Multiple Choice Quizzes

Take the quiz test your understanding of the key concepts covered in the chapter. Try testing yourself before you read the chapter to see where your strengths and weaknesses are, then test yourself again once you’ve read the chapter to see how well you’ve understood. 

1. In causal reasoning, when do we shift from more automatic processing to more thoughtful, controlled processing?

  1. When a result is unexpected
  2. When a result is negative
  3. When a result is ambiguous
  4. Both A and B

Answer:

d. Both A and B

2. When trying to attribute the reasons for another person’s actions, people most commonly implicate:

  1. The situation the person was in at the time of the action
  2. The person’s enduring situation
  3. The person’s disposition at the time of the action
  4. The person’s enduring disposition

Answer:

d. The person’s enduring disposition

3. Forming dispositional attributions about others tends to be:

  1. Uncontrollable
  2. Very fast
  3. Automatic
  4. Both B and C

Answer:

d. Both B and C

4. Why do people form attributions?

  1. They are motivated to predict future social events
  2. They are motivated to control future social events
  3. They are motivated to increase their own self-esteem
  4. Both A and B

Answer:

d. Both A and B

5. What did Heider mean by “commonsense psychology?”

  1. The thought processes involved in everyday judgments
  2. How people understand their own thought processes
  3. How people’s intuitions about psychology are most often correct
  4. None of the above

Answer:

b. How people understand their own thought processes

6. What factors go into a person’s capacity to complete an action?

  1. Ability
  2. Environmental forces
  3. Intentions
  4. Both A and B

Answer:

d. Both A and B

7. According to Jones and Davis’s Correspondent Inference Theory, we find a person’s actions to be most informative about invariant dispositions when:

  1. The action depends on the person’s situation
  2. The action is judged to be intentional
  3. The action seems to be caused by a consistent goal
  4. Both B and C

Answer:

d. Both B and C

8. According to Correspondent Inference Theory, if a person’s behavior is low in social desirability, then a social perceiver will:

  1. Attribute the behavior to the situation
  2. Attribute the behavior to the person’s disposition
  3. Find the behavior uninformative
  4. Both A and C

Answer:

b. Attribute the behavior to the person’s disposition

9. According to Correspondent Inference Theory, people are more likely to form dispositional attributions about someone’s choice when:

  1. There are more noncommon effects between the chosen and nonchosen alternatives
  2. There are fewer noncommon effects between the chosen and nonchosen alternatives
  3. The choice was hedonically irrelevant
  4. Both B and C

Answer:

d. Both B and C

10. What type of model is Kelley’s Covariation Model?

  1. A positive model: it describes how people actually form attributions in social situations based on distinctiveness, consistency and consensus
  2. A normative model: it describes an idealized set of rules for how people should form attributions when given optimal information about distinctiveness, consistency and consensus
  3. A qualitative model: it describes general tendencies but not quantitative predictions of how people might form attributions when given information about distinctiveness, consistency and consensus
  4. Both B and C

Answer:

b. A normative model: it describes an idealized set of rules for how people should form attributions when given optimal information about distinctiveness, consistency and consensus

11. When forming attributions, which type of information do social perceivers rely on the least?

  1. Distinctiveness
  2. Consistency
  3. Consensus
  4. None of the above

Answer:

c. Consensus

12. Although findings about misattribution of arousal have turned out not to be strong enough to suggest clinical applications, these findings have been influential nonetheless. What did Schachter and Singer (1962) find in their study that began this line of research?

  1. Participants who were given epinephrine and not given accurate information about the side effects reported feeling euphoric or angry
  2. Participants who were given epinephrine and were given accurate information about the side effects reported feeling euphoric or angry
  3. Participants who were not given epinephrine and were given accurate information about the side effects reported feeling euphoric or angry
  4. None of the above

Answer:

a. Participants who were given epinephrine and not given accurate information about the side effects reported feeling euphoric or angry

13. According to Bem’s Self Perception Theory, if a person has a given job, under what circumstances will the person infer that they enjoy the job the most?

  1. If they are paid very well for the job
  2. If they are paid very poorly for the job
  3. If their coworkers enjoy the job
  4. Both B and C

Answer:

b. If they are paid very poorly for the job

14. When people are cognitively busy, for example when they are busy self-regulating, how will this affect their attributions about others’ behavior?

  1. They will pay less attention to the context or situation
  2. They will pay less attention to the person’s actual behavior
  3. They will make more dispositional attributions
  4. Both A and C

Answer:

b. Both A and C

15. When are people relatively less likely to exhibit the fundamental attribution error (or correspondence bias)?

  1. When forming attributions about people they know well
  2. When forming attributions about the self
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Answer:

c. Both A and B

 

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