AP Psychology : Attribution, Stereotype, and Discrimination

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Psychology

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Example Questions

Example Question #41 : Ap Psychology

A false, although common, stereotype is that men are better in engineering fields that woman are. Jane, a female engineering student, takes an engineering test. Jane is equally proficient in engineering as the men are in her class. All the students take a survey prior to the test instructing them to select their gender. Jane ends up performing much more poorly on this test relative to the male students; however, on a separate test without a gender-identifying survey, Jane performs just as well as the male students. Which of the following could have caused Jane's poor score in the first test?

Possible Answers:

Anxiety

Negative confirmation

Cognitive lapse

False stereotype

Stereotype threat

Correct answer:

Stereotype threat

Explanation:

Stereotype threat is the fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one's social group, often making people act as the stereotype suggests. Jane, being a woman, performs more poorly on the first test because she is reminded of the gender stereotype by the gender-identifying survey.

Example Question #42 : Ap Psychology

In a classroom setting, Jeremy thought that Candace was rather shy and quiet; however, when Jeremy saw Candace after the university's Friday night baseball game, he was surprised at how talkative and friendly she was around him and their mutual friends. Which of the following social psychology phenomenon is influencing Jeremy’s impression of Candace?

Possible Answers:

None of these

Cognitive dissonance

Overconfidence

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Fundamental attribution error

Correct answer:

Fundamental attribution error

Explanation:

What Jeremy was doing was falsely attributing Candace's behavior to her internal disposition (with a "that's just the way she is" mindset) as opposed to considering her surroundings. He failed to consider that maybe Candace does not feel as comfortable and extroverted in a classroom setting as she is in a social setting, such as a Friday night baseball game. This is a prime example of the fundamental attribution error, which overestimates the influence of innate personality and underestimates the influence of situations (i.e. location).

Example Question #43 : Ap Psychology

Which of the following is an example of the fundamental attribution error?

Possible Answers:

When Maryam's friend Jae is late, she believes that it is because he is not conscientious enough and is not good at keeping track of time, even though Jae was stuck in traffic after an accident, which is not something he could control.

Louis can't find his keys and blames his mother for moving them, even though he is absentminded and frequently misplaces things.

Marco believes that because he has flipped a coin four times and it always landed on heads, it is very likely that it will land on tails the next time.

Anna and Bennet are small children. Bennet leaves the room and the experimenter moves a red ball from under a blanket to inside a treasure test. The experimenter asks Anna where Bennet will look in order to find the red ball, and she points to the treasure test.

Julia remembers spilling juice all over her teacher on the first day of school, even though it is actually something that happened to her friend Hannah.

Correct answer:

When Maryam's friend Jae is late, she believes that it is because he is not conscientious enough and is not good at keeping track of time, even though Jae was stuck in traffic after an accident, which is not something he could control.

Explanation:

The fundamental attribution error refers to people's tendency to explain other people's behavior in terms of personality characteristics, rather than things like external circumstances. It is a bias, which means that people place too much emphasis on personality, when behavior is often a result of specific circumstances. In the correct example, Jae is probably not careless but is stuck in traffic. Maryam is simply overgeneralizing based on one event.

 

Example Question #44 : Ap Psychology

After walking past a homeless person in the street, Marcel says to his friend, “Anyone that poor is just too lazy to get a job.” Marcel’s remark could be an example of which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Asch effect

Just-world hypothesis

Hindsight bias

Self-serving bias

Correct answer:

Just-world hypothesis

Explanation:

The just-world hypothesis is a cognitive bias from the belief that morally reprehensible behavior is always punished and morally laudable behavior is always rewarded. This often leads to the justification of others’ fortune and misfortune as stemming solely from their quality of character. Marcel’s analysis of the homeless person’s current economic situation ignores any other factors that may have been out of that person’s control, such as a market recession or mental illness. The Asch effect is the tendency of individuals to publicly conform to beliefs held by those immediately around them as long as those beliefs appear unanimous. The self-serving bias leads individuals to adopt a distorted view of a situation if it preserves their self-esteem. The hindsight bias leads individuals to perceive events as having been predictable, even when their initial occurrence was unexpected.

Example Question #43 : Ap Psychology

Black and Latino students, when asked to mark their race on the SAT or ACT, seem to fare worse, getting lower scores overall and underperforming predicted scores. Psychologists today are working to make culture-fair tests to eliminate this psychological threat which is best described as which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Standardization threat

Learned helplessness threat

Steroetype threat

Repression threat

Accomodation threat

Correct answer:

Steroetype threat

Explanation:

The answer here is "stereotype threat." When individuals are reminded of a negative stereotype about a group they belong to, it results in scoring lower on tests or assessments. The other answers are not real phenomena/threats.

Example Question #44 : Ap Psychology

Your history teacher discusses the Revolutionary War during the first week of school. Your friend seems to know everything about what the teacher says during this lecture. You conclude that she is extremely smart in all subjects. You do not consider that she might already have learned this in her old school. You are displaying which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Fundamental attribution error

Self-fulfilling prophecy effect

Pluralistic ignorance

Cognitive dissonance 

Correct answer:

Fundamental attribution error

Explanation:

This is a display of the fundamental attribution error because you failed to consider situational factors.  Instead, you accredited your friends knowledge to dispositional attribution or behavior that results from internal characteristics. 

Example Question #45 : Ap Psychology

What is ethnocentrism?

Possible Answers:

An undeserved, negative attitude toward a particular group of people

The belief that your own culture is better than all others

Preferring people in your own group over people in an outside group

Thinking that bad things happen to bad people

The belief that other cultures are better than your own

Correct answer:

The belief that your own culture is better than all others

Explanation:

Ethnocentrism is "the belief that your own culture is better than all others." If you look at the roots of the word, then you can figure out the general meaning (i.e. "ethno" means combining form and "centric" means in the middle or center)

The other choices are incorrect. "Thinking that bad things happen to bad people" is just-world bias, while "preferring people in your own group over people in an outside group" is known as in-group bias. "An undeserved, negative attitude toward a particular group of people" is the definition of prejudice. It is important to note that while ethnocentrism is a type of prejudice; however, this is not the most correct choice. Last, "the belief that other cultures are better than your own" is the reverse definition of ethnocentrism. 

Example Question #46 : Ap Psychology

Johnny believes that all children are annoying and selfish. His beliefs are an example of which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Attributions

Emotions

Schemas

Behaviors

Stereotypes

Correct answer:

Stereotypes

Explanation:

Johnny is using stereotypes to describe all children. A stereotype is a widely held, but fixed and oversimplified idea of a particular group. Stereotypes are often incorrect and may lead to prejudice and/or discrimination.

Example Question #46 : Ap Psychology

Which of the following best defines the fundamental attribution error?

Possible Answers:

The tendency for people to emphasize a person's external characteristics (e.g. the situation) to explain their behavior.

The tendency for people to emphasize a person's malleable characteristics (e.g. the climate) to explain their behavior.

The tendency for people to emphasize a person's internal characteristics (e.g. personality) to explain their behavior.

A psychological phenomenon in which group harmony is emphasized.

A psychological phenomenon in which group harmony is not emphasized.

Correct answer:

The tendency for people to emphasize a person's internal characteristics (e.g. personality) to explain their behavior.

Explanation:

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to emphasize a person's internal characteristics (e.g. personality) to explain their behavior. For example, if someone cuts me off while I am driving, then I am more apt to think that they are a rude person as opposed to thinking that they may have a medical emergency. 

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