PYC3701
EXAM PACK
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MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the
question.
Answers and feedback for Assignment 01 (Unique no: 886108)
1. People’s personal identities, and their various social identities, require them to be different people
in different contexts. This results in - - - - -.
A. people having false selves depending on the context
B. people often have a distorted view of who they “really are”
C. people often operate from a less-than-principled position
D. a potentially variable but coherent self-definition
Alternative D is correct. Despite such potential variability in self-definition, most of us manage to
maintain a coherent image of ourselves, while recognising that we may define ourselves and
behave differently in different situations. See Chapter 4, page 135.)
2. When thinking about a bad or happy event and predicting our future level of happiness, we tend to
- - - - -.
A. neglect all the other factors that will contribute to our future state of mind over time
B. assume the bad or happy event will change us in some meaningful way
C. assume others will view us differently as the result of some bad or happy event
D. underplay the fact that a bad or happy event will likely change us in meaningful ways
Alternative A is correct. When we think about something terrible happening to us and try to predict
how we would feel 1 year after the event, we are likely to focus exclusively on the awfulness of that
event and neglect all the other factors that will almost certainly contribute to our happiness level as
the year progresses (Gilbert & Wilson, 2000). Consequently, people tend to predict that they would
feel much worse than they feel when the future arrives. Likewise, for positive events, if we focus
on only that great future event, we will mispredict our happiness as being considerably higher than
the actual moderate feelings that are likely 1 year later. In the case of predicting our responses to
such positive events in the future, miscalculation would occur because we are unlikely to consider
the daily hassles, we are also likely to experience in the future, and those would most definitely
moderate how we feel. See Chapter 4, page 131, on why we have so much difficulty predicting our
future responses.
3. The personal-social identity continuum recognizes that we - - - - -.
A. see ourselves as being more consistent across situations than we really are
B. can see ourselves differently, depending on circumstances
C. are part of a number of different social groups
D. see ourselves primarily as individuals
Alternative B is correct. The personal-social identity continuum recognises that we see ourselves
differently, depending on circumstances. Most people tend to maintain a rational image of
themselves, while accepting that others may define themselves and behave differently in different
situations. (See Chapter 4 in the textbook on page 135 for more information).
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