EPPP Cognitive-Affective Bases 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which cognitive distortion involves drawing broad conclusions from a single negative event?
- Personalization
- Overgeneralization (Correct answer)
- Magnification
- Selective abstraction
Correct answer: Overgeneralization
Overgeneralization involves applying one negative experience as a universal pattern of defeat.
Question 2: The concept of 'affect-as-information' suggests that people use their current mood to:
- Recall autobiographical memories more accurately
- Make judgments about the quality of their decisions (Correct answer)
- Regulate emotional expression in social contexts
- Suppress intrusive thoughts more effectively
Correct answer: Make judgments about the quality of their decisions
Affect-as-information theory holds that people consult their feelings as data when making evaluative judgments.
Question 3: In Bandura's social cognitive theory, self-efficacy beliefs most directly influence which of the following?
- Trait personality structure
- Choice of activities and persistence (Correct answer)
- Unconscious defense mechanisms
- Biological stress reactivity
Correct answer: Choice of activities and persistence
Self-efficacy determines which activities people choose to engage in and how long they persist when facing obstacles.
Question 4: Emotion regulation strategy known as cognitive reappraisal differs from suppression primarily in that reappraisal:
- Occurs later in the emotion-generative process
- Changes the meaning of a situation before emotional response peaks (Correct answer)
- Reduces physiological arousal only after the response has occurred
- Is less effective for negative than positive emotions
Correct answer: Changes the meaning of a situation before emotional response peaks
Reappraisal is an antecedent-focused strategy that alters meaning before the emotional response is fully generated, unlike response-focused suppression.
Question 5: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson) proposes that positive emotions:
- Narrow attention to facilitate goal-directed behavior
- Broaden thought-action repertoires and build lasting resources (Correct answer)
- Inhibit cognitive elaboration to reduce mental load
- Primarily serve social bonding functions with no cognitive effects
Correct answer: Broaden thought-action repertoires and build lasting resources
Fredrickson's theory argues that positive emotions widen the scope of attention and cognition, accumulating durable physical, psychological, and social resources over time.
Question 6: Working memory capacity is most closely associated with which executive function?
- Semantic priming
- Controlled attention and inhibition (Correct answer)
- Implicit procedural learning
- Automatic stereotype activation
Correct answer: Controlled attention and inhibition
Working memory capacity is fundamentally tied to the ability to control attention and inhibit task-irrelevant information.
Question 7: According to appraisal theories of emotion, the primary dimension that distinguishes fear from anger is the appraisal of:
- Goal relevance
- Novelty of the event
- Agency or accountability for the threat (Correct answer)
- Intrinsic pleasantness
Correct answer: Agency or accountability for the threat
Fear involves appraising a threat as caused by situational or unknown factors, while anger arises when another agent is seen as responsible.
EPPP Cognitive-Affective Bases 2
Which cognitive distortion involves drawing broad conclusions from a single negative event?