Question

Karin and her mother live on welfare in a poor,inner-city neighborhood in Detroit. Karin is quite bright and highly motivated,and she really wants to get a college education. However,she knows that,on average,students from low-income homes perform more poorly on the SAT Reasoning Test than students from wealthier homes. When she takes the SAT,she is so nervous that she has trouble concentrating on the test items,and so her scores underestimate her true abilities. Which of the following concepts best explains what has happened to Karin? A) Stereotype threat B) An external attribution C) Hot cognition D) Cognitive dissonance

Answer 1

Answer: d. Cognitive Dissonance

Explanation: She was holding contradictory beliefs in her mind because of how students from poorer areas were getting lower grades, even though she was smart enough to ace the test.