Free EPPP Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior Practice Questions

The Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior content area represents 11% of the EPPP (Part 1-Knowledge) and covers social cognition, group processes, personality theories, cultural psychology, identity, and oppression. Review each answer and explanation as you practice.

The EPPP format is 225 questions in 255 minutes; this page is a focused content-area sample.

What Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior Covers on the EPPP

ASPPB's test specifications for this content area include:

How to Study Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

EPPP Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior Sample Questions with Answers

Sample Question 1 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

After a staff meeting, a manager says a new employee stayed quiet because the employee is shy, but says the manager's own silence in the same meeting was because the topic was outside the manager's area. This pattern is BEST described as:

  1. A. The spotlight effect
  2. B. The false consensus effect
  3. C. The self-serving bias
  4. D. The actor-observer bias (Correct answer)

Correct answer: D

Explanation: D is correct because the manager explains the other person's behavior by disposition and the manager's own identical behavior by the situation, which is the asymmetry the actor-observer bias describes. A is incorrect because the spotlight effect is overestimating how much other people notice one's own appearance or behavior, not a contrast in how behavior is explained. B is incorrect because that effect is overestimating how many other people share one's own opinions and behaviors. C is incorrect because that bias concerns taking credit for successes and blaming the situation for failures, and staying quiet in a meeting is neither.

Sample Question 2 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

In Weiner's attribution theory, a student who explains a failing exam grade by saying "I didn't study enough" is making an attribution that is:

  1. A. External, stable, and uncontrollable
  2. B. Internal, stable, and uncontrollable
  3. C. External, unstable, and uncontrollable
  4. D. Internal, unstable, and controllable (Correct answer)

Correct answer: D

Explanation: D is correct because lack of effort is located within the person, can change from one occasion to the next, and is under the person's control, which in Weiner's model tends to support future motivation. A is incorrect because this combination describes attributing failure to task difficulty, such as an exam that is always very hard. B is incorrect because this combination describes attributing failure to low ability, which is seen as a fixed trait the student cannot control. C is incorrect because this combination describes attributing failure to bad luck, which lies outside the person.

Sample Question 3 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

In Rosenthal and Jacobson's classic study, teachers were told that certain randomly chosen students were about to show rapid intellectual growth, and by the end of the year those students showed larger gains than their classmates. This outcome was interpreted as:

  1. A. The halo effect
  2. B. The just-world hypothesis
  3. C. A self-fulfilling prophecy (Correct answer)
  4. D. Stereotype threat

Correct answer: C

Explanation: C is correct because the teachers' false expectations changed how they treated the students, which then produced the expected gains, the core of a self-fulfilling prophecy as reported in the Pygmalion research, though later studies suggest such expectancy effects are usually modest. A is incorrect because the halo effect is letting one positive trait color judgments of a person's other traits, not expectations that create the behavior they predict. B is incorrect because that is the belief that people get what they deserve, which leads observers to blame victims for their misfortune. D is incorrect because stereotype threat is a drop in performance from fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one's own group.

Sample Question 4 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

Almost everyone who takes a certain professor's course says it is excellent. A student praises this course but rarely praises any other course, and has praised it every week of the term. According to Kelley's covariation model, observers will MOST likely attribute the student's praise to:

  1. A. A mix of the student's traits and the course
  2. B. The course itself, an external cause (Correct answer)
  3. C. The particular circumstances of one class
  4. D. The student's enthusiastic personality

Correct answer: B

Explanation: B is correct because high consensus, high distinctiveness, and high consistency together lead observers to attribute behavior to the stimulus, here the course, rather than to the person. A is incorrect because the covariation pattern described clearly favors a stimulus attribution and gives no evidence for a person cause. C is incorrect because attributions to passing circumstances follow low consistency, and the student has praised the course every week. D is incorrect because a dispositional attribution follows low consensus and low distinctiveness, and here most people agree and the student praises few other courses.

Sample Question 5 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

Participants complete a dull task and are then paid either $1 or $20 to tell the next participant that it was enjoyable. Later, the participants paid $1 rate the task as more enjoyable than those paid $20. Which explanation BEST accounts for this result?

  1. A. Participants paid $1 inferred their attitude from their behavior because they had no prior attitude
  2. B. The $20 payment led to reactance against an obvious attempt at persuasion
  3. C. Insufficient external justification produced dissonance that was reduced by changing attitudes (Correct answer)
  4. D. Larger rewards strengthen attitudes through operant reinforcement of the stated opinion

Correct answer: C

Explanation: C is correct because with only $1 the participants could not explain the lie by the payment, so to reduce the dissonance between behavior and belief they came to view the task more favorably. A is incorrect because self-perception theory applies to weak or unformed attitudes, and the participants had just found the task boring. B is incorrect because reactance follows a perceived threat to freedom, and the participants freely chose to make the statement in both conditions. D is incorrect because a reinforcement account predicts more attitude change in the $20 group, the opposite of what occurred.

Sample Question 6 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

A person who has never thought much about recycling is asked why they bring their bottles to the recycling center each week. The person answers, "I guess I must care about the environment, since I keep doing it." This reasoning is BEST explained by:

  1. A. Self-perception theory (Correct answer)
  2. B. The overjustification effect
  3. C. Balance theory
  4. D. Cognitive dissonance theory

Correct answer: A

Explanation: A is correct because Bem proposed that when internal states are weak or unclear, people infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior, as an outside observer would. B is incorrect because that effect is a loss of intrinsic interest when an external reward is given for an already enjoyable activity. C is incorrect because balance theory concerns consistency among a person's attitudes toward another person and a shared object, not inferring attitudes from one's own actions. D is incorrect because dissonance requires an uncomfortable conflict between an existing attitude and a behavior, and this person had no prior attitude to conflict with.

Sample Question 7 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

A city forms mixed-race neighborhood councils to reduce prejudice, but the council chairs are always members of one group, the other members only advise, and city leaders publicly question the program. According to the contact hypothesis, which change would MOST likely make the program effective?

  1. A. Have each group meet separately and present its views to city leaders
  2. B. Replace in-person meetings with written exchanges to reduce open conflict
  3. C. Give members equal status and a shared goal, with visible support from authorities (Correct answer)
  4. D. Increase how often members meet while keeping the current council structure

Correct answer: C

Explanation: C is correct because Allport held that contact reduces prejudice when groups have equal status, pursue common goals cooperatively, and have the support of authorities, and this program lacks all three. A is incorrect because separate meetings eliminate intergroup contact altogether and make group boundaries more salient. B is incorrect because reducing direct interaction removes the cooperative contact the hypothesis depends on. D is incorrect because more contact under unequal status and without institutional support can confirm stereotypes rather than reduce them.

Sample Question 8 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

At a summer camp, two groups of boys become hostile after a series of competitions. Researchers first bring the groups together for shared meals and movies, which leads to food fights and insults. They then arrange a problem that neither group can solve alone, such as a broken water supply. What do the results of this study MOST strongly suggest about reducing intergroup conflict?

  1. A. Releasing aggression through playful conflict reduces hostility between groups
  2. B. Contact reduces hostility only after enough time has passed for familiarity to grow
  3. C. Hostility declines once the original competition is removed and the groups are separated
  4. D. Cooperation toward goals that require both groups reduces hostility, while contact alone does not (Correct answer)

Correct answer: D

Explanation: D is correct because in Sherif's Robbers Cave study pleasant contact did not reduce hostility, but a series of superordinate goals that required cooperation did, which shaped later approaches such as the jigsaw classroom. A is incorrect because this is a catharsis account, and the food fights and insults during contact did not reduce hostility. B is incorrect because hostility persisted during contact and declined only once the groups had to cooperate, not with time alone. C is incorrect because ending competition did not by itself end the hostility, and separation gives no chance for attitudes to change.

Sample Question 9 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

Participants read about members of a large group and a much smaller group. Both groups perform desirable behaviors at the same ratio to undesirable ones, and undesirable behaviors are less common overall. Afterward, participants judge the smaller group more negatively. Which process BEST explains how this kind of stereotype can form?

  1. A. Participants judged the smaller group as an outgroup and favored their own group
  2. B. Participants used negative information they already held about the smaller group
  3. C. The smaller group was seen as more varied than the larger group
  4. D. The pairing of two infrequent events is especially distinctive and is overestimated (Correct answer)

Correct answer: D

Explanation: D is correct because in illusory correlation, members of a minority group and infrequent behaviors are both distinctive, so their co-occurrence is better remembered and judged more common than it was. A is incorrect because participants did not belong to either group, so ingroup favoritism cannot explain the bias. B is incorrect because the groups were unfamiliar and labeled only by size, so there was no prior information to draw on. C is incorrect because people tend to see outgroups as less varied than ingroups, the outgroup homogeneity effect, and variability does not explain the negative judgment.

Sample Question 10 — Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

In Sternberg's triangular theory, a long-married couple who feel deep closeness and a firm commitment to each other but little passion have which type of love?

  1. A. Empty love
  2. B. Fatuous love
  3. C. Romantic love
  4. D. Companionate love (Correct answer)

Correct answer: D

Explanation: D is correct because Sternberg defined companionate love as the combination of intimacy and commitment without passion, a pattern common in long-lasting relationships. A is incorrect because empty love is commitment alone, without intimacy or passion. B is incorrect because fatuous love combines passion and commitment without intimacy, as in a whirlwind marriage. C is incorrect because romantic love combines intimacy and passion without commitment.

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