes.

Front 79

If a researcher conducts an experiment in which the independent variable is poorly defined (i.e., has a poor operational definition), then the experiment can be said to have

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low construct validity of the cause.

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Correlation coefficients are statistics used to denote

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the strength of the relationship among three or more variables.

Front 81

Social scientists who focus on concrete problems—such as how to boost literacy rates in schools or how to increase energy conservation—are known as

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applied researchers.

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When trying to explain a person's behavior, the first place social psychologists tend to look is to

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the situation the person is in.

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T/F
Random assignment is one of the defining features of correlational research.

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F

Front 84

When social psychologist Kurt Lewin said that "there is nothing so practical as a good theory," he meant that

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although they may seem impractical, theories can be very important in helping to stimulate practical ideas and practical research.

Front 85

According to the textbook, what has the relationship between clinical psychology and social psychology been like historically?

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The two fields have historically exchanged ideas and viewpoints.

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At what point in the history of social psychology did social psychologists become interested in the biological aspects of social behavior?

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1990s

Front 87

Suppose that you are a research participant in a laboratory study that is looking at fear and social support. The researcher shows you an extremely scary movie and then asks you whether you feel like talking to anyone (and who) once the movie is over. Although you are in a laboratory setting the whole time, which does not resemble "real life" at all, you get very caught up in the procedures of the study and almost forget that you are in a study. Thus, in your experience, this study is

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high in experimental realism and low in mundane realism.

Front 88

Although the first social psychological experiments took place around 1900, social psychology did not begin to come into its own as a field until

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the 1950s and 1960s

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The scientific method used by social psychologists is

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conceptually the same as the scientific method used by clinical psychologists, biologists, and chemists.

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Kurt Lewin, a prominent early social psychologist, is famous for arguing that scientific theories—while they may seem impractical—can be extremely useful in helping to stimulate practical ideas and practical research. Lewin's famous quote to this effect is

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"there is nothing so practical as a good theory.

Front 91

Suppose that you are conducting an experiment to see whether receiving negative feedback from an authority figure will increase eating behavior. After writing an essay, half of your research participants are given negative feedback from a professor, and half are given encouraging feedback. All participants are then placed in a room with a large container of cookies and their eating behavior is observed. In this study, an operational definition for the dependent variable might be

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the number of cookies each participant ate.

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Most research in social psychology is based on Western European and Northern American samples, though some research has also been conducted in other areas of the world. Based on what is known to date, it appears to be reasonably safe to generalize social psychological research findings to the vast majority of

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people living in Western nations.

Front 93

Dr. Hurtado and Dr. Yashari have recently conducted a study and found a positive correlation between music-listening and dancing ability: People who listen to lots of music tend to be excellent dancers. The correlation is statistically significant. Can they conclude that listening to music causes people to be better dancers? Why or why not?

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No, because the evidence is correlational, not experimental.

Front 94

Mirena wants is interested in the effects of gender on aggression. She collects all the studies she can find that have been conducted on this topic, and averages their results to generate a big picture of what the findings in that area reveal. Mirena has conducted a

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meta-analysis.

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T/F
According to the textbook, human intuition is typically an excellent guide to understanding human behavior.

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F

Front 96

If an experiment does NOT get participants psychologically involved and engaged, even though the setting of the experiment closely resembles the real world physically, then the experiment would be said to be

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low in experimental realism but high in mundane realism

Front 97

Compared to personality psychologists, clinical psychologists, and even behaviorists, social psychologists are more likely to attempt to explain a person's behavior by looking to

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the immediate situation that the person is in

Front 98

Suppose that Dr. Brown conducts an experiment to examine the effects of mentorship programs on children's academic achievement. She finds that children who are given mentors receive significantly higher grades than children who aren't. The result is statistically significant at the .05 level. What does this mean?

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The finding probably did NOT occur by chance; mentorship programs probably DO really boost academic achievement.

Front 99

Mariah wants to study the effects of arousal and cost on helping behavior. She has two experimental conditions of high versus low arousal, and combines that with two experimental conditions with high and low cost of helping. This creates four possible conditions: high arousal/high cost, high arousal/low cost, low arousal/high cost, and low arousal/low cost. She then measures which condition results in the highest rate of helping behavior. Mariah has employed

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a factorial design

Front 100

While social psychologists are interested in a wide variety of topics, three themes that have become increasingly important during the last 30 years are

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social cognition, biological influences on behavior, and the self.

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T/F
Social psychology was in existence as a field roughly 100 years before Freudian psychoanalysis.

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F

Front 102

The top research journals in social psychology have substantial overlap, content-wise, with which of the following?

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personality psychology

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T/F
The two defining features of an experiment are control and random assignment.

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T

Front 104

One of the topics that has been of key interest to social psychologists during the last 30 years has been

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social cognition—concerned with how people think about other people and how people think about the social world in general.

Front 105

The main weakness with correlational research (as opposed to experimental research) is that

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researchers cannot draw conclusions about cause and effect.

Front 106

Which of the following topics would a cognitive psychologist be MOST likely to study?

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How people learn to memorize complex musical compositions

Front 107

Suppose that you are conducting a research project for a social psychology class. Due to the fact that you have no budget for the research, you are forced to rely on a college student population. How big of a problem is this in terms of your ability to later generalize your findings to other groups of people?

Back 107

It is an issue to pay attention to and take into consideration, but it is generally not a very serious problem unless you are studying certain topics (e.g., attitudes about aging or education).

Front 108

A correlation coefficient communicates two pieces of information about the relationship between two variables: The __________ communicates the direction of the relationship, and the __________ communicates the strength of the relationship.

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sign, value

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Social psychologists are generally similar to Freudian psychoanalysts in that they both

Back 109

have an interest in thoughts and feelings as well as behaviors.

Front 110

Laela is interested in studying how groups of which we are members influence our thinking and behavior. Which other social science (besides social psychology) will Laela’s work MOST closely intersect?

Back 110

Sociology

Front 111

Correlation coefficients are used to describe the relationship between two variables. They are usually denoted using the letter

Back 111

r

Front 112

Dr. Pow is interested in whether exposure to TV advertisements has a different impact on girls' self-image than it does on boys' self-image. To examine this question, she conducts a quasi-experiment. Why doesn't Dr. Pow conduct a true experiment instead?

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She cannot conduct a true experiment, because people cannot be randomly assigned to be "girls" or "boys."

Front 113

Which of the following would be the BEST operational definition for tiredness?

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The number of hours since one has last slept

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T/F
Social psychology has been more influenced by history than by any other social science.

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F

Front 115

Psychologists typically use a statistic called __________ to denote the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.

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a correlation coefficient

Front 116

In which of the following situations would Igor be MOST likely to experience reactance?

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He comes home and finds his older brother reading his journal—where he has written deep, dark secrets that he does not want anyone to see.

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If you conduct a study and predict that A causes B, then B is the

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dependent variable