SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS 2025/2026 ALL RATED A+
✔✔external attributions - ✔✔ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and
environmental constraints, assumes that given the same or similar situation others
would have behaved in the exact same manner.people infer that a person's behavior is
due to situational factors./Examples of internal factors may be that you are either stupid
or bright or not interested etc.
It seems women tend to point to internal factors more than the seemingly more self-
confident men.
External factors are anything or anybody else you can blame.
✔✔Weiner on success and failure - ✔✔He identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and
luck as the most important factors affecting attributions for achievement.people often
focus on the stability of the causes underlying behavior.Success or failure factors may
be either controllable or uncontrollable.
A controllable factor you can alter or influence if you wish to do so.
An uncontrollable factor is one that you cannot easily alter.
If you e.g. depend on the teacher for success or if you compete with your peers for the
few available high grades, you explain your situation by pointing to uncontrollable
factors.
If you fail in your studies, you can thus attribute this to external, uncontrollable factors
by blaming the bad school and the poor teachers.
This situation you can perceive as stable: No matter how hard you try, these
uncontrollable external factors will ensure your failure. In other words, you have very
good explanations for your failure, and others are to blame.
✔✔the stable and unstable dimension in attribution - ✔✔f you think the outcome is
stable, then it is likely to be the same the next time as well If, on the contrary, it is
unstable, the outcome will probably be different on another occasion.
If you tend to go for the stable explanation, you may tend to rationalise: 'it doesn't really
matter how hard I try, I will fail anyway'.
If you point to the unstable explanation on the other hand, you think you might succeed
if you put in more or smarter efforts.
✔✔stable (internal) - ✔✔f you think the outcome is stable, then it is likely to be the same
the next time as well. If, on the contrary,
✔✔unstable (internal) - ✔✔it is unstable, the outcome will probably be different on
another occasion.
If you tend to go for the stable explanation, you may tend to rationalise: 'it doesn't really
matter how hard I try, I will fail anyway'. ex. inadequate effort to put together an eye
catching resume
✔✔stable (external) - ✔✔too much outstanding competition
, ✔✔unstable (external) - ✔✔bad luck
✔✔Weiner's model - ✔✔assumes that peoples explanations for success and failure
emphasizes internal vs external causes and stable versus unstable causes.
✔✔fundamental attribution error - ✔✔overestimate internal attributions for other people,
underestimating influences of the situation ex.For example, if someone cuts in front of
you in line, your immediate reaction is, "This person is a complete jerk!" But in reality,
maybe he never cuts into lines and is doing it this time only because he is about to miss
his plane, the one he's taking to be with his great aunt, who is on the verge of death.
✔✔self-serving bias - ✔✔the tendency to attribute ones successes to personal factors
and ones failures to situational factors
✔✔Attractive people are viewed as - ✔✔healthier, happier, more sensitive, more
successful, and having better social skills, more likely to enjoy occupational success
✔✔attractive people are not seen as - ✔✔compassionate or honest
✔✔beauty is in the eye of the - ✔✔culture
✔✔individualism - ✔✔involves putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining
ones identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships
✔✔collectivism - ✔✔involves putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining
ones identity in terms of the groups one belongs to (such as ones family, tribe, work
group, social class, caste, and so on).
✔✔Harry Triandis - ✔✔cultural differences in individualism vs collectivism influence
attributional tendencies as well as other aspects of social behavior
✔✔western people are more into ___ and eastern are more into ____ - ✔✔self serving
bias, self effacing bias
✔✔self effacing bias - ✔✔tend to attribute their successes to help they revise from
others or to the ease of the task, while downplaying the importance of their ability
✔✔Similarity - ✔✔we tend to be attracted to people that we have similarities with
✔✔opposites actually - ✔✔do not attract
✔✔people who are similar to each other - ✔✔tend to be happier together than people
who are not similar
AND ANSWERS 2025/2026 ALL RATED A+
✔✔external attributions - ✔✔ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and
environmental constraints, assumes that given the same or similar situation others
would have behaved in the exact same manner.people infer that a person's behavior is
due to situational factors./Examples of internal factors may be that you are either stupid
or bright or not interested etc.
It seems women tend to point to internal factors more than the seemingly more self-
confident men.
External factors are anything or anybody else you can blame.
✔✔Weiner on success and failure - ✔✔He identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and
luck as the most important factors affecting attributions for achievement.people often
focus on the stability of the causes underlying behavior.Success or failure factors may
be either controllable or uncontrollable.
A controllable factor you can alter or influence if you wish to do so.
An uncontrollable factor is one that you cannot easily alter.
If you e.g. depend on the teacher for success or if you compete with your peers for the
few available high grades, you explain your situation by pointing to uncontrollable
factors.
If you fail in your studies, you can thus attribute this to external, uncontrollable factors
by blaming the bad school and the poor teachers.
This situation you can perceive as stable: No matter how hard you try, these
uncontrollable external factors will ensure your failure. In other words, you have very
good explanations for your failure, and others are to blame.
✔✔the stable and unstable dimension in attribution - ✔✔f you think the outcome is
stable, then it is likely to be the same the next time as well If, on the contrary, it is
unstable, the outcome will probably be different on another occasion.
If you tend to go for the stable explanation, you may tend to rationalise: 'it doesn't really
matter how hard I try, I will fail anyway'.
If you point to the unstable explanation on the other hand, you think you might succeed
if you put in more or smarter efforts.
✔✔stable (internal) - ✔✔f you think the outcome is stable, then it is likely to be the same
the next time as well. If, on the contrary,
✔✔unstable (internal) - ✔✔it is unstable, the outcome will probably be different on
another occasion.
If you tend to go for the stable explanation, you may tend to rationalise: 'it doesn't really
matter how hard I try, I will fail anyway'. ex. inadequate effort to put together an eye
catching resume
✔✔stable (external) - ✔✔too much outstanding competition
, ✔✔unstable (external) - ✔✔bad luck
✔✔Weiner's model - ✔✔assumes that peoples explanations for success and failure
emphasizes internal vs external causes and stable versus unstable causes.
✔✔fundamental attribution error - ✔✔overestimate internal attributions for other people,
underestimating influences of the situation ex.For example, if someone cuts in front of
you in line, your immediate reaction is, "This person is a complete jerk!" But in reality,
maybe he never cuts into lines and is doing it this time only because he is about to miss
his plane, the one he's taking to be with his great aunt, who is on the verge of death.
✔✔self-serving bias - ✔✔the tendency to attribute ones successes to personal factors
and ones failures to situational factors
✔✔Attractive people are viewed as - ✔✔healthier, happier, more sensitive, more
successful, and having better social skills, more likely to enjoy occupational success
✔✔attractive people are not seen as - ✔✔compassionate or honest
✔✔beauty is in the eye of the - ✔✔culture
✔✔individualism - ✔✔involves putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining
ones identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships
✔✔collectivism - ✔✔involves putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining
ones identity in terms of the groups one belongs to (such as ones family, tribe, work
group, social class, caste, and so on).
✔✔Harry Triandis - ✔✔cultural differences in individualism vs collectivism influence
attributional tendencies as well as other aspects of social behavior
✔✔western people are more into ___ and eastern are more into ____ - ✔✔self serving
bias, self effacing bias
✔✔self effacing bias - ✔✔tend to attribute their successes to help they revise from
others or to the ease of the task, while downplaying the importance of their ability
✔✔Similarity - ✔✔we tend to be attracted to people that we have similarities with
✔✔opposites actually - ✔✔do not attract
✔✔people who are similar to each other - ✔✔tend to be happier together than people
who are not similar
