Psychology Trivia: Why We Do What We Do Quiz

Answer: Self-serving bias

The self-serving bias could be used to explain John's behavior, because he attributed his own success to his strengths, and Madison's success to external factors, a rigged system. According to to the self-serving bias, John also would have most likely attributed his opponent's failure to win the award the month before to their own weaknesses.

Answer: Bystander effect

The bystander effect is often the reason that bullying goes unpunished, because no one wants to take responsibility. People are less likely to provide help when they are in groups than when they are alone. Diffusion of responsibility occurs when a bystander does not help because they believe that someone else will.

Answer: Obedience

The Milgram experiment tested how far a participant would go to obey the commands of the experimenter. The participant would ask questions to another participant, who was actually a confederate of the experimenter. The confederate could not be seen and was not harmed in any way, but the participant believed they were administering them a shock for each incorrect answer.

Many participants obeyed completely and delivered the highest shock setting, which would have killed the person.

Answer: Object permanence

Children develop many skills as they grow older, including the ability to understand object permanence. Many infants do not realize that an object they can not see still exists, so when you take an object away they may cry and not look for it. Older children will realize that the object is still there but hidden.

Answer: Reciprocity

Many people say that opposites attract, but in reality it is the opposite. Psychological studies have shown that we tend to want to be around those people that want to be around us.

Answer: Observational learning

Observational learning occurs when people's behaviors are influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. There are three stages to this type of learning. Firstly, someone must pay attention to the behavior. Next, they must retain the information on how to do the action. Finally, the action is reproduced by the observer. Observational learning occurs in both humans and animals of any age.

Answer: Operant conditioning

There are many different types of learning. This is an example of operant conditioning because Molly was learning to behave in a certain way as a result of outside factors. Her father rewarded Molly when she was good at school, which would increase the chances that Molly behaved at school.

Answer: Door-in-the-face technique

Salesmen and marketers use many techniques to get people to buy their item or donate. This is an example of the door-in-the-face technique because Randy asked for a larger donation that you turned down. You were then more likely to agree to Randy's smaller request of $100.

Answer: Repression

Many people develop defense mechanisms to deal with their feelings or a traumatic event. Repression occurs when distressing thoughts and feelings are buried in the subconscious. Repression is often seen in soldiers who have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder from dealing with war situations.

Answer: Retrograde

Retrograde amnesia occurs when memories for events that occurred prior to a head injury are lost. A loss of memories of events which occur after a head injury is called anterograde amnesia. In this case, long term memories are not affected. Anterograde amnesia is very much like short term memory loss, which was what Dory suffered from in "Finding Nemo".