All GRE Subject Test: Psychology Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Social Perception & Cognition
When communicating with others around us, which cues are typically necessary?
Visual and auditory
Visual
Auditory
Visual and olfaction
Auditory or somatosensory
Visual and auditory
Visual and auditory cues are necessary for communication because communication involves verbal and nonverbal cues. Languages consist of a spoken language and gestures and expressions that are nonverbal. Ignoring the visual components of communication can be just as detrimental as missing a spoken phrase.
Example Question #1 : Social
A choir is headed for a state competition to perform 5 pieces of music. The choir is very strong on some songs (i.e. performs well) and weaker on some songs (i.e. performs less well). If the director wants to order the songs in a strategic way, what might you suggest?
Placing the strongest songs in the middle
Alternating between stronger songs and weaker songs
Using random assignment for the songs
The primacy and recency effects refer to the tendency for our first impressions and most recent impressions to be most important in forming an opinion of groups and individuals. By placing the strongest songs as the first and last pieces, the director would strategically make it more likely that the impressions formed by the judges would be most influenced by the strongest pieces.
Example Question #2 : Social
Groupthink refers to which of the following?
Tendency for decision-making groups to consider all sides of the matter rather than one perspective (multiple heads are better than one)
Tendency of decision-making groups to get caught up in different opinions of group members and delay decision making
Tendency for decision-making groups to separate and form sub-groups with homogenous opinions
Tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
Tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
While each of these scenarios may occur when in a decision-making group, groupthink is a specific concept that refers to the tendency of those groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information. For example, a group of friends could decide to go to the mall at 4:00pm after school. Although the mall closes at 4:30pm, the group might overlook this detail because it is discordant with their consensus of going to the mall.
Example Question #3 : Social
Consider the following scenario: Heidi is walking down the street when she sees a man on the street covered in blood yelling, "help me!"
According to Darley and Latane's bystander intervention research, then under which of the following circumstances would Heidi be most likely to demonstrate helping behavior?
Heidi is walking down a street with no one else around
Heidi is walking down the street by herself, but there are a few other people on the street
Heidi is walking down the street and it is very crowded with many people around
Heidi is walking down the street with a group of her friends
Heidi is walking down a street with no one else around
Darley and Latane's bystander intervention research suggests that responsibility to help gets diffused (or divided) among the observers. When there are no others around, the responsibility is not diffused with anyone else and Heidi would be most likely to help.
Example Question #4 : Social
It has been observed that, over time, the persuasive power of a highly credible source (i.e. a physicist) decreases, while the persuasive power of a low-credibility source (i.e. a supermarket tabloid) increases. Which of the following identifies the term used by social psychologists to describe this odd phenomenon?
Social loafing
Delayed-persuasion effect
Sleeper effect
Low credibility effect
Social learning
Sleeper effect
The sleeper effect is a term coined by Hovland and Weiss (1952), two psychologists who prepared several articles on controversial topics, such as the feasibility of an atomic-powered submarine. American subjects read the articles, and Hovland and Weiss measured their opinions on the subject. They found that communications by high-credibility sources (such as the acclaimed physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer) were more persuasive, but over time its power decreased while the persuasive power of the low-credibility source increased.
Example Question #5 : Social
People tend to believe that shark attacks kill more people than asthma, even though the reverse is true. Which of the following social-psychological concepts could help to explain this phenomenon?
Group polarization
Social facilitation
The representativeness heuristic
The availability heuristic
The availability heuristic
When individuals make decisions based on how easy it is to imagine similar instances, they're using what is known as the availability heuristic. Shark attacks are far more likely to be covered by news sources than asthma-related deaths; thus, stories of shark-related deaths are more available in one's memory.
Example Question #6 : Social
Cindy pledges to join a sorority and goes through a series of difficult and challenging events, until she is finally accepted into the sorority. According to Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, what will happen to Cindy's beliefs about the sorority?
She will quit the sorority.
She will like the sorority more.
She will like the sorority less.
Her beliefs will not change.
She will like the sorority more.
According to cognitive dissonance theory, Cindy will feel conflicted over her desire to join the sorority and need to complete difficult challenges. After she is a part of the sorority, she will attempt to manage this conflict by liking the sorority more; therefore, justifying her actions.
Example Question #7 : Social
Gary passes an accident on the road while driving. He sees that one car has hit another. If he is committing the fundamental attribution error, then he would be most likely to say which of the following?
The bad weather is responsible for the accident
The driver must have been inattentive
Everyone makes mistakes
I'm a much safer driver
The driver has bad luck
The driver must have been inattentive
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute other people's behaviors to internal or dispositional factors. A person who passes a car accident and commits the fundamental attribution error would attribute blame for the accident to the person. The fundamental attribution error does not say anything about how we make attributions about our own behavior; however, the actor-observer bias says that we tend to make dispositional attributions for the behavior of others and situational attributions for our own behaviors.
Example Question #5 : Attitudes & Behavior
According to the bystander effect, a person would be most likely to receive help during a medical emergency under which of the following circumstances?
He is in a large crowd
He is a doctor
The medical emergency is common
There is only one or two other people present
He is elderly
There is only one or two other people present
The bystander effect is related to diffusion of responsibility, and states that bystanders are less likely to help a victim if other bystanders are present. For example, if a person is having a medical emergency, he will be less likely to be helped if he is in a large crowd. The bystander effect says he would be most likely to be helped if only one or two other people are present, since the bystanders are more likely to feel responsible for helping.
Example Question #6 : Social
Consider the following scenario: Nancy shows up to school wearing a brand new outfit that she really likes. When she arrives at school, Nancy notices that Susan (who Nancy has disliked for a long time) is wearing the exact same outfit as Nancy. Nancy decides that Susan isn't so bad after all.
This scenario best reflects which social psychological construct?
Fundamental attribution error
Gain-Loss principle
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