Free Social Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. legislative
• B. individual
• C. criminal
• D. social

Explanation: Crime is understood as a social product because behaviour is labelled and defined as criminal through social rules, institutions, and…

• A. an overreaction against an event, such as a type of crime, which is seen as a threat to society's values
• B. the view that the world is full of crime and violence
• C. a concept applied to mugging
• D. a study of youth crime in Britain

Explanation: Moral panic occurs when a person, group, or event is exaggerated as a threat to society's values, often producing public fear and demands…

• A. Professionals
• B. Women
• C. Men
• D. Those over 75 years- of age

Explanation: British Crime Survey findings generally showed that women reported greater worry about burglary and violent crime than men, despite men…

• A. Those who fear crime the most tend to become the victims of crime
• B. There is little, or no relationship between and individual's risk of victimization and their level of fear of crime
• C. It simply refers to the fear of being a victim of crime
• D. It refers to the group of people who are least bothered by the risk of being "victimized

Explanation: The fear-victimization paradox is the weak or inverse relationship between actual risk of becoming a crime victim and fear of crime.

• A. personal experience
• B. crime news
• C. aspects of our personality which make us more, or less, afraid of crime
• D. all of the options above

Explanation: Fear of crime can be shaped by direct personal experience, exposure to crime reporting, and personality characteristics such as perceived…

• A. Behavioural compliance never leads to attitude change
• B. The lesser the inducement for compliance, the more the attitude change
• C. The greater the inducement for compliance the more the attitude change
• D. Behavioural compliance always leads to attitude change

Explanation: When people freely comply for only a small external inducement, insufficient justification creates greater cognitive dissonance…

• A. Psychological reactance
• B. Cognitive dissonance
• C. Behaviour differential
• D. Behavioural inconsistency

Explanation: Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable mental tension produced when a person’s behaviour conflicts with their attitude or beliefs.

• A. Stable, global
• B. Unstable, specific
• C. External, global
• D. External, specific

Explanation: Persistent depression after failure suggests attributing the event to causes that are stable and global, meaning lasting and affecting…

• A. 1 & 2
• B. 4
• C. 2 & 3
• D. 1 & 3

Explanation: Attribution is commonly analyzed by locus, or internal versus external, and stability, or stable versus unstable.

• A. suffer extensively from feelings of unrealistically low self-esteem
• B. underestimate the accuracy of their beliefs and judgments
• C. view themselves very favorably in comparison to most others
• D. are unrealistically pessimistic about their personal future

Explanation: Research on positive illusions shows that people commonly view themselves more favorably than the average person and often hold…

• A. learned helplessness
• B. the spotlight effect
• C. self-serving bias
• D. an Electra complex

Explanation: Self-serving bias involves taking personal credit for success but blaming external factors for failure, such as officials after a loss.

• A. an external locus of control
• B. the self-serving phenomenon
• C. reaction formation
• D. reciprocal determinism

Explanation: Reciprocal determinism describes the mutual influence of a person’s behavior, personal factors, and social environment: Sally’s hostility…

• A. the Barnum effect
• B. the spotlight effect
• C. the self-reference phenomenon
• D. unconditional positive regard

Explanation: The Barnum effect is the tendency to accept vague, broadly applicable personality statements as uniquely accurate.

• A. unconditional positive regard
• B. attributional style
• C. the spotlight effect
• D. self-serving bias

Explanation: The self-serving bias is the tendency to interpret information in ways that protect or enhance one's self-image, making flattering…

• A. reciprocal determinism
• B. self-serving bias
• C. the spotlight effect
• D. an Electra complex

Explanation: The spotlight effect is the tendency to overestimate how much other people notice our appearance, mistakes, or emotional states.

• A. increased striving for self-esteem
• B. more stereotypic thinking about minorities
• C. more aggressive behavior toward people with opposing views
• D. reduced respect for cultural icons

Explanation: Mortality salience usually strengthens self-esteem efforts, stereotypic judgments, aggression toward worldview opponents, and defense of…

• A. self-actualization
• B. self-efficacy
• C. collectivism
• D. individualism

Explanation: Collectivist cultures define people through their group memberships and prioritize family or group goals over individual preferences.

• A. China
• B. Japan
• C. Africa
• D. United States

Explanation: An independent self-concept, in which identity is based mainly on personal attributes and autonomy, is especially associated with the…

• A. The participants were not conforming to their roles
• B. The guards were not prepared to harass, humiliate and intimidate the prisoners
• C. The prisoners increasingly showed signs of individual and group disintegration
• D. The experiment was set in a real prison with real prisoners, which raised a fierce human rights debate

Explanation: The study was stopped when the prisoners showed serious psychological distress and individual and group disintegration.

• A. Group identity
• B. individual norms
• C. Individual identity
• D. Group norms

Explanation: Sherif showed that groups develop shared norms in an ambiguous situation, while Asch showed that people conform to an established majority…