Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sue is NOT a big football fan, but during the World Cup, she watches every single game of her country playing. She is very proud when they win but experiences negative affect when they lose. What theory best describes her feelings?

  1. social constructivism
  2. schema theory
  3. social identity theory
  4. role theory

Answer: C

2. When Helen goes to work, she puts on her uniform and takes her gun from the locked cabinet. From there on, she manages the day as a confident, strong and hard-working police officer. When she comes home in the evenings and on the weekends, she focusses on being a mother, being calm and warm and responsible for her children. What theory best describes this change?

  1. role theory
  2. dramaturgical analogy
  3. social identity theory
  4. identity forming theory

Answer: A

3. What have humanistic and phenomenological approaches been criticized for?

  1. focussing too much on cognitive processes involved in forming perceptions of the self
  2. missing the wider social and cultural contexts that influence experiences and identities
  3. neglecting to include personal experiences and perceptions that influence how we form our identity
  4. focussing too much on past experiences and how they tend to shape our perception of identity

Answer: B

4. Why are schemas described as shortcuts?

  1. because people make use of them when there is not enough information available
  2. because they provide us with a quick way to incorporate new information into already existing views about the world
  3. because they are seen as a way to engage in social interaction when not much time is available
  4. because they mean a quick way to store knowledge in long-term memory

Answer: B

5. How many identities do we believe people have?

  1. only one single one that is fixed over the lifespan
  2. many different ones depending on the context a person is in
  3. both of the above are possible
  4. depends on peoples’ life styles as they determine our identities

Answer: B

6. What are unconscious defence mechanisms?

  1. defending our own identity when we feel it threatened by others
  2. defending our social in-group from threats from out-groups
  3. coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from negative impulses that we are not aware of
  4. coping with present threats from out-group members by unconsciously praising one’s own identity

Answer: C

7. What is the best way to describe schemas?

  1. ways of organizing concepts or knowledge about the world, which then affect how we adopt new knowledge or use new knowledge to accommodate new experiences automatically
  2. a way of storing information
  3. the way in which people perceive and process the world in order to make sense of it
  4. a way of organizing and structuring social categories

Answer: A

8. Tom is a 30-year-old businessman who, in his free time, outside of the office and only when he is NOT with colleagues, likes to put on women’s clothes and make-up and acts in a very feminine way. What gender identity does Tom most likely perform within his work environment?

  1. one of a woman
  2. one of a man
  3. a mixture between the two
  4. there is no such thing as gender identity, as Tom is biologically a man, that is how he behaves around work settings

Answer: B

9. Thinking about social media, what could most likely mean a threat to self-identity?

  1. setting your profile to private
  2. revealing information about your hometown
  3. changing your profile picture
  4. being tagged in a picture

Answer: D

10. How do people most likely create an avatar for an online video game?

  1. chose an avatar that exactly resembles our social identity
  2. chose an avatar that is completely different to our social identity
  3. chose an avatar that resembles an extension of our social identity
  4. chose an avatar that resembles the social identity of someone we envy

Answer: C