Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 12e (Robbins/Judge)
Chapter 6 Perception and Individual Decision Making
1) ________ is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions
in order to give meaning to their environment.
A) Cognitive dissonance
B) Environmental analysis
C) Social verification
D) Emotional labor
E) Perception
2) Two people see the same thing at the same time yet interpret it differently. In this situation,
factors that operate to shape their dissimilar perceptions reside in the ________.
A) perceivers
B) target
C) timing
D) context
E) situation
3) David is of the opinion that people who drive SUVs are dangerous drivers. He often thinks
that people driving SUVs are driving rashly, even when other observers can see nothing wrong
with the behavior of the SUV drivers. What factor is affecting his perception in this case?
A) his interests
B) his personality
C) his expectations
D) his motives
E) his attitude
4) Which of the following statements is true regarding perception?
A) Our perception of reality is independent of our personality.
B) The context of the situation in which the perception is made has little effect on our perception
of reality.
C) Our perception of reality can be different from the objective reality.
D) Our perception of reality is independent of our past experiences.
E) We form a perception of a target by looking at it in isolation.
5) Loud people are more likely to be noticed in a group than quiet ones. So, too, are extremely
attractive or unattractive individuals. Which of the following statements best explains the reason
behind this fact?
A) Our perception of reality depends on our past experiences.
B) Our perception of reality depends on our personality.
C) The relationship of a target to its background influences our perception of the target.
D) The time at which we see an object can influence our perception of the object.
E) Our motives and expectations affect our perception of a target.
6) Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to
determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends
largely on three factors. Which of the following is one of these three factors?
A) stereotyping
B) consistency
C) anchoring
D) rationality
E) intuition
7) ________ theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on
the meaning we attribute to a given behavior.
A) ERG
B) Hierarchy of needs
C) Acquired needs
D) Attribution
E) Two factor
8) Which of the following is an example of externally caused behavior?
A) An employee is late to work because he was partying late and overslept.
B) An employee is late because of a flat tire.
C) An employee was fired because he violated a company policy.
D) An employee was promoted because he was hard working.
E) An employee died from lung cancer after excessive tobacco use.
9) With reference to the attribution theory, which of the following terms indicates the extent to
which an individual displays different behaviors in different situations?
A) continuity
B) integrity
C) stability
D) flexibility
E) distinctiveness
10) According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to
external causes.
A) low on distinctiveness
B) high on adaptability
C) low on consistency
D) high on stability
E) low on consensus
11) Attribution theory uses three factors to determine if a person’s behavior is caused internally
or externally. One of these three factors is consensus. It indicates if ________.
A) the person has high propensity to defer to others
B) the individual displays different behaviors in different situations
C) everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way
D) the individual responds the same way over time
E) the person scores high on conscientiousness
12) Randy always turns in reports with punctuation errors. The reports of the three other
employees on the QA report writing team always produce grammatically clean reports. Randy is
about to turn in another report, and his manager has already noticed errors. Randy demonstrates
________. His sloppy reports can be attributed to an ________ cause.
A) low distinctiveness, low consensus, and high consistency; internal
B) high distinctiveness, low consensus, and high consistency; external
C) low distinctiveness, high consensus, and high consistency; internal
D) low distinctiveness, low consensus, and high consistency; external
E) high distinctiveness, high consensus, and high consistency; internal
13) If a person responds the same way over time, the attribution theory states that the behavior
shows ________.
A) distinctiveness
B) consensus
C) consistency
D) continuity
E) stability
14) Janice is late for work each day by about ten minutes. How would the attribution theory
describe this behavior?
A) It shows consensus.
B) It shows similarity.
C) It shows reliability.
D) It shows consistency.
E) It shows distinctiveness.
15) According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to
internal causes.
A) low on consistency
B) high on traceability
C) low on distinctiveness
D) high on consensus
E) low on flexibility
16) Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about
the behavior of others?
A) fundamental attribution error
B) halo effect
C) selective perception
D) overconfidence
E) randomness error
17) Your boss never gives you the benefit of the doubt. When you arrived late from lunch, he
assumed that you had simply taken too much time. He never considered that the elevators were
not working that day and the fact that you had to walk up 10 flights of stairs. Your boss is guilty
of ________.
A) a self-serving bias
B) selective perception
C) the fundamental attribution error
D) inconsistency
E) stereotyping
18) ________ indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his own successes to internal
factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.
A) Fundamental attribution error
B) Self-serving bias
C) Distinction bias
D) Selective perception
E) Stereotyping
19) Whenever Jane is successful she takes full credit for her success, but whenever she is
unsuccessful she attributes her failure to bad luck or blames one of her fellow employees. She is
guilty of the ________.
A) fundamental attribution error
B) attribution bias
C) confirmation bias
D) distinction bias
E) self-serving bias
20) Investors bragged about their investing expertise in the stock market rally between 1996 and
early 2000. Knowing individuals rely on the self-serving bias to explain failure, which of the
following explanations would an investor be most likely to state after the market imploded in
2000?
A) I did not do sufficient research before investing.
B) The analysts did not look at the numbers properly.
C) I really should have seen it coming.
D) My broker advised me to pull out, but I was blind.
E) I really should have diversified my earnings.
21) We use a number of shortcuts when we judge others. All of the following are shortcuts that
we use to judge others except ________.
A) stereotyping
B) the halo effect
C) the contrast effect
D) the self-serving bias
E) selective perception
22) Because it is impossible for us to assimilate everything we see, we engage in ________.
A) selective perception
B) cognitive dissonance
C) self-serving bias
D) emotional labor
E) fundamental attribution error
23) William thinks that all good looking people are kind and hardworking. In this example, the
shortcut used by William to judge others is called the ________.
A) contrast effect
B) self-serving bias
C) framing effect
D) halo effect
E) impact bias
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The students in your class are presenting their oral presentations in front of the entire class. You
have heard that there are several frequently used shortcuts to judging others and are wondering if
any of these are being used by your teacher.
24) Allison has just presented her paper and has done a really good job. Why should you not
want to present your own paper directly after she does?
A) to avoid the stereotyping effect
B) to avoid the halo effect
C) to avoid the contrast effect
D) to avoid the projection effect
E) to avoid the fundamental attribution error
25) You have heard that the teacher believes that men perform better in oral presentations than
women. What shortcut has the teacher used in this case?
A) the halo effect
B) the contrast effect
C) the hindsight bias
D) stereotyping
E) the self-serving bias
26) Jennifer has already presented two excellent reports. The third report she has just presented is
clearly not as good as the first two reports, yet she is given the same high grade as before. What
shortcut has the teacher used in this case?
A) the contrast effect
B) the halo effect
C) stereotyping
D) the framing effect
E) the hindsight bias
27) It was Marisol’s first day at work. At first she was very nervous, but when she was
introduced to her cubicle neighbor, Hanna, she was reassured by Hanna’s soothing smile. Marisol
thought that a person with such a beautiful smile could not be bad, and that she would enjoy
having her in such close proximity. Which of the following concepts best describes this
example?
A) contrast effect
B) fundamental attribution error
C) halo effect
D) selective perception
E) self-serving bias
28) We don’t evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction to a person is influenced by other
persons we have recently encountered. This is known as the ________.
A) halo effect
B) contrast effect
C) confirmation bias
D) framing effect
E) impact bias
29) You are more likely to notice cars like your own due to ________.
A) stereotyping
B) self-serving bias
C) selective perception
D) halo effect
E) contrast effect
30) When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he/she
belongs, it is called ________.
A) confirmation bias
B) stereotyping
C) framing effect
D) distinction bias
E) bandwagon effect
31) Samantha’s rating in a job interview is high in contrast to the candidate who was interviewed
directly before her, who was rated extremely low. In this case, Samantha‘s high rating can be
partially attributed to the ________.
A) confirmation bias
B) contrast effect
C) fundamental attribution error
D) self-serving bias
E) bandwagon effect
32) Which of the following statements is not an example of stereotyping?
A) There is no need to offer child care to him; men aren’t interested in child care.
B) Don’t hire an older worker; they can’t learn new skills.
C) She was good at her last job, so she will be good at this one.
D) She won’t relocate for a promotion, since women don’t relocate.
E) The new hire will be emotionally insensitive, since he is a man.
33) Which of the following statements is true regarding a contrast effect?
A) Our tendency to attribute our success to internal factors and blame our failure on external
factors is called the contrast effect.
B) The contrast effect states that we tend to judge someone on the basis of our perception of the
group to which he or she belongs.
C) A person appears more appealing than normal when compared with a person of less appeal
due to the contrast effect.
D) If we think that women won’t relocate for a promotion, we are using a shortcut to judge all
women and it is called the contrast effect.
E) The contrast effect indicates a tendency to fixate on initial information and fail to adequately
adjust for subsequent information.
34) Which of the following statements best represents a halo effect?
A) We tend to attribute our own successes to internal factors but we tend to put the blame for our
failure on external factors.
B) We tend to judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she
belongs.
C) Our reaction to a person is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered.
D) We tend to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic, such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance.
E) When we make judgments about the behavior of other people, we tend to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors.
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35) Business schools generally train students to follow ________ decision-making models.
A) intuitive
B) convolutional
C) rational
D) bounded rationality
E) sequential
36) With reference to decision making, satisficing involves ________.
A) identifying all possible alternative decisions
B) seeking solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient
C) evaluating all possible alternatives objectively
D) selecting the best option with the highest utility
E) using an unconscious decision-making process created from distilled experience
37) What is the first step in the rational decision-making model?
A) developing alternatives
B) defining the problem
C) identifying the decision criteria
D) weighing the decision criteria
E) collecting relevant data
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38) Meg has exceeded her budget by at least $200 every month for the last three months. After
recognizing that this is a problem, she decides to use the rational decision-making model to
decide what to do. What should be the next step she should take, if she follows this model?
A) determine what criteria she needs to take into account when making her decision
B) choose a method to cut her expenses
C) implement some other method of budgeting
D) come up with different ways that would either reduce her expenses or increase her income
E) evaluate different ways that she could use to either reduce her expenses or increase her
income
39) Which is not one of the steps in the rational decision-making model?
A) defining the problem
B) identifying the decision criteria
C) evaluating the alternatives
D) finding a reasonable solution
E) selecting the best alternative
40) In the real world, what do people typically do when making a decision about a problem?
A) follow the rational decision-making model
B) seek the optimal decision
C) obtain complete information about all possible alternatives before making a decision
D) evaluate all the possible options in an unbiased and objective manner
E) find a satisfactory and sufficient solution
41) Decision makers construct simplified models that extract the essential features from
problems without capturing all their complexity. That is, they operate within the confines of
________.
A) optimal decision making
B) intuitive decision making
C) bounded rationality
D) rationality
E) common sense
42) Which of the following statements is true regarding the rational decision-making model?
A) The rational decision-making model takes into consideration the limited information-
processing capability of individuals.
B) Rational decision-making models involve constructing simplified models that extract the
essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity.
C) The rational decision-making model involves satisficing; seek solutions that are satisfactory
and sufficient.
D) The rational decision-making model assumes that an individual is able to identify all the
relevant options in an unbiased manner.
E) The rational decision-making process is an unconscious one created from distilled experience.
43) ________ is a highly complex and highly developed form of reasoning that is based on years
of experience and learning.
A) Contrast effect
B) Halo effect
C) Intuition
D) Selective perception
E) Emotional intelligence