Sample Questions for Attitudes and Beliefs, Midterm 1 (February 2, 2015)

1.

For John, his attitude about group X makes it easier and faster for him to decide how to react to new
members of group X. We would describe this attitude as serving which of the attitude functions we
talked about?
a. the expressive function
b. the economy function
c. the utilitarian function
d. the ego-defensive function
e. none of the above

2.

The function matching hypothesis of attitude change says that, in general, we change our attitudes:
a. when our underlying beliefs are changed.
b. when they are no longer consistent with our underlying values.
c. when the relationship between those attitudes and our goals or needs changes.
d. when they are no longer adequate to help us deal with internal guilt or anxiety, or are inconsistent
with our self image.
e. none of the above

3.

Amy is asked to rate an attitude object along a series of adjective dimensions, such as good-bad,
strong-weak, and passive-active. The measurement technique being used here is:
a. a semantic differential
b. a Thurstone scale
c. a Likert scale
d. the IAT
e. none of the above

4.

The first step in creating a Thurstone scale is to:

a. create a large number of statements that reflect different degrees os positivity toward the attitude
object.
b. collect a large number of statements about the attitude object that can be rated on a 5-7 point scale
according to how strongly the participant holds them.
c. collect a large number of Yes-No statements that reflect different opinions about the attitude
object.
d. create a series of adjectival dimensions (e.g., strong-weak, active-passive) along which a
participant can rate the attitude object.
e. none of the above

5.

Which of the following statements about the censorship or editing of attitude reports is NOT true?
a. Censorship or editing is more common when the question deals with sensitive or threatening
issues.
b. Censorship or editing is more common in phone interviews than in face-to-face interviews.
c. Censorship or editing is reduced when confidentiality or anonymity of responses is guaranteed.
d. Censorship or editing is reduced by the bogus pipeline technique.
e. All of the above are TRUE

6.

In the concept priming procedure:

a. the individual is shown an attitude object at subliminal duration then asked to indicate whether
subsequently presented words are good or bad.
b. the individual is shown positive or negative words or pictures at subliminal duration then asked to
indicate whether subsequently words related to the attitude object are good or bad.
c. the individual is shown positive or negative words or pictures at subliminal duration then asked to
identify subsequently presented attitude objects as good or bad.
d. the individual is shown an attitude object at subliminal duration then asked to identify presented
words that may reflect attitudes about that attitude object.
e. none of the above

7.

The critical comparison in the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) is between:

a. a discrimination task in which two categories of words are categorized (e.g., as Male or
Female) by pressing two different buttons.
b. an evaluation task in which a subliminal positive or negative prime is presented, and then words are
categorized as either good or bad or as (e.g.) Male or Female by pressing one of two
buttons.
c. a discrimination task in which words are categorized as either good or Male by pressing one
button, and as either bad or female by pressing a different button.
d. an evaluation task in which a subliminal prime is presented, and then words are categorized as
either good or bad by pressing one of two buttons.
e. none of the above

8.

One major difference between the IAT and the Go/No-Go Association Test (GNAT) is that:
a. the IAT, but not the GNAT, requires the individual to make evaluative judgments about an
attitude object.
b. the GNAT, but not the IAT, measures the positivity and negativity of attitudes using a response
time, or response latency measure.
c. the GNAT, but not the IAT, involves subliminal presentation of attitude object primes.
d. the IAT, but not the GNAT, requires the individual to make responses to two different attitude
objects.
e. none of the above

9.

In his 1968 paper, Zajonc presented evidence from both real-world observations and experimental
studies supporting a mere exposure effect on attitudes. Which of the following was NOT one of those
pieces of evidence?
a. The most frequent words in many languages are those that are rated positively.
b. When Turkish are presented a different number of times in a pronunciation drill, participants
guess that the most frequent words have the most positive meaning.
c. Rated liking for Chinese-like ideographs presented a varying number of time.
d. Novel foods sampled more often we rated as better tasting than foods sampled less frequently.
e. All of the above were part of the evidence Zajonc presented

10.

Olson & Fazio (2001) examined attitudes towards Pokemon characters that had been paired with
posirtive or negative words or images. They found that:
a. only participants aware of the contingency between the Pokemon characters and the positive or
negative words or images showed any indication of conditioned attitudes.
b. both explicit and implicit attitudes were changed in the expected direction by the conditioning
procedure.
c. effects of conditioning on attitudes towards the Pokemon characters were apparent only when the
characters were presented subliminally.
d. more than one of the above
e. none of the above

11.

Many psychologists argue that evaluative conditioning (EC) is different from classical conditioning
(CC) in several ways. Which of the following is NOT one of these differences?
a. In CC we learn to respond to a signal for some significant subsequent event (the US), but in EC
we simply associate one stimulus (the CS) with another.
b. CC involves a pre-existing response to the US, but EC does not involve a pre-existing response to
the second stimulus (Or US).
c. Presentation of CS-alone trials after conditioning leads to extinction of CC, but not to extinction of
EC.
d. The speed and magnitude of CC is reduced by interpolated CS-alone or US-alone trials during
conditioning, but EC is not affected by these manipulations.
e. All of the above ARE reported differences between EC and CC.

12.

Imagine that we dislike Dave, and then we meet Norm for the first time, and learn that Dave dislikes
Norm. According to EC and Heiders Balance Theory (BT), what should the effect of our relationship
with Dave be on our evaluation of Norm?
a. Both BT and EC agree that we should dislike Norm.
b. Both BT and EC agree what we should like Norm.
c. BT argues that we should like Norm, but EC suggests we should dislike Norm.
d. BT argues that we should dislike Norm, but EC suggests we should like Norm.
e. None of the above

13.

In discussing distinctions between different types of social influences on attitudes we noted that:
a. normative influence indicates what is socially expected or required in a particular situation.
b. descriptive normative beliefs indicate what we believe others commonly do in our current situation.
c. injunctive normative beliefs indicate our perception of what behaviors are socially approved of or
disapproved of.
d. information influence is exercised when we look to others for an indication of what is true or
correct about a situation.
e. all of the above

14.

In discussing social influence on attitudes, I cited the case of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who
campaigned to reduce crime in the city by cleaning up litter and removing graffiti from the most
problematic neighborhoods. His approach was based on ideas concerning what sort of social influence?
a. descriptive normative influence.
b. injunctive normative influence.
c. informational influence.
d. either a or c
e. none of the above

Answers:
1. b
2. c
3. a
4. b
5. b
6. d
7. a
8. d
9. d
10. b
11. e
12. c
13. e
14. b