How We Shape Each Other — Module Assessment

Question 1

The fundamental attribution error is best described as the tendency to:

Accepted Answer

Overweight personality and underweight the situation when explaining others' behaviour

Answer

Overestimate how random most behaviour is

Answer

Blame ourselves more than we blame other people

Answer

Assume situations never matter for behaviour

Question 2

Why should the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment be cited cautiously as evidence for situational power?

Accepted Answer

It had a tiny, self-selected sample, no control group, and evidence that guards were steered toward harshness

Answer

It has never been published or discussed by other researchers

Answer

It found that personality completely determined behaviour

Answer

It was a large randomised controlled trial with clear results

Question 3

Diffusion of responsibility helps explain the bystander effect because:

Accepted Answer

When many people could act, each feels less personally obligated to be the one who does

Answer

People in groups cannot physically see emergencies

Answer

Crowds always misremember what happened

Answer

Helping others is biologically impossible in public

Question 4

What is the accurate way to describe the Kitty Genovese case today?

Accepted Answer

The original 38-witness story was exaggerated, but the underlying bystander effect is well replicated

Answer

The murder never actually happened

Answer

Exactly 38 witnesses watched and none did anything, as first reported

Answer

The case disproved the existence of any bystander effect

Question 5

Which of Allport's conditions is present when two groups work toward a goal neither can reach alone?

Accepted Answer

Common goals

Answer

Equal status

Answer

Institutional support

Answer

Frequent proximity

Question 6

What is the most accurate summary of Pettigrew and Tropp's 2006 meta-analysis of intergroup contact?

Accepted Answer

It found contact was, on average, associated with lower prejudice, more so under Allport's conditions.

Answer

It proved experimentally that contact causes prejudice to disappear.

Answer

It found contact made no difference to prejudice.

Answer

It found contact reduced prejudice only when all four conditions were strictly met.

Question 7

A robber uses force purely to obtain money, feeling no anger. This is best described as:

Accepted Answer

Instrumental aggression

Answer

Hostile aggression

Answer

Frustration-aggression

Answer

Observational learning

Question 8

What is the most accurate statement of what Bandura's Bobo doll experiments showed?

Accepted Answer

That children could learn and imitate novel aggressive acts by observing an adult model.

Answer

That frustration always produces aggression.

Answer

That aggression is entirely determined by genetics.

Answer

That watching media violence directly causes real-world crime.

Question 9

What does Jonathan Haidt's social intuitionist model claim about how people make moral judgments?

Accepted Answer

A fast intuition usually comes first, and reasoning often follows to justify it.

Answer

Moral judgments are always the product of careful step-by-step reasoning.

Answer

Emotion plays no meaningful role in moral judgment.

Answer

Moral judgment stops developing in early childhood.

Question 10

Which is a well-known criticism of Kohlberg's stages of moral development?

Accepted Answer

It was based largely on male samples and may undervalue an ethic of care.

Answer

It ignored the reasoning behind people's moral answers entirely.

Answer

It proved that moral behaviour is fixed from birth.

Answer

It was never tested using moral dilemmas.

Question 11

Which strategy won Robert Axelrod's repeated prisoner's dilemma tournaments?

Accepted Answer

Tit for tat: cooperate first, then copy the opponent's last move.

Answer

Always defect, taking advantage on every move.

Answer

Always cooperate, regardless of the opponent.

Answer

Choose cooperate or defect at random each round.

Question 12

What best describes indirect reciprocity?

Accepted Answer

Helping others and gaining a reputation that makes third parties more likely to help you later.

Answer

Helping only people who have already helped you directly.

Answer

Punishing free-riders at no cost to yourself.

Answer

Cooperating only in one-off encounters with strangers.

Question 13

A driver cuts you off. Applying the benefit of the situation well, what is the wisest response?

Accepted Answer

Consider they might be rushing to an emergency, while still noting a consistent pattern if it recurs.

Answer

Conclude they are a fundamentally selfish and dangerous person.

Answer

Decide that the situation fully excuses any driving, no matter how reckless.

Answer

Assume all drivers behave this way and give up on the road.

Question 14

According to reports from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, what most strongly distinguished people who stayed healthy and happy into old age?

Accepted Answer

Having the warmest and most secure close relationships.

Answer

Having accumulated the greatest wealth by mid-life.

Answer

Achieving the most public fame and recognition.

Answer

Possessing exceptional early-life willpower and discipline.