PSYC 140: CHAPTER 3

Research by Abbey (1998) found that _______ are likely to attribute a _______ friendliness to mild
sexual interest.

According to the text, many men assume women are flattered by repeated requests for dates which
women more often see as harassing. This is an example of

According to your text, people everywhere perceive mediators and media as

The theory that explains people's behavior by attributing it to internal dispositions or external
situations is called

A fellow student is consistently late for class. You assume this is because he is lazy and unorganized.
What type of attribution are you making for his behavior?

You are consistently late to your psychology class, because the biology class you have immediately
before it is in a building on the other side of campus. You are concerned that your professor does not
think you are a serious student because of your chronic tardiness. If this were true, what type of
attribution would your professor be making about your behavior?

You are consistently late to your psychology class, because the biology class you have immediately
before it is in a building on the other side of campus. You are concerned that your professor does not
think you are a serious student because of your chronic tardiness, so you inform her of why you are
always late. You can now safely conclude that your professor will make what type of attribution
about your behavior?

Your boss is always cranky. You assume this is because she is an unhappy person. What type of
attribution are you making to explain her behavior?

Your boss is always cranky. You assume this is because he has not had a raise in ten years. What
type of attribution are you making to explain his behavior?

Attributing behavior to a person's traits is an example of what type of attribution?

Attributing behavior to a person's environment is an example of what type of attribution?

According to the attribution theorist Kelley (1973), what three types of information do we use when
we make attributions for other people's behavior?

Misha is struggling with her computer. She is asked if she has difficulty using other computers on
campus. The answer to this question provides information about

Misha is struggling with her computer. She is asked if she usually encounters difficulty when using
her computer. The answer to this question provides information about

The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional
influences on other people's behavior is called the

After reading a newspaper article about teenagers who illegally download music from the Internet,
you conclude that those who engage in such behavior are morally bankrupt. It never occurs to you
that the reason teenagers download music from the Internet is because they are not able to afford the
price of a compact disc, or the temptation to download, coupled with the peer pressure to do so, is
often great. Your thinking on this matter can be characterized by the

Researchers had students read debaters' speeches either supporting or attacking Cuban leader Fidel
Castro. When the students were later told that each debater's position had been assigned, they

Your immediate recognition of your friends' face or her voice on the phone is an example of

Marcia thought that she would have enough time to write her paper after she bought groceries and
cleaned the house, but she ran out of time. This is an example of

Inferring that Cinderella is truly meek as she cowers in her oppressive home is an example of how we
often

Researchers randomly assigned participants to play the part of either a quiz game contestant or the
host, while other participants merely observed the game. Results indicated that

We tend to underestimate the situational determinants of others' behavior but not our own because we
observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves. This is known as the

What commands our attention as we shop for groceries each week is the environment around us, such
as the number of people in front of us at the checkout counter. Yet when we watch another person's
behavior at the grocery store, he or she, rather than the environment, occupies the center of our
attention. As a result, we tend to engage in the attribution error. That is we are irritable because the
lines are long, but the other person is cantankerous because he or she is an unhappy person. What
explanation below best explains this use of the fundamental attribution error?

In a study conducted by Lassiter and his colleagues (2002), participants observed a suspect
confessing during a police interview. The results indicated that participants were more likely to
perceive the confession as genuine when they viewed the confession

In a study conducted by Lassiter and his colleagues (2002), participants observed a suspect
confessing during a police interview. The results indicated that participants were more likely to
perceive the confession as coerced when they viewed the confession

According to the text, observers tend to attribute a person's behavior to _______ the more that time
passes.

According to a study by Burger and Pavelich (1994), voters were more likely to attribute the outcome
of an election to the _______ the day after a presidential election, and to the _______ a year after the
election.

Burger and Pavelich (1994) found that voters were more likely to attribute the outcome of an election
to the candidate's personal traits and positions the day after a presidential election, and to the nation's
economy a year after the election. This represents which of the following explanations for the
fundamental attribution error?

Overconfidence remains after mistaken judgments due to the belief that

Maureen does not seem to take responsibility for her actions (e.g., always creating excuses for
coming home past curfew and acting like a victim of teachers when it comes to bad grades). In order
for her to take responsibility for her behavior, she needs to become more

A self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself is called

People in Western cultures are more inclined to assume that others' behaviors

In _______ cultures, people are less likely to perceive others in terms of personal dispositions.

Those who make situational attributions regarding poverty and unemployment tend to adopt political
positions that

Those who make dispositional attributions regarding poverty and unemployment tend to adopt
political positions that

Fletcher and his colleagues (1986) found that psychology students explained behavior _______ than
similarly intelligent natural science students.

Sometimes the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true
survives. Social psychologists refer to this as

Researchers provided study participants with evidence that either risk-prone or cautious people make
better firefighters. When participants wrote an explanation for the findings, they were particularly
susceptible to

You have a tendency to assume someone is still a good friend even after a person acts
otherwise. This tendency is known as the

Despite reading numerous research studies that report the association of fast food consumption with
heart disease and diabetes, Rachel continues to eat fast food and thinks that it is harmless. Rachel's
thinking is an example of

Research has shown that explaining why an opposite theory may be true (e.g., why a cautious person
might be a better fire-fighter than a risk-taking person) _______ belief perseverance.

Researchers had students write essays opposing student control over university curricula. When
asked to recall how they had felt about the same issue a week earlier, most of the students

A researcher asks adult research participants to vividly imagine tripping at a dance recital as a child.
This incident never really occurred. Given past research, ______ of the participants will later recall
the event as something that actually happened.

Your summer vacation was perhaps not an overwhelmingly positive event, but during the finals week
of August, you remember it as being a fantastic time. This is an example of

According to a study by Myers (2004), people in psychotherapy and self-improvement programs who
showed only modest improvements claimed that they

While waiting to cross the street, you witness a man running a red light—causing a three-car
accident. Just after it happens, the man who ran the stoplight gets out of the car to talk to you. He
tells you that the light was yellow. Later you tell police that you remembered the light being yellow,
not red, when the man went through the intersection. This scenario illustrates.

Incorporating inaccurate information into one's memory of an event, after witnessing the event and
receiving misleading information about it is called

Activating particular associations in memory is called

To retrieve a memory of where your date told you she wanted to go for dinner tomorrow, you need to
activate one of the strands that leads to this memory, such as thinking about what types of food she
does and does not like. This process is known as

Explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious is called

"Implicit" thinking that is effortless, habitual and without awareness is called

Jumping out of your seat as a result of an unexpected scene in a movie is what type of thinking?

When trying to recall the definition of the fundamental attribution error during an exam, you think
back to what the professor was wearing when he was talking about the fundamental attribution error
in class. What type of thinking is this?

Your best friend is a master chess player, and has won numerous awards. When you play chess with
her, you notice that she seems to be aware of strategies almost immediately after your move. Her
awareness of these strategies reflects what type of thinking?

The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs is called the

You used to envy your brother because he was always so confident when talking to others. Yet the
older you become, the more you realize that your brother is more often convinced of things rather
than accurate about things. Your brother's behavior can be explained by the

Kruger and Dunning (1999) found that those students who scored lowest on tests of grammar and
logic were _______ to overestimating their grammar and logic skills

Each semester you repeatedly underestimate how long it will take you to complete a research paper
that is due at the end of the term. Your behavior is an example of the

Which of the following strategies might be helpful in reducing the overconfidence bias?

One reason people are overconfident is that they are not inclined to seek out information

When we are eager to seek information that verifies our beliefs but less inclined to seek evidence that
might disprove our beliefs, the _______ has occurred.

After 9/11, many people abandoned air travel because of the

Sharon typically watches televised news stations that support her existing political beliefs. She is less
inclined to watch the news on other stations, as it may disprove her preconceptions. Sharon's
approach illustrates the

Which of the following is a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments?

The process of judging something by comparing it to our mental representation of a category uses the
_____ heuristic.

The tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a
particular group because it resembles a typical member is referred to as the _______ heuristic

On the first day of class, we see a middle-aged man at the front of the room, talking to a younger
man. If we assume the older man is the professor and the younger man is the student, we are relying
on what heuristic?

Once during a hospital stay, you observed a man and a woman (both in health professional attire)
talking. You assumed that the man was a physician, and that the woman was a nurse. Later, you
found out the opposite was true. What type of heuristic did you use during your initial reaction to the
two individuals?

The cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory is
called the _____ heuristic.

Although travelers in the United States are more likely to die in an automobile crash than on a
commercial flight covering the same distance, people often assume that flying is more dangerous
than driving. What type of heuristic are people using when they make this assumption?

Assuming most crimes involve violence because the news generally reports on rapes, robberies and
beatings is an example of the _______ heuristic.

The tendency to imagine alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened but did not is
called

You did not study for your psychology exam. However, you imagine yourself earning a better grade
than the one you actually earned. This is an example of

After breaking up with your boyfriend, you imagine that you would still be with this person if you had treated him more considerately. This is an example of

76. The perception of a relationship where none actually exists, or the perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists, is called

Counterfactual thinking is more likely when

Thinking that our premonitions correlate with events represents

The idea that chance events are subject to our influence describes

Research on gambling has found that throwing the dice or spinning the wheel increases people's confidence. This illustrates the

The statistical tendency for extreme scores or behaviors to return toward average is called

Although you once earned a 100 on your physics exam, you have subsequently been unable to earn a
perfect score again. Your experience may be understood in terms of

Research on "mood infusion" found that participants' judgments of their own videotaped behaviors
were more positive if, while they watched the videotape, they were

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment is called

Research indicates that happy people

In a now-famous study, Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) found that randomly selected elementary school students experienced a spurt in IQ score largely as a result of

Murray and his colleagues (2003) found that among married couples, the self-fulfilling prophecy
occurred when one person interpreted slight hurts as rejections. The person who felt rejected was
then motivated to

You attend a party where you do not know anyone, but expect that people will be friendly. You
behave in a warm and sociable manner. Your behavior, in turn, leads to other people being friendly to
you. This situation can best be described as

Ridge and Reber (2002) conducted a study in which men were told that job candidates were attracted
to them. The findings revealed that the

According to research done by Miller and his colleagues (1975), if you want young children to put
trash in wastebaskets, you should repeatedly

Researchers had male students speak by telephone with women they thought were either attractive or
unattractive. When judges later analyzed the women's comments, they found that the

If you are told that someone you have never met is attracted to you, you will likely

When our expectations lead us to act in ways that induce others to confirm those expectations,
_______ is at work.

In a research study comparing the investment decisions of patients with or without emotion, which
group made the most profitable investment decisions?

Expectations can often predict behavior because

Researchers investigated the reduction of littering in three high school classrooms. Which class still
showed a reduction in littering two weeks after the study ended?