AP Psychology › Attribution, Stereotype, and Discrimination
Which of the following is an appropriate definition for the just-world bias?
People tend to believe people get what they deserve
People tend to believe that people ensure that people get what they deserve
People tend to believe that other people fight for justice
People tend to believe the world is a wicked place where justice doesn't exist
None of these answers is accurate.
The just-world bias is a common bias in which we believe people get what they deserve. We might believe poor people didn't work hard enough or an ill person didn't take care of themselves enough instead of looking at circumstances that were out of their control.
Which of the following beliefs is an example of the just world bias?
Poor people have done bad things, resulting in their current status in life
An individual is good-looking and charismatic, so the general public should trust them
I've had several bad experiences at this restaurant; therefore it is probably a bad place
She's had a rough time in life and could probably use a break
None of these
The just world bias is the general tendency humans have to believe that the world is a just place where people get what they deserve. When we see a person of low socio-economic standing, we may try to rationalize their status by assigning a false bias of negative choices or low moral character to that person. This is not necessarily true, since there are broader forces that are out of our individual control that contribute to poverty. This belief persists in many other cases and is prevalanet in much of American discourse on crime.
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?
Stereotype threat
False stereotype
Cognitive lapse
Negative confirmation
Anxiety
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.
What is the self-serving bias?
The tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors, and one's failures to external factors
The tendency to attribute one's successes to external factors, and one's failures to internal factors
The tendency to attribute one's successes and failures to external factors
The tendency to attribute one's successes and failures to internal factors
None of these
Self-serving bias causes people to view their successes as a result of something positive within themselves, and their failures as a result of their situation, or something outside of their control.
Who coined the famous sociological term "self-fulfilling prophecy"?
Robert K. Merton
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Howard Zinn
Noam Chomsky
Although the concept of "self-fulfilling prophecy" has existed for centuries and was a popular one in Ancient Greece, it was officially coined by the famous sociologist Robert K. Merton in the 20th century.
Which of the following is an example of the fundamental attribution error?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What is the actor-observer bias?
When we are in a situation, we focus more on how the situation is influencing us. When we are observing it, we focus on how our disposition influences the people in that situation.
When we are in a situation, we focus more on how our disposition is influencing us. When we are observing it, we focus on how the situation influences the people in it.
When we are in a situation, we focus more on how we behave. When we are observing it, we focus on how other people behave.
When we are in a situation, our feelings are much more invested. When we are observing it, we feel more detached even if we understand.
None of these answers is accurate.
The actor-observer bias is the curious phenomena in which we focus more on how the situation is influencing us when we involved in a situation, but more focused on our influence on a situation when we are not involved, but rather observing. When we are observing a situation, we focus on how our disposition influences the people in that situation. For whatever reason, we are much more aware of context when we are in it and more likely to focus on the individual and disregard context when we are observing. One might think that one would lose context when directly involved in a situation, rather than coolly observing from outside, but the opposite is often the case.
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?
Steroetype threat
Learned helplessness threat
Repression threat
Standardization threat
Accomodation threat
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.
What is ethnocentrism?
The belief that your own culture is better than all others
The belief that other cultures are better than your own
An undeserved, negative attitude toward a particular group of people
Preferring people in your own group over people in an outside group
Thinking that bad things happen to bad people
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.
Which of the following is an illustrative example of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Someone believes they'll never exceed academically and therefore becomes cynical, doesn't put in any effort, and fulfills their initial expectation.
Someone believes they'll never exceed academically, overcomes this belief and adopts a positive outlook, and ends up getting very good grades.
Someone believes they'll never exceed academically but puts in a good attempt, and accidentally succeeds.
Someone believes they'll never exceed academically.
None of these.
The self-fulfilling prophecy stems from the Thomas theorem, which posits that situations are not merely situations in the human eye, but are rather warped according to our perceptions and the meaning we ascribe to them. Accordingly, we may have a belief about ourselves or the world that we carry with us in each situation. This belief may warp our perception of the situation and may influence to act in ways that reinforce this belief. So for example, if one believes one will always fail academically one may never try. These actions, influenced by this belief, serve to then reinforce this belief.
This can influence how we behave towards other people as well. The self-fulfilling prophecy may reinforce stereotypes and beliefs we have about other people.