GRE Subject Test: Psychology : Social Interactions

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All GRE Subject Test: Psychology Resources

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Example Questions

Example Question #11 : Social Interactions

Consider the following scenario: Jake failed a math test last Friday. His schoolmates accuse him of being dumb and unintelligent, and Jake responds by stating that he had slept very poorly and not been able to study as much as he had wanted. 

This scenario best reflects which social psychological construct?

Possible Answers:

Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory

Gain-loss principle

Diffusion of responsibility

Fundamental attribution error

Correct answer:

Fundamental attribution error

Explanation:

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to people to attribute a negative outcome to individual characteristics when it refers to someone else (Jake being dumb) and attribute a negative outcome to the context of the situation when it refers to themselves (Jake citing his lack of sleep and studying). Cognitive dissonance is the conflict that you feel when your attitudes are not in synch with your behaviors. The gain-loss principle suggests that an evaluation that changes over time has more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant over time. Diffusion of responsibility occurs when an individual assumes less personal responsibility in a given situation when there are other people present.

Example Question #12 : Social Interactions

A worker receives evaluations from her supervisor every four months. According to Aronson's gain-loss principle, which of the following scenarios would result in the worker having the strongest attraction toward the supervisor at the end of the year?

Possible Answers:

Negative evaluation, negative evaluation, and positive evaluation

Positive evaluation, positive evaluation, and negative evaluation

Positive evaluation, positive evaluation, and positive evaluation

Positive evaluation, negative evaluation, and negative evaluation

Correct answer:

Negative evaluation, negative evaluation, and positive evaluation

Explanation:
Aronson's gain-loss principle states that an evaluation that changes will have more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant. Therefore, the worker would like the manager most if their evaluation had become more positive (e.g. shown a gain) over time compared to the manager who has consistently given the worker a positive evaluation or the manager who had shown a loss (e.g. received a negative evaluation after a positive evaluation).

Example Question #13 : Social Interactions

Tony used to believe that studying for exams was a waste of time, but now that he is using Varsity Tutors and other online resources, he is beginning to think they have value. Tony is most likely experiencing...

Possible Answers:

Foot in the door phenomenon

Social judgement theory

Social Loafing

Role playing

Cognitive dissonance

Correct answer:

Cognitive dissonance

Explanation:

Cognitive dissonance is the theory that your attitudes and actions will eventually align; if they are not congruent, either your attitudes or your actions will change. In this case, Tony's attitude is changing to align with his actions (using online testing resources). 

Example Question #14 : Social Interactions

Which social psychologist is not correctly matched with his/her most famous finding?

Possible Answers:

Sheriff: social judgement

Milgram: obedience

Festinger: cognitive dissonance

Ashe: door in the face

Zimbardo: role playing

Correct answer:

Ashe: door in the face

Explanation:

Solomon Ashe was most famous for his conformity study, the line test. The social psychologist most widely recognized for door in the face is Robert Cialdini. 

Example Question #15 : Social Interactions

Which of the following social psychological phenomena occurs when individuals are less likely to intervene in a given social situation when more people are present?

Possible Answers:

Reciprocity norm

Bystander effect

Social exchange

Social loafing

Correct answer:

Bystander effect

Explanation:

As stated by the bystander effect, individuals do not feel as responsible for helping others when other individuals are present. According to social psychological research, bystanders are most likely to intervene only when the following conditions are met: they share some similarities with the victim of the crime, are happy overall, feel guilty, and are not focused on their own affairs.

Example Question #16 : Social Interactions

Darla is trying to sell cookies for her girl scout troop. She goes to her neighbor house and asks her to purchase a box of cookies, to which the neighbor agrees. Darla then asks if she would consider purchasing two additional boxes of another type of cookie. Darla is trying to use which technique to get her neightbor to purchase cookies?

Possible Answers:

Obedience

Minority persuasion

Foot-in-the-door

Door-in-the-face

Correct answer:

Foot-in-the-door

Explanation:

Darla first presents a small request and then presents a larger request. This is an example of a "foot-in-the-door" technique. Darla would be practicing "door-in-the-face" if she first presented a large request, then followed it with a smaller request. "Minority persuasion" involves a minority in a group persuading the majority members, and does not fit with this example. "Obedience" occurs when a subordinate complies with an authority figure's request, and is associated with the researcher Milgram. 

Example Question #17 : Social Interactions

Consider the following scenario: An high school teacher encounters the principal of the school in the hallway on her way to class. The principle instructs the teacher to immediately leave the campus and purchase a pizza for him. The teacher resists saying that she needs to go teach her class and has a test to give, but the principal repeats and insists on his instructions to get a pizza. The teacher goes to get the pizza and misses the class. 

Which of the following classic social psychology experiments was best illustrated by the example scenario? 

Possible Answers:

Phillip Zimbardo's Prison Experiment

Soloman Asch's Conformity Study

Milgram's obedience study

Clark and Clark's Doll Preference Study 

Correct answer:

Milgram's obedience study

Explanation:

This scenario most resembles Milgram's Obedience Study involved subjects obeying direct instructions from an experimenter to administer shocks to another participant (confederate) even though there appeared to be strong negative consequences. For the teacher in this scenario, she was instructed by an authority figure to leave school and buy a pizza even though she would miss her class if she did. Soloman Asch's Conformity Study involved subjects conforming to an obviously wrong answer that all other group members had agreed upon. Clark and Clark's doll preference study involved a task for White and Black children to select the doll that they liked most. Zimbardo's prison experiment involved members of assigned groups assuming roles (i.e. prison guards, prisoners). 

Example Question #18 : Social Interactions

Which of the following best illustrates the door in the face effect? 

Possible Answers:

A salesperson tries to sell a car to a customer for $100,000. The customer resists and the salesperson drops the price to $40,000. 

An antique salesperson tells a customer that if she does not buy a ring on that particular day, somebody else probably will. 

A non-profit company calls you to ask for a $10 donation. You agree, and then the following month, the company calls again asking for a $20 donation. 

An advertisement indicates that anyone who buys two shirts at $20 will be given a third shirt free. 

Correct answer:

A salesperson tries to sell a car to a customer for $100,000. The customer resists and the salesperson drops the price to $40,000. 

Explanation:

The door in the face effect refers to a tendency in which people who refuse a large initial request will be more likely to agree to a later smaller request. By dropping the price from $100,000 to $40,000, the customer might believe he/she is getting a good deal even if the car should be priced lower. The non-profit call answer was an example of the foot in the door effect. The other two examples were sales techniques, but not examples of the door in the face effect because there is not a sequence of a large request followed by a smaller one. 

Example Question #19 : Social Interactions

Which of the following best illustrates the foot in the door effect? 

Possible Answers:

An advertisement indicates that anyone who buys two shirts at $20 will be given a third shirt free. 

A salesperson tries to sell a car to a customer for $100,000. The customer resists and the salesperson drops the price to $40,000. 

A non-profit company calls you to ask for a $10 donation. You agree, and then the following month, the company calls again asking for a $20 donation. 

An antique salesperson tells a customer that if she does not buy a ring on that particular day, somebody else probably will. 

Correct answer:

A non-profit company calls you to ask for a $10 donation. You agree, and then the following month, the company calls again asking for a $20 donation. 

Explanation:

The foot in the door effect refers to a tendency in which after agreeing to an initial small request, people will be more likely to agree to subsequent larger requests. By asking for a small initial donation of $10, the donor would be more likely to give $20 the following month than if the donor had been asked for $20 to begin with. The price drop on the car answer was an example of the door in the face effect. The other two examples were sales techniques, but not examples of the door in the face effect because there is not a sequence of a large request followed by a smaller one. 

Example Question #20 : Social Interactions

Which of the following was the main finding of Milgram's classic study on obedience and conformity? 

Possible Answers:

Subjects shocked peoaple and the majority continued shocking up to maximum voltage

Subjects yield to group pressure and chose incorrect line

Black and white children preferred white dolls

Individuals estimates of movement conformed to group's

Correct answer:

Subjects shocked peoaple and the majority continued shocking up to maximum voltage

Explanation:

Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment involved an experimenter instructing participants to administer shocks to an confederate subject in an adjacent room when the subject answered "incorrectly". (No shocks were actually administered). The majority of participants continued to "administer shocks" at high levels when instructed to do so by the experimenter. Asch's classic conformity study involved subject's comparing lengths of lines and Sherif's classic conformity study examined the autokinetic effect. Clark and Clark performed a study on doll preference, but this was not a conformity/obedience study. 

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