DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO BY THE CHIEF INVIGILATOR

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1 THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX C8035 BSc SECOND YEAR EXAMINATION 2015 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY SAMPLE PAPER XX 2015 DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO BY THE CHIEF INVIGILATOR INSTRUCTIONS Answer ALL parts of Section A and TWO further questions from Section B. Section A carries 40% and Section B carries 60% of the marks. Time allowed: 2 hours SECTION A The answers to this section, one to each question, should be marked on the answer sheet provided [40 multiple choice questions each with 4 alternatives] SECTION B Answer TWO questions from this section in the answer books provided. Please use a separate answer book for each essay question. [8 choices of essay question] 1. Do not write your name on the question paper or answer sheet/book. 2. Do not tear off any part of this question paper. 3. At the end of the examination the question paper and answer sheet/book, used or unused, will be collected from you before you leave the examination room.

2 SECTION A One answer to each question should be marked on the answer sheet provided 1. The Prisoners' Dilemma is an example of: a) Free riding b) A social dilemma c) A solution to a social dilemma d) The opposite of a social dilemma 2. Hardin s Tragedy of the Commons scenario is concerned with a problem of: a) Ambivalent attitudes b) Finite resources c) Multiple identities d) Collective guilt 3. In the Snyder and Swann (1978) behavioural confirmation study, did the 'labelling perceivers' in fact: a) Act more aggressively towards the target who was expected to be aggressive b) Act less aggressively towards the target who was expected to be aggressive b) Expect the labelled target to achieve higher IQ gains c) Expect the labelled target to achieve no IQ gains 4. What has, according to an eminent social psychologist, been treated like a rude bastard relative at a family gathering? a) Downward comparison b) Impression management c) Civility d) Stereotyping 2 /Turn over

3 5. Why is it generally felt that members of some societies might develop a stronger preference for dispositional explanations? a) Many western societies are characterized by a culture of individualism, and this makes people lean more towards understanding the actor than the situation b) Many western societies are characterized by a culture of collectivism, and this makes people lean more towards understanding the situation than the actor c) Many non-western societies are characterized by a culture of individualism, and this makes people lean more towards understanding the actor than the situation d) Many non-western societies are characterized by a culture of collectivism, and this makes people lean more towards understanding the situation than the actor 6. In Heider s (1948) balance theory, which of the following would represent an unbalanced triad? a) Agreeing with someone you like b) Agreeing with someone you dislike c) Disagreeing with someone you dislike d) Agreeing with a friend of a friend 7. In Festinger and Carlsmith s (1959) study on induced compliance, which participants rated the experimental tasks as the most interesting in the postexperimental interviews? a) Participants who had been offered $1 to describe the task in negative terms b) Participants who had been offered $20 to describe the task in negative terms c) Participants who had been offered $1 to describe the task in positive terms d) Participants who had been offered $20 to describe the task in positive terms 3 /Turn over

4 8. Completing a task which requires self-control may make it: a) Easier to self-regulate on a following task b) Harder to self-regulate on a following task c) Impossible to self-regulate on a following task d) Neither easier nor harder to self-regulate on a following task 9. You decide to train for a marathon, and for a month you force yourself to get up at 6am every day to go running. At the end of the month, you notice that you have also been more successful recently at resisting the temptation to eat junk food. How would the strength model explain this: a) Succeeding at a goal has increased your self-efficacy b) Practicing self-control has increased your self-control resources c) Forming a goal has increased your motivation to overcome obstacles d) Similar goals facilitate each other 10. You are in a bad mood. A friend asks you about your week, and all the things that come to mind are negative. Which theory provides the simplest explanation for this? a) Bower s network theory b) Forgas affect infusion model c) Schwarz s feelings as information model d) Van Kleef s emotions as social information model 11. According to Ajzen and Fishbein (1977), measures of attitude and behaviour need to correspond in four key ways. But which of the following is NOT one of these? a) Action b) Content c) Target d) Time 4 /Turn over

5 12. According to Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value approach: a) An attitude towards an object is described as the sum of 'expectancy + value' products b) Beliefs range from -3 to +3 in strength, and evaluations range from 0 to 1 in strength c) Expectancies are beliefs that the object possesses a certain attribute d) All beliefs (salient and non-salient) count towards the overall attitude 13. Which of the following makes heuristic processing of a message more likely? a) Good knowledge of the subject area b) A clear message c) Low personal interest d) High need for cognition 14. Which of the following phrases does NOT correctly describe systematic processing? a) It is thorough b) It is heuristic c) It relies on ability d) It relies on effort 15. Which of the following would suggest that a person has low implicit self-esteem? a) They associate positive words more quickly than negative words with the self b) They associate negative words more quickly with the self than with others c) They show a greater than average liking for letters that are in their name d) They show a cautious style of self-presentation 5 /Turn over

6 16. When Strauman et al. (1993) primed dysphoric patients with content from their ideal selves, what did they find? a) Participants showed increased levels of anxiety but no change in cortisol levels b) Participants showed increased levels of anxiety and higher cortisol levels c) Participants showed no change in anxiety but increased cortisol levels d) Participants showed increased levels of dysphoria and reduced natural killer cell activity 17. Which of the following claims was made by Taylor and Brown (1994)? a) Positive illusions are necessary for mental health b) Positive illusions foster happiness and growth c) All positive illusions are a good thing d) Positive illusions can sometimes cure people of illnesses 18. Which of these statements about conformity is correct? a) The more members of the majority there are, the more dramatically conformity increases b) Genuine social support has a stronger influence over conformity than does broken unanimity c) Group size has a greater impact on conformity than any other moderator of group influence d) People in Western cultures find greater acceptance of others' judgements than those in Eastern cultures 19. According to Moscovici (1976, 1980), what process of influence do minorities induce? a) Validation b) Conversion c) Compliance d) Comparison 6 /Turn over

7 20. Below are three strongly-held views over which source condition (minority or majority) elicits the highest cognitive scrutiny of a message. But which one have studies shown to be correct? a) "Superior message processing is associated with a minority." b) "Superior message processing is associated with a majority." c) "Both a majority and minority can lead to superior message processing under different conditions." d) None of these 21. In Gottman and Levenson s study of married couples social interactions, what was the strongest predictor of divorce? a) Criticism b) Contempt c) Anger d) Infidelity 22. At what age do children reach an understanding of pride? a) 3-4 b) 5-6 c) 7-9 d) Self-categorisation theory suggests that social category salience is a function of: a) Fit x perceiver readiness b) Perceiver readiness x accessibility c) Identification x normative fit d) Identification x comparative fit 7 /Turn over

8 24. In Reicher s study of the St Pauls riot, which of the following were typically targeted by the crowd? a) Anything (they were indiscriminate) b) Local houses c) The police d) Fans of a rival football team 25. A cognitive miser is a person who: a) Hoards good ideas that should be shared with others b) Gives little time to thinking about personal matters c) Is good at disguising thoughts from other people d) Uses little effort in making judgments about other people 26. Being in a good mood does not reduce our, but reduces our. a) Motivation to do hard cognitive work, incentive for doing hard cognitive work b) Incentive to do hard cognitive work, motivation for doing hard cognitive work c) Motivation to do hard cognitive work, capacity for doing hard cognitive work d) Capacity to do hard cognitive work, motivation for doing hard cognitive work 27. Prejudice is: a) The affective component of an attitude b) A genetically-controlled emotional response to people c) A belief usually acquired by contact with the attitude object d) A pre-judgement based on a persons group membership 8 /Turn over

9 28. Which stereotype-participant combination is likely to result in the weakest rebound effect? a) Skinheads stereotype; High prejudice participant b) Gay stereotype; Low prejudice participant c) Skinheads stereotype; Low prejudice participant d) Gay stereotype; High prejudice participant 29. Which of the conditions below is MOST likely to produce stereotype change following the bookkeeping model? a) Disconfirming information is concentrated on a few atypical group members b) Disconfirming information is concentrated on a few typical group members c) Disconfirming information is dispersed across many typical group members d) The stereotype is dramatically disconfirmed 30. According to social identity theory, which of the following strategies is LEAST likely to improve relations between social groups in an intergroup contact situation? a) Providing information about similarities between groups b) Providing information about differences between groups c) Acknowledging particpants group memberships d) Recategorising participants into a common group 31. Many findings suggest that intergroup contact improves attitudes among the people actually involved, but it does not generalise to the groups from which they were drawn. This is likely to follow from the fact that: a) Participants are affected by the acquiescent response bias b) Most intergroup contact is actually interpersonal contact c) Questionnaire measures are mostly used in this research d) An insufficient number of cross-cultural studies have been carried out 9 /Turn over

10 32. Which of the following is an example of using a derived etic approach to crosscultural research? a) Research that examines a single culture in its own terms b) Research that compares members of thirty cultures on a measure that has been well validated in one of the cultures c) Research that compares members of two cultures on a task that was developed jointly by researchers from both cultures d) None of the above 33. What is the ecological fallacy? a) Interpreting an individual-level finding as if it were at the ecological-level b) Interpreting an ecological-level finding as if it were at the individual level c) Failing to look after the environment d) Disbelief in global warming 34. According to Hofstede s findings, which of the following nations has the least individualistic culture a) USA b) Japan c) China d) Panama 35. Which of the following statements about the prevalence of independent and interdependent self-construals across cultures is most accurate? a) People in individualistic cultures always report independent selfconstruals b) People in individualistic cultures sometimes report interdependent selfconstruals c) People in collectivist cultures always report interdependent selfconstruals d) People in collectivist cultures always report independent self-construals 10 /Turn over

11 36. In Friesen s (1972) study of display rules, what was observed when participants of different nationalities watched a film about bodily mutilation on their own? a) US participants showed facial expressions of disgust, but Japanese participants did not. b) Japanese participants showed facial expressions of disgust, but US participants did not. c) Both US and Japanese participants showed facial expressions of disgust d) Neither US nor Japanese participants showed facial expressions of disgust. 37. According to Semin and Rubini, which of the following insults is especially likely to be used in a collectivist culture? a) You stupid idiot! b) Fuck off! c) You shithead! d) Your sister is a cow! 38. According to Inglehart and Baker (2000), how are people s values likely to change as their country shifts from a manufacturing to a service economy? a) There will be a shift from survival towards self-expression values b) There will be a shift from self-expression towards survival values c) There will be a shift from traditional towards secular-rational values d) There will be a shift from survival towards secular-rational values 39. What does the term ideal affect refer to? a) The affective states that are most common within a person s culture b) The affective states that people want to feel c) The affective states that are most consistent with how people usually feel d) The affective states that promote effective decision making in a given situation 11 /Turn over

12 40. Sam is negotiating a business contract with two companies, one in Japan and one in America. She is frustrated by their slow replies, and wonders whether to express her anger. What does previous research suggest about the effects of expressing anger in negotiations in these two cultures? a) Expressions of anger induce larger concessions from negotiators in both Western and East Asian cultures b) Expressions of anger induce smaller concessions from negotiators in Western cultures, but larger concessions from negotiators in East Asian cultures c) Expressions of anger induce smaller concessions from negotiators in East Asian cultures, but larger concessions from negotiators in Western cultures d) Expressions of anger induce smaller concessions from negotiators in both Western and East Asian cultures 12 /Turn over

13 Two answers from the following section should be written in the answer books provided. Please use a separate book for each question. SECTION B 41. Critically evaluate the role of the fundamental attribution error in social psychology. 42. When might attitudes be expected to predict behaviour and when might they not? 43. What is self-esteem, and why do people need it? Critically evaluate the evidence for at least two theoretical perspectives. 44. Discuss some of the reasons why people might fail at self-regulation, and consider how these might be overcome 45. Can conformity be explained as a function of normative and informational influence? 46. What contributions has the social cognition approach made to our understanding of prejudice? 47. Are love marriages always adaptive? Discuss with reference to cross-cultural studies of interpersonal attraction and relationship formation. 48. Why might an emotional experience be expressed and perceived differently across cultures? End of paper 13

14 Question number Answer 1 b 2 b 3 a 4 b 5 a 6 b 7 c 8 b 9 b 10 a 11 b 12 c 13 c 14 b 15 b 16 d 17 b 18 b 19 a 20 c 21 b 22 c 23 a 24 c 25 d 26 d 27 d 28 b 29 c 30 a 31 b 32 c 33 b 34 d 35 b 36 c 37 d 38 a 39 b 40 c Answers to Section A questions: 14