Free Social Psychology MCQs with Answers

289 Social Psychology MCQs from Psychology, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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289 questions · page 14 of 15

  • A. Discrimination
  • B. Prejudice
  • C. Dissonance
  • D. Social isolation

Explanation: Counter-stereotypic inference weakens prejudice by encouraging people to notice individuals who do not fit a group stereotype.

Correct answer: Prejudice
  • A. People in hotter regions have inherited the tendency to be more aggressive through their genetic make-up
  • B. Environmental temperature can modulate the expression of aggression in everyone
  • C. People in hotter regions have been socialized to behave in a more aggressive manner
  • D. People who live in hotter regions are less technologically developed, more likely to suffer from brain damage and therefore more likely to be aggressiveGet Study Guides

Explanation: The heat-aggression effect proposes that high environmental temperature can increase arousal and aggression-related behaviour across…

Correct answer: Environmental temperature can modulate the expression of aggression in everyone
  • A. social
  • B. comparative
  • C. physiological
  • D. school

Explanation: Peer influence concerns how other people affect an individual’s attitudes, decisions, and behaviour, which is a central topic of social…

Correct answer: social
  • A. Social facilitation
  • B. Diffusion of responsibility
  • C. Social loafing
  • D. b & c

Explanation: Social loafing is the reduced effort people often show when working in a group rather than alone.

Correct answer: b & c
  • A. intellectual ability
  • B. Central traits
  • C. schema
  • D. All of themTry Prep Courses

Explanation: Impression formation is supported by intellectual ability, central traits that strongly influence overall judgments, and schemas that…

Correct answer: All of themTry Prep Courses
  • A. Behaviorism
  • B. ethnocentrism
  • C. humanism
  • D. functionalism

Explanation: Ethnocentrism means judging other cultures by the standards of one's own culture and viewing one's own group as superior.

Correct answer: ethnocentrism
  • A. Behavior in individuals
  • B. biological processes more than psychological processes
  • C. Religion, philosophy and epistemology
  • D. Animal behavior rather than group behavior

Explanation: Psychologists commonly focus on behaviour and mental processes in individuals, whereas sociology primarily examines groups, institutions…

Correct answer: Behavior in individuals
  • A. standard and expectations shared by the members of a society
  • B. rules of law
  • C. statistically normal behavior
  • D. universal rules of conduct

Explanation: Norms are socially shared standards and expectations that guide members' behavior within a group or society.

Correct answer: standard and expectations shared by the members of a society
  • A. attitude
  • B. prototype
  • C. stereotype
  • D. orienting reflex

Explanation: An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond or behave in a particular way toward a person, object, or situation.

Correct answer: attitude
  • A. inhuman solution
  • B. critical thinking
  • C. restricted discussion
  • D. group cohesiveness

Explanation: Groupthink suppresses critical evaluation because members prioritise unanimity and group agreement, often through restricted discussion…

Correct answer: critical thinking
  • A. the mere exposure effect
  • B. the halo effect
  • C. the placebo effect
  • D. the fundamental attribution

Explanation: The halo effect occurs when one favourable quality, such as attractiveness or assertiveness, creates an overly positive impression of…

Correct answer: the halo effect
  • A. Winch
  • B. Webster
  • C. Finch
  • D. Newcomb

Explanation: Newcomb’s theory explains attraction through interpersonal similarity and compatibility, making it broadly applicable to relationships in…

Correct answer: Newcomb
  • A. how the behavior of individuals is influenced by others
  • B. how the behavior of groups is influenced by their cultural heritage
  • C. how the behavior of individuals in influenced by the their cultural heritage
  • D. all of the above
  • E. None of these

Explanation: Social psychology primarily examines how the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other people influences an individual’s behavior and…

Correct answer: how the behavior of individuals is influenced by others
  • A. replication
  • B. random sampling
  • C. the hindsight bias
  • D. the false consensus effect

Explanation: Recognizing cultural variation helps prevent the false consensus effect, the tendency to assume that other people share our attitudes and…

Correct answer: the false consensus effect
  • A. Lack of intensity of feeling of love
  • B. Insecurity of self-conception
  • C. Self-hate
  • D. All of these
  • E. None of these

Explanation: Jealousy is often intensified by insecurity, a negative self-concept and self-devaluation, and the listed factors are treated in this…

Correct answer: All of these
  • A. Prejudice
  • B. Cognitive dissonance
  • C. The fundamental attribution error
  • D. Relative deprivation

Explanation: Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable tension produced when a person’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviour conflict with one another.

Correct answer: Cognitive dissonance
  • A. The surrounding culture
  • B. The surrounding sub-culture
  • C. The context of the situation
  • D. All of the above
  • E. None of these

Explanation: Norms vary with the wider culture, the particular subculture, and the immediate situation or context.

Correct answer: All of the above
  • A. All possible objects
  • B. All objects which are perceived by him
  • C. All objects which exist in his own life-space
  • D. None of these

Explanation: In field theory, an attitude concerns objects that have psychological significance within a person's life-space, not every object that…

Correct answer: All objects which exist in his own life-space
  • A. Consistency in attitudes and behavior
  • B. Cognitive dissonance
  • C. Self-perception
  • D. Attribution
  • E. None of these

Explanation: Much attitude-change research grew from consistency theories, which examine whether people try to maintain agreement among their attitudes…

Correct answer: Consistency in attitudes and behavior
  • A. Social inhabitation
  • B. Social loafing
  • C. Distraction
  • D. All of these

Explanation: Other people can impair performance through distraction, social inhibition on difficult tasks, or reduced individual effort in groups…

Correct answer: All of these