Go to: Answers to Section 5-1 Quiz Questions

1. Solomon Asch, in his studies of conformity, found that

A. participants will agree with the incorrect judgements of others even when the correct answer is obvious.
B. participants will agree with the incorrect judgements of others except when the correct answer is obvious.
C. behaviors, emotions, and cognitions are determined almost completely by personality characteristics.
D. behaviors, emotions, and cognitions are determined almost completely by situational factors.

2. It has been found that cross-country runners have faster running times when they run with another person than when they run by themselves. This phenomenon is called

A. social conformity.
B. social facilitation.
C. social obedience.
D. all the above

3. In his studies of obedience to authority, Stanley Milgram stated that one of the most important factors impelling people to obey was

A. learning that the shock was not harmful.
B. assuming sole responsibility for the suffering that they were causing.
C. being observed by others who objected to their actions.
D. committing themselves to a particular social role.

4. Social psychologists have discovered that, when people are asked to explain why someone acted in a particular way, they

A. tend to focus primarily on personality characteristics.
B. generally can come up with an explanation, even when given little information.
C. often are unaware of the influence of situational factors.
D. all the above

5. Which of the following statements about social facilitation is FALSE?

A. Social facilitation occurs only when there are many others present.
B. Social facilitation occurs only with relatively simple tasks.
C. Social facilitation occurs in other animals, such as insects.
D. Social facilitation occurs, in part, because of increased physiological arousal.

6. In Milgram's studies of obedience, when participants could hear the Learner yelling through the wall, about what percentage of the participants continued shocking the Learner all the way to the end of the experiment?

A. 5%
B. 25%
C. 65%
D. 100%

7. Which of the following seems to have been true about the personalities of fully obedient Teachers in Milgram's research?

A. On average, they had normal personalities.
B. On average, they had abnormal personalities.
C. On average, they had psychopathic personalities.
D. On average, they had sociopathic personalities.

8. Solomon Asch studied conformity by having subjects judge the lengths of lines. In these studies, Asch found that participants were LEAST likely to conform when

A. the experimenter ridiculed the group's wrong answers.
B. the judgement was an easy one to make.
C. no one in the group seemed insincere or untrustworthy.
D. everyone in the group agreed that they had judged correctly.

9. All of the following psychological factors but one INCREASED obedience in the participants in Milgram's obedience studies. Which of the following was NOT one of these psychological factors?

A. The participants believed that the electric shocks were not really harming the Learner that much.
B. The negative effects of the participants' actions on the Learner became apparent only gradually.
C. Once they had started shocking the person, the participants were motivated to perceive their actions as being appropriate.
D. By rebelling against the experimenter's authority, the participants would have broken an important rule of social life.

10. Why is it probably impossible to develop a complete explanation of a phenomenon (such as the cause of schizophrenia)?

A. Because every phenomenon has a large number of interacting causes.
B. Because the explanation developed depends mostly on how one views reality.
C. Because explanations can only be more or less likely to be true.
D. Because how we explain a phenomenon always changes with new discoveries.

11. The most important assumption of social psychologists is that

A. social situations determine mental events and behavior.
B. personality is not an important cause of any behavior or mental events.
C. biological factors and unconscious processes have little effect on behavior.
D. all the above

12. In his research, Stanley Milgram assumed all of the following except:

A. people often believe that their actions are caused mostly by personality factors.
B. the situation is the primary determinant of much of our behavior.
C. individual differences in behavior are much more common than similarities.
D. people's inferences about the causes of their actions are often wrong.

13. In order for a theory of a phenomenon (such as the theory of evolution by natural selection) to be considered to be a "fact" (a true theory), researchers testing that theory must have

A. measured the important concepts with numerical techniques.
B. ruled out all plausible alternative explanations of the phenomenon.
C. reached a consensus that the theory probably is correct.
D. convinced everyone that the theory is a fact.

14. In Milgram's obedience studies, some Teachers became annoyed when the Learner complained about the intensity of the shock. Which of the following is the best explanation of why these Teachers felt annoyed?

A. They felt that the Learner had agreed to take on a particular social role and now was breaking his agreement.
B. They were afraid that the Experimenter would feel as if they were challenging his authority.
C. They were psychopaths who enjoyed the suffering of the Learner and did not want it to stop.
D. all the above

15. According to the results of Milgram's obedience studies, which of the following is NOT a likely explanation for the obedience shown by participants?

A. The negative effects on the Learner of the participants' actions became apparent only gradually.
B. Participants probably felt it was wrong to change the way they initially had defined the social situation.
C. There was a strong motivation on the part of participants to think of their actions as being appropriate.
D. Participants who fully obeyed the Experimenter tended to be "people pleasers" who would do anything to get people to like them.

16. In his obedience studies, Milgram found that the closer in terms of physical proximity the Learner was to the Teacher,

A. the MORE likely it was that the Learner would disobey.
B. the MORE likely it was that the Teacher would disobey.
C. the LESS likely it was that the Learner would disobey.
D. the LESS likely it was that the Teacher would disobey.

17. All of the following situational factors but one INCREASED obedience in the participants in Milgram's obedience studies. Which of the following was NOT one of these situational factors?

A. The Experimenter was salient.
B. The Learner was not salient.
C. The Experimenter assumed responsibility.
D. The Teacher assumed responsibility.

18. In Asch's conformity studies, one factor that increased the amount of conformity was

A. lower IQ scores among participants.
B. strong demands that the participants conform.
C. high immediacy of the judgement task.
D. complete agreement among confederates.

19. In his studies of obedience, Milgram found that the greater the immediacy of the Experimenter,

A. the MORE likely it was that the Learner would disobey.
B. the MORE likely it was that the Teacher would disobey.
C. the LESS likely it was that the Learner would disobey.
D. the LESS likely it was that the Teacher would disobey.

20. In the experimental studies performed by Milgram, which of the following was one of the dependent variables?

A. the voltage level at which the participants stopped
B. the group of people who took part in the experiment
C. the group of people who did NOT take part in the experiment
D. the participants who were not told to continue when they refused to go on

21. Elms and Milgram (1966) found a personality trait that was associated with disobedience among subjects in Milgram's research: disobedient subjects tended to _____ than did obedient subjects.

A. question more the commands of authority figures
B. feel more empathy for the suffering of others
C. identify more with the moral teachings of their religion
D. experience greater feelings of guilt and shame

22. In his studies of obedience, Milgram found that people without any obvious personality problems would physically harm another person when an authority

A. threatened them if they didn't do as they were told.
B. deceived them into thinking they really were not harming anyone.
C. took responsibility for the actions of these people.
D. modeled the behavior by harming the other person first.

23. In Milgram's "standard condition," about _____ of the _____ fully obeyed the experimenter?

A. 50%; Learners
B. 65%; Learners
C. 50%; Teachers
D. 65%; Teachers

24. Rosemary has found that she is able to study longer when she is in a room with other people who also are studying than when she is alone. This is an example of

A. social conformity.
B. social facilitation.
C. social obedience.
D. social role-playing.

25. In the studies of Solomon Asch, participants were LEAST likely to conform when

A. at least one of the confederates disagreed with the rest of the group.
B. they were high in the personality trait referred to as "independence."
C. they had no reason to care what the others in the group thought of them.
D. no one else seemed to care what they said about the lengths of the lines.

Go to: Answers to Section 5-1 Quiz Questions