Question 1

Fritz is a social psychologist who specializes in studying the processes of social perception. Given this interest, Fritz is least likely to specialize in which of the following research questions?

Accepted Answer

A)   How do employers infer traits and abilities about job candidates based on observing their behavior in a job interview?
B)   How do police officers and customs agents make judgments concerning how truthful or deceptive particular individuals are?
C)   How are consumers influenced in their choices by the packaging and positioning of different products?
D)   How does the performance of athletes vary as a function of their coach's expectations about their ability and potential? C

Question 2

What should be the criterion for making an external or internal attribution about a person's behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)   Behavioral consensus
B)   Behavioral distinctiveness
C)   Behavioral consistency
D)   All of the above D

Question 3

What is the second step of the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Accepted Answer

A)   Target unwittingly adjusts behaviors to match the expectations of a perceiver.
B)   Perceiver's expectations affect their behavior toward the others.
C)   Objective source of information renders the perceiver's expectations to be valid or invalid.
D)   Perceiver has expectations of a target person. B

Question 4

Research on the impact of ideological motives on attribution indicates that a liberal is most likely to explain poverty as due to

Accepted Answer

A)   laziness.
B)   existing power authorities.
C)   personal characteristics.
D)   self-indulgence.

Question 5

What is trait negativity bias?

Accepted Answer

A)   The tendency for people to view others' traits more negatively than their own
B)   The tendency for moderately favorable traits to negatively impact the favorability of overall impressions
C)   The tendency for negative impressions to become more positive over time
D)   The tendency for negative trait information to have a greater impact on impressions

Question 6

Research has shown that the strength of first impressions is even greater for individuals who

Accepted Answer

A)   are high in need for closure.
B)   have not been primed.
C)   are in a bad mood.
D)   believe in a just world.

Question 7

While traveling around the world, Teun shows the pictures of men and women from his hometown who are smiling and frowning to various people. He asks those people to infer what emotions the individuals in the pictures are experiencing. According to the research on perceptions of primary emotions, Teun should find that

Accepted Answer

A)   perceptions of the emotions vary widely as a function of the people's culture.
B)   perceptions of the emotions are relatively consistent across most cultures.
C)   little can be inferred about the emotions unless the behaviors of the individuals in the pictures are also described.
D)   little is inferred about the emotions unless the situational contexts of the individuals in the pictures are also described.

Question 8

____ is the process by which one's expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.

Accepted Answer

A)   Representativeness heuristic
B)   Confirmation bias
C)   Self-fulfilling prophecy
D)   Base rate fallacy

Question 9

Which of the following statements best describes our current state of knowledge regarding social perception?

Accepted Answer

A)   People frequently make errors judging others and are rarely accurate in impression formation.
B)   People's perception and biases do not always result in inaccurate impression formation.
C)   People frequently exhibit bias in their perceptions of others. Such bias results in inaccurate impression formation.
D)   People infrequently exhibit bias and, as a result, rarely make errors in impression formation.

Question 10

In 1965, Jones and Davis suggested that people prefer to make internal attributions because

Accepted Answer

A)   internal attributions are perceived to be better for predicting behavior.
B)   internal attributions are faster.
C)   people don't like thinking about situational factors.
D)   internal attributions make the perceiver happy.

Question 11

The study of social perception addresses all of the following except

Accepted Answer

A)   how people explain and analyze the behavior of others.
B)   how people form coherent impressions of others.
C)   the strategies people use to create a positive self-image.
D)   the way that expectations can distort reality.

Question 12

Explain the information integration theory of impression formation, and describe at least two potential ways in which humans deviate from its proposed arithmetic.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain the information integration theory of impression...

Question 13

Denrell's (2005) explanation for the persistence of negative first impressions is that when we meet someone and we do not like them, we tend to avoid them, which allows the first impression to remain consistent. This notion is called

Accepted Answer

A)   biased experience sampling.
B)   the fundamental attribution error.
C)   the availability heuristic.
D)   mind perception.

Question 14

Britney wonders if she would have been happier had she married Justin instead of Kevin. This illustrates

Accepted Answer

A)   counterfactual thinking.
B)   t he fundamental attribution error.
C)   t he availability heuristic.
D)   f alse-consensus bias.

Question 15

Vito finished first in the school spelling bee, Fabrizio finished second, and Luigi finished third. The first-place winner gets a cash prize and the opportunity to compete at the regional spelling bee, but the others get nothing. Which of the following is most likely to occur?

Accepted Answer

A)   Fabrizio will engage in more counterfactual thinking than Luigi.
B)   Luigi will engage in more counterfactual thinking than Fabrizio.
C)   Fabrizio and Luigi will engage in counterfactual thinking to about the same extent, but more so than Vito.
D)   Fabrizio and Luigi will engage in counterfactual thinking to about the same extent, but less so than Vito.

Question 16

While watching a political debate on television, Martha, who describes herself as very conservative, is watching as the liberal candidate answers a question. When the candidate makes strong points that are backed up by logic, Martha rolls her eyes and doesn't say a word. When the candidate makes one minor error, Martha yells, "See I told you she doesn't know what she's talking about. All of those liberals are idiots!" Martha is demonstrating the

Accepted Answer

A)   need for closure.
B)   availability heuristic.
C)   self-serving bias.
D)   confirmation bias.

Question 17

What factor explains the influence of anchoring on judgments?

Accepted Answer

A)   Sufficient adjustment
B)   Plausibility
C)   Knowledge of anchor and target
D)   Biasness

Question 18

According to the two-step model of the attribution process, people make an

Accepted Answer

A)   automatic first step of weighing situational and personal attributions equally, and then an effortful second step of considering the initial inference.
B)   automatic first step of assuming person's behavior, and then an effortful second step of considering situational steps.
C)   effortful first step of weighing situational and personal attributions equally, and then an automatic second step of making a dispositional inference.
D)   automatic first step of making a situational attribution, and then an effortful second step of considering personal factors.

Question 19

What are the "primary emotions" and how are they perceived in different cultures around the planet?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the "primary emotions" and how...

Question 20

_______ is the trait that would produce the most extreme impression of a target.

Accepted Answer

A)   Honesty
B)   Cruelty
C)   Maturity
D)   Intelligence

Exam 4: Perceiving Persons