When It Comes to Making Choices, Working-Class and Upper-Middle-Class Americans

question 24

Multiple Choice

When it comes to making choices, working-class and upper-middle-class Americans differ in that

• A) working-class Americans are more likely than upper-middle-class Americans to express themselves through their choices.
• B) working-class Americans prefer making choices among a small set of options, whereas upper-middle-class Americans prefer making choices from a relatively larger set of options.
• C) upper-middle-class Americans think more deliberately and thus take longer to make a decision compared to working-class Americans.
• D) upper-middle-class Americans are more satisfied with choices they make for themselves compared to choices made for them by others, whereas working-class Americans are satisfied with choices regardless of who makes the choice.
• E) working-class Americans are more likely than upper-middle-class Americans to experience "choice overload" and are consequently more willing to allow other people to make their choices for them.

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Definitions:

Cognitive Dissonance

A psychological phenomenon where an individual experiences mental discomfort from holding two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas simultaneously.

Emotional Dissonance

A conflict or incongruence between felt emotions and the emotions that are expressed or expected to be expressed in a social context.

Emotional Empathy

The capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sentient being.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to understand, use, and manage one's own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.