Deck 7: Biological Processes and Personality

Question 1

In studies of drug effects on introverts, they:

A) were less responsive to stimulants and depressants than were extraverts.
B) needed more of a depressant drug to reach a level "unalertness" than did extraverts.
C) needed more of a stimulant to reach a given level of arousal than did extraverts.
D) none of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Theorists tend to disagree about which qualities are subsumed by the trait extraversion. However, most theorists agree it includes sociability and:

A) positive emotions.
B) impulsivity.
C) lack of agency.
D) none of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Extraversion appears related to the:

A) behavioral inhibition system.
B) avoidance system.
C) withdrawal system.
D) none of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The avoidance system links most easily to which of the following traits?

A) extraversion
B) openness to experience
C) agreeableness
D) neuroticism

Question 5

The neurotransmitter___________ is thought to be critically involved in the system that engages in the approach system.

A) epinephrine
B) norepinephrine
C) GABA
D) dopamine

Question 6

Higher dopamine levels are associated with:

A) greater ability to focus on one goal.
B) ability to hold larger amounts of information in working memory.
C) lesser social dominance.
D) all of the above

Question 7

Eysenck argued that the intensified emotional arousal associated with neuroticism:

A) makes extraverts less extraverted.
B) makes introverts less introverted.
C) makes extraverts more extraverted and introverts more introverted.
D) does not interact with extraversion or introversion.

Question 8

Eysenck suggests that differences between introverts and extraverts are based on differences in:

A) exposure to hormones prior to birth.
B) cerebral cortex activation.
C) how parents respond to young infants.
D) endocrine functioning.

Question 9

According to Zuckerman, people who continually search for new, complex and exciting experiences are:

A) extraverts.
B) introverts.
C) sensation seekers.
D) sociopaths.

Question 10

The BAS is assumed to be involved when a person is:

A) pursuing an incentive.
B) avoiding a punishment.
C) experiencing negative emotion.
D) experiencing neutral emotion.

Question 11

The behavioral inhibition system is:

A) responsible for feelings of anxiety.
B) responsible for positive affect.
C) associated with "approach" responses.
D) intimately linked with the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Question 12

Eysenck ultimately included impulsiveness in ___________, because it consistently related better to it than did ____________.

A) extraversion; psychoticism
B) psychoticism; extraversion
C) negative emotionality; sensation-seeking
D) sensation-seeking; negative emotionality

Question 13

Incentives and positive feelings lead to:

A) more right prefrontal cortex activity.
B) less right prefrontal cortex activity.
C) more left prefrontal cortex activity.
D) less left prefrontal cortex activity.

Question 14

According to Eysenck's theory of cortical arousal:

A) introverts should prefer lower levels of stimulation.
B) extraverts seek stimulation to increase arousal.
C) introverts have higher baseline levels of alertness.
D) all of the above

Question 15

___________seems to be involved in threat sensitivity or anxiety.

A) Serotonin
B) Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
C) Norepinephrine
D) all of the above

Question 16

According to Gray, the behavioral inhibition system:

A) is responsible for positive emotions.
B) reacts to punishment and threat.
C) organizes behavior in response to reward cues.
D) is not linked to a particular part of the brain.

Question 17

Relative to extraverts, introverts have ___________levels of cortical arousal.

A) higher
B) lower
C) similar
D) more fluctuating

Question 18

People with reactive inhibition systems are highly sensitive to___________ cues.

A) affective
B) intangible
C) positive
D) threat

Question 19

Dopamine has been associated with:

A) higher positive emotionality.
B) greater social dominance.
C) ability to shift goals flexibly.
D) all of the above

Question 20

Introverts are characterized by a:

A) preference for lower levels of stimulation.
B) base level of lower cortical arousal.
C) lower degree of alertness.
D) all of the above

Question 21

Compared to those low in testosterone, prison inmates with higher levels were:

A) better able to control their behavior and thus obey prison rules.
B) less likely to have committed violent crimes.
C) more dominant in prison.
D) more likely to come from broken homes.

Question 22

In one study, experimentally lowering serotonin levels led to:

A) decreased hostility in everybody.
B) increased hostility in everybody.
C) decreased hostility for those already high in aggressiveness and no change for those low in aggressiveness.
D) increased hostility for those already high in aggressiveness and no change for those low in aggressiveness.

Question 23

Compared to same-sex siblings not similarly exposed, children exposed to a synthetic male hormone before birth:

A) chose physical aggression more often in interpersonal conflict situations.
B) chose verbal aggression more often in interpersonal conflict situations.
C) were more likely to be clinically depressed.
D) were unable to develop plans in low-level problem-solving situations.

Question 24

Among a sample of men who had committed murder, those with higher testosterone levels were more:

A) remorseful.
B) likely to have killed strangers.
C) likely to have committed the murder without planning ahead.
D) none of the above

Question 25

The basic template for the development of the human body is:

A) female.
B) male.
C) both male and female.
D) androgynous.

Question 26

Military veterans higher in testosterone were more likely to have:

A) gone AWOL while in the military.
B) assaulted other adults.
C) abused alcohol and other drugs.
D) all of the above

Question 27

From an evolutionary perspective, the adaptive nature of dominance and aggressiveness in males:

A) is staying about the same.
B) is increasing.
C) is decreasing.
D) cannot be known.

Question 28

Over a two-week period, higher serotonin levels were associated with:

A) higher levels of both positive and negative feelings.
B) lower levels of both positive and negative feelings.
C) higher levels of positive feelings and lower levels of negative feelings.
D) lower levels of positive feelings and higher levels of negative feelings.

Question 29

Testosterone levels drop following:

A) successful competition.
B) a failure or humiliation experience.
C) sexual intercourse.
D) all of the above

Question 30

According to Zuckerman, people high in sensation seeking tend to have a difficult time:

A) completing projects they start.
B) regulating their emotions.
C) inhibiting behavior in the service of social adaptation.
D) all of the above

Question 31

Which of the following statements is true about attorneys?

A) Male but not female trial attorneys are higher in testosterone than nontrial attorneys.
B) Female but not male trial attorneys are higher in testosterone than nontrial attorneys.
C) Both male and female trial attorneys are higher in testosterone than nontrial attorneys.
D) Both male and female nontrial attorneys are higher in testosterone than trial attorneys.

Question 32

Compared with people lower in sensation seeking, sensation seekers are more likely to:

A) be sexually responsive.
B) use a variety of drugs.
C) be dissatisfied in relationships.
D) all of the above

Question 33

Taylor argues that men and women differ in their responses to stress because of a difference in:

A) the way in which men and women are socialized.
B) evolutionary pressures.
C) social norms for men and women.
D) testosterone levels.

Question 34

Booth and Dabbs found that men with higher testosterone were:

A) more likely to have married.
B) less likely to have divorced.
C) more likely to have engaged in extramarital sex and domestic abuse.
D) all of the above

Question 35

Research on hormones and behavior suggests that early exposure to masculinizing hormones can affect the:

A) development of verbal skills later in life.
B) type of toys that children chose to play with years later.
C) development of interpersonal skills during adolescence.
D) none of the above

Question 36

Monoamine oxidase has been linked to:

A) sensation-seeking.
B) dominance.
C) drunk driving.
D) all of the above

Question 37

As opposed to the fight-or-flight response identified in men, Taylor has argued that women respond to stress by:

A) calming offspring and bonding with others.
B) trying to avoid the situation causing the stress.
C) becoming sexually aroused.
D) all of the above

Question 38

Studies on testosterone focus more often on:

A) antisocial behavior.
B) adult sexual behavior.
C) sexual development.
D) prison inmates.

Question 39

Evidence suggests that the two sides of the cerebral cortex are:

A) equivalently connected in women and men.
B) more richly connected in women than men at birth, but equivalently connected in women and men in adulthood.
C) more richly connected in men than women.
D) more richly connected in women than men.

Question 40

Following sexual intercourse, testosterone levels:

A) rise for both men and women.
B) fall for both men and women.
C) rise for men but fall for women.
D) rise for women but fall for men.

Question 41

Studies have shown that introverts are more alert than extraverts during vigilance tasks.

Question 42

Introverts require more stimulants to reach a given level of arousal.

Question 43

What medication appears to be a viable therapeutic technique for bipolar disorder?

A) lithium
B) dexamethasone
C) dopamine
D) no medication works

Question 44

A study of the influence of Prozac on people WITHOUT disorders revealed that:

A) the side effects were much more severe than for people with disorders.
B) the side effects were non-existent for this group.
C) positive feelings did not increase for this group.
D) these people displayed fewer positive social behaviors.
True and False

Question 45

Neurobiological evidence suggests that the social incentive and threat systems overlap entirely with the more general approach and avoidance systems.

Question 46

Treatment of schizophrenia is based on the hypothesis that schizophrenic symptoms arise because of:

A) too much epinephrine.
B) too much dopamine.
C) too little dopamine.
D) too little epinephrine.

Question 47

Research on monkeys has revealed connections between dopamine to social dominance.

Question 48

The term___________ is used to describe therapies that involve the administration of drugs:

A) toxicology
B) pharmacology
C) pharmacotherapy
D) none of the above

Question 49

The easiest psychological problem to link to problems with the approach/avoidance system is:

A) anxiety.
B) depression.
C) phobias.
D) antisocial personality.

Question 50

Changes in the electrical activity that occurs in the brain can be obtained using:

A) positron emission tomography (PET).
B) an electroencephalogram (EEG).
C) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
D) all of the above

Question 51

The behavioral inhibition system reacts to punishments and threats.

Question 52

According to Eysenck, introverts and extraverts differ in the level of functioning of the cerebral cortex.

Question 53

Extraverts seek out social interaction to avoid becoming overstimulated.

Question 54

Emotional arousal makes both extraverts and introverts more outgoing.

Question 55

As compared to introverts, extraverts need to receive more of a depressant drug to reach a given level of "unalertness."

Question 56

According to Eysenck, the resting levels of cerebral cortex activity among introverts are typically lower than those of extraverts.

Question 57

Prozac is just one example of a class of antidepressants called:

A) neuropeptides.
B) MAO inhibitors.
C) beta-blockers.
D) selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Question 58

The behavioral inhibition system is involved in learning positive but not negative outcomes.

Question 59

Hans Eysenck made one of the first modern attempts to link personality with biology.

Question 60

In computer-aided assessment techniques like PET and MRI, different colors are used to represent:

A) different levels of brain activity.
B) different types of brain waves.
C) the presence of different neurotransmitters.
D) different brain regions.

Question 61

Assessment techniques, like EEG, can be used to determine whether people are dominated by incentive or avoidance motivation.

Question 62

According to Taylor, women tend to respond to stress with a tend-and-befriend response.

Question 63

Lucas and Diener found that extraversion was linked to seeking pleasant experiences, even if they were not social in nature.

Question 64

Antisocial personality has been hypothesized to result from possessing an overactive BAS.

Question 65

PET makes use of electrical activity rather than glucose to provide images of the brain.

Question 66

The enzyme monoamine oxidase has been found to be associated with sensation seeking.

Question 67

Of men who have committed murder, those with higher testosterone levels were more likely to have killed a stranger.

Question 68

Around 80% of people with bipolar disorder are responsive to lithium treatment.

Question 69

Research links sensitivity of GABA receptors to neuroticism.

Question 70

Overt aggressiveness in females does not confer an advantage and may even confer a disadvantage.

Question 71

MAO is related to passivity.

Question 72

Sensation seekers are characterized by their search for new and exciting experiences.

Question 73

fMRI provides less information than EEG, but it is cheaper to administer.

Question 74

IUSS is related to a focus on the long-term rather than short-term consequences of behavior.

Question 75

Research on adults suggests that sex hormones influence sexual but not social behavior.

Question 76

Exposure to some kinds of hormones before birth can lead children to say they will respond with more aggression in hypothetical situations.

Question 77

Oxytocin appears to be involved in mother-infant bonding but not social bonding more generally.

Question 78

The basic template for the development of the human body is male.

Question 79

High testosterone levels can lead men into lower-SES occupations.

Question 80

If insulted, men from the American North have stronger testosterone responses than men from the American South.