Script Study Questions

Question 1

What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing in perception?

Answer 1

Bottom-up processing is data-driven and relies on sensory input, while top-down processing is guided by prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences.

Question 2

How do sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory interact in the process of remembering information?

Answer 2

Information enters sensory memory, moves to short-term memory if attended to, and with encoding, enters long-term memory.

Question 3

What are the key differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?

Answer 3

Classical conditioning pairs a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to create a learned response (learning through association).
Operant conditioning modifies behavior through rewards or punishments.

The fundamental difference: Subjects in operant conditioning need to have some responses before their behavior is reinforced or punished.

Question 4

What is the ‘10,000-hour rule’ related to expertise and skill development?

Answer 4

It suggests that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed to achieve expert-level performance in a skill.

Question 5

What are the levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 5

From the bottom to the top, the five levels of needs are
1. Physiological needs (food, water)
2. Safety needs (security)
3. Social and love needs (relationships)
4. Esteem needs (achievement)
5. Self-actualization needs (personal growth)

Question 6

What factors contribute to conformity in social settings?

Answer 6

Conformity can be due to normative social influence or informational social influence.

Question 7

What are the two types of attribution in perceiving others’ behaviors?

Answer 7

• Internal attribution: Behavior is due to personality/personal traits
• External attribution: Behavior is due to the situation/environmental factors

Question 8

What are the psychological causes of aggression?

Answer 8

Aggression can stem from:
- Pain and discomfort (e.g. heat, noise)
- Frustration (e.g. due to unmet goals)
- Environmental stress/social situations (e.g. traffic jams or war)
- Social learning/exposure to violence and aggression in the media (e.g. desensitization; imitation of violent behavior)

Question 9

How does the bystander effect impact helping behavior?

Answer 9

The more people are present during an emergency, the less likely someone is to help due to diffusion of responsibility.

Example: In a crowded train, a collapsed passenger may go unhelped if everyone assumes someone else will act.

Question 10

How does goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham) contribute to employee motivation?

Answer 10

Goals increase employee motivation and performance when they are specific, challenging but attainable, and they include feedback.

When working in a group setting, goals also need to be accepted by the members of the group to be successful.

Question 11

What psychological factors contribute to workplace stress?

Answer 11

Factors include high workload, poor leadership, job insecurity, and lack of autonomy.

Question 12

Why is effective communication important in organizations?

Answer 12

Clear communication improves teamwork, reduces misunderstandings, and enhances job satisfaction.

Question 13

What is the principle of transformation in perception?

Answer 13

Stimuli and responses are transformed between the distal stimulus and perception. The brain interprets representations of stimuli.

Stimuli and responses are altered as they move from the environment to our brain’s interpretation.

Question 14

What role do sensory receptors play in perception?

Answer 14

Sensory receptors transform environmental energy into electrical signals through transduction.

Question 15

What is the difference between proximal and distal stimuli?

Answer 15

Distal stimulus: The actual object in the environment.
Proximal stimulus: The representation of that object on sensory receptors.

Question 16

What are the three main psychophysical methods used to measure perception thresholds?

Answer 16

• Method of limits
• Method of constant stimuli
• Method of adjustment

Question 17

What is the cocktail party effect, and how does it relate to selective attention?

Answer 17

The cocktail party effect is the brain’s ability to focus on a specific auditory input in a noisy environment.
In other words, it is the ability to focus on one conversation in a noisy environment while filtering out other sounds. This demonstrates selective auditory attention.

Question 18

What is the split-attention effect, and how does it impact learning?

Answer 18

The split-attention effect occurs when multiple sources of information require simultaneous processing, increasing cognitive load and reducing comprehension.

Question 19

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

Answer 19

Intrinsic motivation: Comes from within. I.e., engaging in an activity for personal satisfaction.
Extrinsic motivation: Relies on external rewards or consequences.

Question 20

How does autonomy support from a manager influence workplace motivation?

Answer 20

It leads to higher motivation, job satisfaction, and performance.

Question 21

What is the difference between informational and normative social influence?

Answer 21

• Informational social influence: Following others when uncertain/Conforming to gain accurate information
• Normative social influence: Conforming to gain social approval/to fit in with a group

Question 22

How does frustration contribute to aggression?

Answer 22

The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that frustration increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Question 23

What strategies reduce aggression in individuals and society?

Answer 23

• Teaching empathy
• Promoting non-violent conflict resolution (e.g. non-aggressive communication training)
• Limiting/reducing exposure to violent media
• Encouraging positive role models

Question 24

What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer 24

People help others because they feel empathy for them, rather than for personal gain.

Question 25

What is the door-in-the-face technique?

Answer 25

A large request likely to be rejected is made first, followed by a smaller request, which people feel obligated to accept.

Question 26

What is the foot-in-the-door technique?

Answer 26

A small request is made first, followed by a larger request, increasing compliance due to consistency.

Question 27

What are the two main types of work analysis?

Answer 27

* Work-oriented analysis: focuses on the nature of tasks and duties that need to be done on the job (five-level hierarchy: position, duty, task, activity, element) * Worker-oriented analysis: concerns what employees do at work and examines characteristics, skills, and competencies needed for a job (KSAOs)

Question 28

How does workplace stress affect employees’ well-being?

Answer 28

Chronic workplace stress can lead to burnout, anxiety, and health issues. It can also decrease job performance and lower productivity.

Question 29

What are the five dimensions of organizational culture?

Answer 29

* Innovation and risk-taking * Attention to detail * Outcome orientation * People orientation * Team orientation

Question 30

How do mergers and acquisitions affect employees psychologically?

Answer 30

They create uncertainty, stress, lack of trust, and identity loss, leading to resistance, decreased morale, and decreased productivity. This can be mitigated by communication and support. It is also desirable to encourage a common goal orientation and psychological engagement.

Question 31

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 31

The failure to notice unexpected objects in one’s field of vision when attention is focused elsewhere, due to limited cognitive resources.

Question 32

What is chunking?

Answer 32

A memory strategy that groups information into meaningful units, making it easier to remember. It reduces the cognitive load and improves retention and memory capacity.

Question 33

What is the recency effect?

Answer 33

The tendency to remember the most recent information/the last items in a sequence better because they remain in short-term memory.

Question 34

What is social learning theory?

Answer 34

According to Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, people learn behaviors by observing and imitating models. This supports the claim that much aggressive behavior results from imitating other people in society. The social learning process can occur when directly experiencing aggression or via indirect exposure to mass media violence.

Question 35

How can extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation?

Answer 35

Extrinsic rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation if they make the activity feel like a chore. When people receive external rewards for tasks they previously enjoyed, intrinsic motivation may decrease, i.e. they may become less motivated to engage in the task without the reward.

Question 36

What did Harlow’s experiments reveal about attachment?

Answer 36

In Harlow’s monkey experiments, the baby monkey stayed longer with the cloth mother, even when they received milk only from the wire mother. This showed that contact was more important than food for infant monkeys, indicating the importance of emotional bonding. In other words, comfort and security are crucial for attachment, supporting attachment theory.

Question 37

What is social loafing?

Answer 37

Social loafing happens when individuals exert less effort in group tasks because their individual contributions aren’t easily identified, leading to lower productivity.

Question 38

What are the key motives behind prosocial behavior?

Answer 38

* Evolutionary perspective – Kin selection * Social exchange theory – Expectation of rewards * Empathy-altruism hypothesis – Helping due to genuine concern

Question 39

What is constructivism?

Answer 39

Constructivists, such as Lev Vygotsky, view learning as the cognitive construction of knowledge and understanding that the learners actively build up by themselves.

Question 40

What is behaviorism?

Answer 40

Behaviorist pioneers, such as Ivan Pavlov, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, and John Watson, conducted different empirical experiments to investigate the influence of external stimuli (e.g., reward and punishment) on behavioral changes. By examining human adjustment to a given stimulus, psychologists can predict and control the response in the general environment.

Question 41

What is cognitivism?

Answer 41

Also called social learning theory, cognitivism understands learning as a consequence of the interaction of individuals with their social environment. From the social-cognitive perspective, learning is a modeling process that assists people in gaining knowledge and understanding many social behaviors.

Question 42

What are the four phases of the modeling procedure, according to Bandura’s social learning theory?

Answer 42

1) Learning phase: the observer selects an appropriate model and pays attention to that person’s behaviors 2) Implementation phase: the observer adopts the model’s behavior, and reinforcement is given when the modeling behavior is achieved 3) Reproducing phase: the desired behavior has firmly stayed in the observer’s mind so that he or she can repeat the behavior when requested 4) Reinforcement of model behavior and motivation of repetition can be continuous

Question 43

What are the milestones of children’s language development?

Answer 43

Question 44

What are the eight forms of intelligence, as identified in Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory?

Answer 44

Question 45

What are five characteristics that make employees satisfied, engaged and motivated in their job, according to the job characteristics model (JCM)?

Answer 45

- task autonomy - task variety - skill variety - task significance - job feedback

Question 46

What are examples of physical and psychological stressors in the workplace?

Answer 46

Physical stressors: noise, extremes of temperatures, vibration, radiation exposure, heavy workload, continued work to meet deadlines, prolonged sitting and standing Psychological stressors: low internal locus of control (LOC), interpersonal conflicts, role conflicts

Question 47

What are the main approaches/methods of work-oriented work-analysis?

Answer 47

- Observation & shadowing (gathering first-hand information of employee’s performance) - Protocol (systematically collect job-related data)

Question 48

What are the main approaches of worker-oriented analysis?

Answer 48

- Interview (well-prepared and structured format for asking job-related questions) - Questionnaire & survey (scientific measurement with a standardized procedure; often self-reported, e.g. individual work performance questionnaire (IWPQ) -> four dimensions: task performance, contextual performance, adaptive performance, counterproductive work behavior)

Question 49

What are the two types of leadership?

Answer 49

Transformational leadership: - Articulate a clear vision and inspire employees to perform beyond expectations - Flexibly respond to the needs of different employees and make others feel valued Transactional leadership - Relationship characterized by mutual dependence in which a leader and follower exchange valued outcomes

Question 50

What are different types of team diversity?

Answer 50

- bio-demographic diversity (e.g. gender, age, race/ethnicity) - attitudinal diversity (attitudes, beliefs, values) - task-related diversity (functional expertise, education)

Question 51

What are the two perspectives when it comes to diversity?

Answer 51

Social categorization perspective - similarity/attraction - ingroup/outgroup - diversity is disruptive Information/decision-making perspective - informational resource - diversity boosts performance Psychological safety is a key factor in making diversity more successful.

Question 52

What are the four elements of productive conflict?

Answer 52

- express (advocate perspective, be open to being challenged) - understand (leverage curiosity, questioning) - integrate (building on ideas and merging perspectives) - agree (deciding on a solution based on a shared understanding of context and problem)

Question 53

What is active listening and what are its characteristics?

Answer 53

A competence to focus on a speaker, understanding and comprehending the useful information that conveys from the external environment. Characteristics: - empathizing with the speaker - summarizing the key information - hearing all conveyed information, including verbal and non-verbal information (e.g. facial expressions, gestures, eye contact) - avoiding interruptions and talking over the speaker

Question 54

What are schemas?

Answer 54

assumptions about other people and events based on prior knowledge and experience to save time and effort

Question 55

What are the uses of a formal work analysis?

Answer 55

- writing a job description - employee selection - performance evaluation - promotion - training - job assignment

Question 56

What are examples of motivators and hygiene factors in Herzberg’s two-factor theory?

Answer 56

Question 57

What are antecendents of job satisfaction?

Answer 57

Environmental factors: job characteristics, salary, perception of justice Personal characteristics: personality, job expectation, gender, perception of equality, interpersonal relations with coworkers

Question 58

What are the three levels of stress management strategy?

Answer 58

1) recognizing and solving the problems at the individual level 2) encouraging positive interaction at the group level 3) achieving a person-environment fit at the organizational level

Question 59

What is the role of leadership in M&As?

Answer 59

Leaders should be responsible for raising employees’ awareness of future stressors and ensure a smooth implementation. Transformational leadership positively shapes employees’ commitment to their organization. Typical characteristics of a transformational leader: - idealized influence - inspirational motivation - intellectual stimulation - individualized consideration

Question 60

What is the difference between primary and secondary appraisal in the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping?

Answer 60

• Primary appraisal involves evaluating whether a situation is a threat or not. If a person does not perceive the situation as threatening, no stress is triggered. • Secondary appraisal is activated after a threat is perceived. It assesses whether one has sufficient coping resources. If effective strategies are available, the stress may be positive and lead to personal growth. If coping seems impossible, the person experiences negative stress.

Question 61

What are some individual-level strategies to prevent or reduce stress?

Answer 61

• Increase control over stressors, e.g., reducing their number or managing work content. • Develop an internal locus of control (LOC) and autonomy by negotiating flexible schedules and setting realistic goals. • Promote self-monitoring and pacing for better work outcomes. • Aim for work–life balance. • Manage expectations and restructure negative thoughts to better understand the relationship between self and situation.

Question 62

How does the perception of coping ability affect whether stress is positive or negative?

Answer 62

• If a person perceives they have resources or strategies to cope, the stress can be positive and promote growth. • If a person perceives zero coping possibility, the stress becomes negative and potentially harmful.

Question 63

What are group-level strategies for preventing stress according to organizational psychologists?

Answer 63

• Build strong interpersonal relationships to reduce conflict. • Encourage positive interaction and avoid disrespectful arguments. • Create clear role descriptions and reduce social loafing to minimize stress.

Question 64

How can organizations reduce work stress at the organizational level?

Answer 64

• Change the structure and climate of the workplace to support employees. • Promote a culture of respect, fairness, and safety. • Provide regular performance feedback and fair appraisals, which improve job satisfaction and reduce stress.