Deck 7: The Trait Viewpoint: Psychological Dispositions of Personality

Question 1

Traits are believed to influence:

A) Thoughts
B) Feelings
C) Behaviors
D) a & b
E) a, b, & c

Answer 1

a, b, & c

Question 2

The principal logic of the trait viewpoint is that traits:

A) Are an expression of unconscious forces
B) Are the same as constructs
C) Influence behavior in manner consistent with the traits possessed by the individual
D) Serve to override unconscious forces

Answer 2

Influence behavior in manner consistent with the traits possessed by the individual

Question 3

In a letter of recommendation, Professor Davis says that as a student in three of her classes, Tracy turned in her assignments on time, was an active participant in class discussions, and served as a volunteer tutor for other students. In addition, Professor Davis says that she has heard similar comments from other professors about Tracy's actions in their classes, as well. Such comments illustrate what characteristic feature of traits?

A) Traits as the basis of individual differences and expressions of uniqueness
B) Traits as the basis of character and dispositions
C) Traits as the basis of consistency and stability
D) a & b
E) b & c

Answer 3

Traits as the basis of consistency and stability

Question 4

Personalism is:

A) The study of the person
B) The study of people
C) A personality test developed by Allport to study traits
D) The operation of traits on a person's cognitions

Question 5

Allport's first meeting with Freud convinced him that:

A) Freud's ideas were outdated
B) Freud placed too much emphasis on unconscious motivation
C) Freud was very rude and argumentative
D) Freud's ideas were very consistent with his own

Question 6

Allport's dissertation was the first one to:

A) Disprove the validity of the unconscious
B) Support the self-actualizing tendency
C) Establish the validity of constructs of personality
D) Be concerned with personality traits
E) Establish the Big 8 trait structure of personality

Question 7

An individual's heart rate and muscle tension increase when he begins to think about stealing money from his boss's account. This an example of which component of Allport's definition of personality?

A) The psychophysical component
B) The psychometric component
C) The psychic network component
D) The physiological component

Question 8

Allport's phrase that "personality is something that does something" reflects which basic assumption of Allport's definition of personality?

A) The dynamic organization of personality
B) The physiological nature of personality
C) The activating and directive function of personality
D) The expression of uniqueness of each individual

Question 9

A personality psychologist is studying the varying degree of aggressiveness in a group of army recruits. In this case, Allport would consider this study of aggressiveness as an investigation of a:

A) Common trait
B) Personal disposition
C) Dormant trait
D) Cluster trait
E) Idiographic trait

Question 10

As a personnel manager for a bank, you ask all of the employees to take a personality test of honesty. You then compare the results from the different branches of the bank to see where you might want to increase security surveillance. According to Allport, this is an example of the ______ approach to the study of personality.

A) personalistic
B) individualistic
C) idiographic
D) nomothetic
E) collective

Question 11

As a result of her trait of agreeableness, Tina tends to be courteous while at work, when driving, and when teaching. The tendency of her trait of agreeableness to equalize these different situations to create a style of behavior characterized as being courteous across this variety of situations is an expression of a:

A) Fluid trait
B) Fixed trait
C) Personal disposition
D) Distributive response pattern
E) Fixed-action disposition

Question 12

As a personality psychologist, you examine the newspaper clippings collected by a serial killer. According to Allport, you would be using the _______ approach to the study of personality.

A) correlational
B) idiographic
C) nomothetic
D) crimothetic
E) photothemic

Question 13

Gil's passion for saving the environment is reflected in what he does for a living, where he goes on vacation, his choice of friends, and his charitable donations. The general impact of this aspect of Gil's personality is an example of a _____ trait.

A) cardinal
B) central
C) reflective
D) primary

Question 14

Jane tends to be courteous while at work, when driving, and when teaching. The tendency to be courteous across a variety of situations is an expression of a:

A) Common trait
B) Nomothetic trait
C) Personal disposition
D) Cardinal trait
E) Active trait

Question 15

Professor Allen writes a letter for a student who wants to go to medical school. Professor Allen describes the student's dedication, integrity, and desire to succeed. These descriptions of the student's personality represent the use of ______ traits.

A) cardinal
B) secondary
C) primal
D) central
E) expressive

Question 16

Your normally quiet friend Lisa begins to yell and grabs the leash from an individual who is kicking his dog for digging up some plants. Lisa's behavior in this situation is an expression of a ______ trait.

A) primary
B) secondary
C) tertiary
D) reactive

Question 17

For Allport, _____ was the core of an individual's personality that would serve to influence the type of political posters a student puts on the walls of her apartment to show "her cause" and the song by her favorite artist that she describes as being "her life's story."

A) the reflective self
B) propriate striving
C) functional autonomy
D) a principal trait
E) the proprium

Question 18

An individual gets upset because someone has taken the parking space where he usually parks his car. The individual's reaction to someone taking what he considers "his" parking space in an expression of:

A) A cardinal trait
B) Propriate striving
C) Functional autonomy
D) A secondary trait
E) The proprium

Question 19

Although individuals from different cultures listen to different types of music, within each culture, individuals also express considerable differences in the type of music to which they listen. This example illustrates what Allport referred to as "_____ culture."

A) expressive
B) expansive
C) transfixed
D) real
E) relative

Question 20

The tendency for children to personalize items, such as saying "this is my bike" or "that's my book bag"Illustrates which aspect of proprium development during childhood?

A) Bodily self
B) Self-esteem
C) Self-extension
D) Self as a rational coper

Question 21

The motivational force behind personality for Allport was:

A) Self-actualization
B) Functional autonomy
C) Self-realization
D) Fictional autonomy

Question 22

The captain of the local police department resists the implementation of new seizure and arrest procedures because she feels the old ways are "just fine." Her resistance represents what Allport referred to as:

A) Perseverative functional autonomy
B) Personalism
C) Functional utility
D) Propriate functional autonomy

Question 23

A famous saxophone player started to play this instrument as a young boy to help with his asthma. He now plays because of all of the joy and pleasure he gives to people with his music. This illustrates:

A) Perseverative functional autonomy
B) Purposeful autonomy
C) Directive autonomy
D) Prescriptive autonomy
E) Propriate functional autonomy

Question 24

A woman serves as a member of the local school board out of her concern for the quality of education the children in her community receive. This illustrates what characteristic feature of what Allport considered the mature personality?

A) Extension of the sense of self
B) Warm relating of the self to others
C) Realistic perceptions, skills, and assignments
D) Self-objectification
E) Unifying philosophy of life

Question 25

Eddie is rather concerned with making sure all of the paper and soft drink cans are recycled from the office. This tendency represents which one of the six values assessed by the Study of Values scale?

A) Theoretical
B) Conservative
C) Economic
D) Aesthetic
E) Political

Question 26

Couples who had been married from five to 20 years tended to have similar scores on the ______ subscale of the Study of Values scale.

A) economic
B) religious
C) aesthetic
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 27

A characteristic strength of Allport's viewpoint was:

A) The diversity of the methods he used in his research
B) The emphasis he put on the self-actualization tendency when studying the "best of the best"
C) The emphasis he put on the nomothetic research
D) His concern with studying the values underlying personality
E) c & d

Question 28

A characteristic limitation of Allport's viewpoint was his:

A) Use of individuals from his clinical practice to develop his viewpoint of personality created many potential researcher biases
B) Lack of emphasis on individual differences in the expression of behavior
C) The lack of attention he gave to the relationship between personality development in childhood and in adult
D) Limited use of unconscious processes
E) c & d

Question 29

A characteristic limitation of Allport's viewpoint was his:

A) Use of too many research methods, which made it difficult to really understand his viewpoint
B) Emphasis on traits, which his critics said he had no hard evidence for their existence
C) Lack of emphasis on the importance of early childhood experience
D) Limited use of unconscious processes
E) c & d

Question 30

Who said, "Science demands measurement! Measurement began in personality at the end of the Freudian, Jungian, and Adlerian phase of clinically derived theories"?

A) Gordon W. Allport
B) Raymond B. Cattell
C) Hans J. Eysenck
D) Seymour Epstein
E) Paul Costa and Robert McCrae

Question 31

As a clinical psychologist trying to determine the thoughts of an individual who committed suicide, you examine letters and phone records of the individual two weeks prior to this person's death. Such information represents:

A) L-data
B) Q-data
C) T-data
D) R-data
E) S-data

Question 32

For his research project in his personality psychology class this semester, Seth is having participants complete two personality inventories: a 10-item self-consciousness measure and a 39-question social anxiety measure. Such measures represent:

A) L-data
B) Q-data
C) T-data
D) I-data

Question 33

A person's shyness, self-consciousness, and agitation at parties are all related to her sense of anxiety. In this example, anxiety represents a:

A) Surface trait
B) Source trait
C) Source disposition
D) Common trait
E) Primary disposition

Question 34

A classmate of yours enjoys reading science fiction books while drinking flat cola drinks. According to Cattell, such behavior indicates an expression of a(n) _______ trait.

A) surface
B) common
C) unique
D) dynamic
E) constitutional

Question 35

Evon's high need for achievement has made it possible for her to overcome her roots in poverty to become a successful personality psychologist. According to Cattell, her need for achievement represents a(n) ______ trait.

A) ability
B) temperament
C) dynamic
D) common
E) surface

Question 36

As a criminologist, you are trying to determine the extent to which the trait of impulsivity is a result of genetic or environmental factors. According to Cattell, you would be trying to determine the ______ of impulsivity.

A) manifest-destiny ratio
B) latent quotient
C) determinism-press factor
D) nature-nurture ratio
E) stable-global ratio

Question 37

Cattell used the statistical technique of _____ to help identify source traits.

A) fiction analysis
B) factor analysis
C) source setting
D) trait tabulation

Question 38

A _____ is defined as a cluster of related behavioral measures.

A) factor
B) constellation
C) typology
D) class
E) manifest trait

Question 39

The last step in a factor analysis is to:

A) Turn off the computer
B) Check your factor matrix
C) Name the factors
D) Disassemble the intercorrelation matrix
E) Reconstruct the factor scores

Question 40

In attempting to predict behavior using a number of source traits, Cattell formulated the:

A) Behavioral correlational matrix
B) Behavioral specification equation
C) Rule of "best prediction" formula
D) Behavioral prediction quotient
E) Calculus of behavioral prediction

Question 41

In a validity study of the 16PF, it was found that British and American artists had very:

A) Different trait structures
B) Similar trait structures
C) Similar factor ratios
D) Different factor ratios
E) b & d

Question 42

An assessment instrument based on the 16PF used in marriage counseling is the:

A) Cattell Marriage Inventory
B) 16PF Marriage Report
C) Marital Compatibility Report
D) Marriage Success Scale
E) Couple's Counseling Report

Question 43

In identifying the personality characteristics of successful officers based on the 16PF, it was reported that successful police officers tended to be individuals who were:

A) Concerned with maintaining a position of power and status (e.g., demanded respect)
B) Low on a desire for adventure (e.g., low risk takers)
C) High on emotional sensitivity (e.g., reacted quickly)
D) Somewhat interpersonally detached (e.g., remained neutral)
E) a & c

Question 44

When comparing the personality profile of law enforcement officers with the 16PF norms of the general public, it was reported that successful police officers tended to be similar to the general public on the 16PF dimension of:

A) Warmth
B) Anxiety
C) Wisdom
D) Perfectionism

Question 45

Sarah is a member of her church's advisory board. The board is in the process of hiring a new member of the clergy to serve as the spiritual advisor for the church. Based on what she read in her personality psychology class, Sarah's advice to the other members of the board is to select an individual that has a higher score on the _______ dimension of the 16PF when compared to the general public.

A) warmth
B) sensitivity
C) complexity
D) a & b
E) a & c

Question 46

Stu is a member of his church's advisory board. The board is in the process of hiring a new member of the clergy to serve as the spiritual advisor for the church. Based on what he read in his personality psychology class, Stu's advice to the other members of the board is to select an individual that has a lower score on the _______ dimension of the 16PF when compared to the general public.

A) complexity
B) dominance
C) liveliness
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 47

Albert is a member of his church's advisory board. The board is in the process of hiring a new member of the clergy to serve as the spiritual advisor for the church. Based on what he read in his personality psychology class, Albert's advice to the other members of the board is to select an individual that has a score on the _______ dimension of the 16PF similar to that of the general public.

A) emotional stability
B) complexity
C) abstract reasoning
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 48

A characteristic strength of Cattell's viewpoint is his:

A) Emphasis on quantitative data
B) Emphasis on the objective measurement of personality
C) Rigorous use of statistical techniques to study personality
D) a & b
E) a, b, & c

Question 49

A characteristic limitation of Cattell's viewpoint is:

A) His failure to identify a consistent set of source traits
B) He only identified 16 source traits
C) His attempt to create a universal factor structure while losing sight of the individual personality
D) He limited his studies to individuals he saw in his clinical practice
E) a & d

Question 50

According to Eysenck, the repetition of a specific response across a variety of situations is a:

A) Surface trait
B) Ritualistic trait
C) Habitual response
D) Habit strength
E) Ergonomic tendency

Question 51

According to Eysenck, a general collection of traits that include feeling anxious when giving a speech, feeling nervous while at parties, and getting upset when in unfamiliar settings would indicate a particular:

A) Personality factor
B) Personality type
C) Character tendency
D) Personality disposition

Question 52

_____ is the personality type that is more prone to taking risks and experiencing accidents.

A) Extraversion
B) Psychoticism
C) Neuroticism
D) Personalism
E) Eroticism

Question 53

Francis is characterized as being restless, moody, touchy, and relatively unstable. According to Eysenck, she would probably score high on the ______ personality dimension.

A) introversion
B) extraversion
C) neuroticism
D) psychoticism
E) ectomorphism

Question 54

In a discussion of his clinical case report, a social worker states to the clinical director,"Yes, just as I suspected, the client's high score on Eysenck's dimension of neuroticism also reveals:

A) "Poor self-esteem"
B) "A decreased level of life satisfaction"
C) "A low income status"
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 55

In a discussion of his clinical case report, a social worker states to the clinical director, "Yes, just as I suspected, the client's high score on Eysenck's dimension of psychoticism confirms my diagnosis that the client is experiencing symptoms of:

A) "Hypocondrisis"
B) "Schizophrenia"
C) "Multiple-personality disorder"
D) "Body dysmorphic disorder"

Question 56

You have been hired as a consultant for the U.S. Air Force Training Academy. Based on Eysenck's three dimensions of personality, you would look to reject those candidates for pilot training who are _____ due to their increased rate of failure compared to others.

A) neurotic introverts
B) neurotic extroverts
C) stable introverts
D) stable extroverts
E) b & c

Question 57

Extraverted Ellen is more likely than Introverted Ida to:

A) Experience less sexual pleasure but more sexually risky behavior
B) Be unemployed but have more friends
C) Smoke cigarettes and engage in more sexual behavior
D) a & c
E) a, b, & c

Question 58

According to Eysenck, criminality was associated with what combination of his personality dimensions?

A) Introversion and extraversion
B) Neuroticism and extraversion
C) Conscientiousness and openness
D) Extraversion and psychoticism
E) Openness and extraversion

Question 59

Eysenck's research into the study of graphology indicated that the ability of information based on handwriting analysis to predict different aspects of personality was:

A) Extremely high
B) Moderate in nature
C) Extremely low
D) Non-existent

Question 60

A characteristic strength of Eysenck's viewpoint is his:

A) Emphasis on projective techniques
B) Concern he showed for the idiographic perspective
C) Ability to apply his ideas to diverse areas of study
D) a & c
E) b & c

Question 61

A characteristic limitation of Eysenck's viewpoint is:

A) His tendency to reduce personality to just three dimensions
B) The possibility of extraversion and introversion as being two separate dimensions
C) His dismissing the biological bases of personality
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 62

A sales manager reads in a letter of reference that an applicant is a hardworking and conscientious member of the professor's research team. The personnel manager is concerned about the extent to which the student's behavior will be similar if he comes to work in her sales department. The sale's manager is questioning the _______ of the student's personality.

A) unconscious motives
B) propriate functional autonomy
C) self-actualization tendency
D) cross-situational consistency
E) environmental-mold stability

Question 63

In a classic study of the stability of moral behavior of children from one situation to another, the conclusion was that moral behavior was:

A) Very consist across different situations
B) More consistent for the girls than the boys
C) Rather inconsistent across different situations
D) More consistent for boys than for girls
E) a & b

Question 64

A bank manager finds that there is very little correlation between employees' scores on a honesty test and the amount of supplies stolen from the various bank branches. Such a concern for the ability of personality tests to predict behavior is represented in what Mischel referred to as the:

A) "Environmental press factor"
B) "Personality coefficient"
C) "Margin of personism"
D) "Limit theorem of personality"
E) "Personality's quadratic equation"

Question 65

The ability of traits to predict behavior increases when you:

A) Let people select the traits upon which they feel they are most consistent
B) Include only surface traits
C) Select highly predictable people
D) Use measures of personal values
E) a & c

Question 66

Your usually fast-driving friend slows down when he sees a "Radar Zone" sign. This is an example of:

A) Neuroticism
B) Situationalism
C) Interactionsism
D) Aggregation

Question 67

You seem to study your psychology notes better while alone but your history notes better while with other people. Your best friend tends to do just the opposite. This illustrates the concept of

A) Interactionism
B) Situationalism
C) Structuralism
D) Reverse psychology
E) Cognitive complexity

Question 68

You are attending your first sales meeting as a sales associate trainee. As you sit down, you look for cues that might help you interpret the situation and decide what you should be doing. This situation illustrates the operation of:

A) Self-focused attention
B) Self-induced directiveness
C) Cognitive factors
D) Cognitive disclosure
E) Cognitive arousal

Question 69

Her friends notice that sometimes Sue is too shy to talk to others at parties while at other times she will walk right up to total strangers and begin a conversation with them. David thinks he can explain her inconsistency by pointing out that she seems to speak only to those individuals at parties who are wearing t-shirts that indicate they share her interest in retro bands from the 1980's. In this case David is introducing the cognitive factor of:

A) If…then deductions
B) If…then reasoning
C) If…then logic
D) If…then relations

Question 70

A(n) ______ situation has very strict behavioral expectations.

A) direct
B) objective
C) aggregated
D) powerful
E) reactive

Question 71

While waiting in line to see a movie, some individuals talk, others read, and a few eat. Such diversity of behavior indicates that waiting in this line is a relatively ______ situation.

A) weak
B) repressive
C) expressive
D) unobtrusive
E) reactive

Question 72

Being in the parlor of a funeral home where everyone behaves in a relatively reserved manner is an example of a(n) ______ situation that has very strict behavioral expectations.

A) direct
B) objective
C) aggregated
D) powerful
E) reactive

Question 73

A sales manager looks at the behavior of an employee while at the sales counter, during breaks in the staff lounge, and while participating in staff meetings to determine how cooperative this person is. The sales manager is employing the logic of _____ to make his decision.

A) cognitive analysis
B) functional analysis
C) aggregation research
D) situationalism

Question 74

To determine an individual's degree of altruism, a researcher counts the number of times the person helps others. This is an example of the _____ approach.

A) act frequency
B) reactivity assessment
C) response tabulation
D) behavioral calculus

Question 75

Hostile Harold and Belligerent Bernardo are from different cultures but work in the same office location of a multi-national investment firm. Both of these individuals show a high degree of aggressiveness in that they seem to get into arguments while at work with all of their co-workers, their teammates on the department's softball team, and with individuals from other office locations when having regional sales meetings. Such a similar pattern of behavior for these two individuals from different cultures illustrates:

A) Collective intercultural consistency
B) Expressive meta-cultural consistency
C) Relative cross-situational consistency
D) Absolute trans-cultural consistency

Question 76

A personality psychologist studying creativity in students with different majors notes that there is a tendency for highly creative psychology majors to display a sense of creativity in both their science and literature courses than highly creative biology majors, whose creativity seems to be limited to only their science courses. In this study, psychology majors display a greater degree of _____ than the biology majors.

A) absolute cross-situational consistency (ACSC)
B) relative cross-situational consistency (RCSC)
C) dependent cross-situation consistency (DCSC)
D) independent cross-situational consistency (ICSC)

Question 77

Differences in the degree of absolute cross-situational consistency among four groups of individuals who lived in separate parts of the world when taking self-report measures of their moods over a seven-day period illustrates the:

A) The impact of culture
B) The suppression of individual differences
C) A lack of relative cross-situational consistency
D) Limitation of the nomothetic research method
E) a & c

Question 78

While at a party, Kevin tends to talk about how much joy and satisfaction he receives by being a member of his company's softball team, as well as the pride he has when wearing the team's championship tee shirt around town. Kevin's reactions are consistent with individuals who live in a _____ culture.

A) Integrated
B) Intrapersonal
C) Interdependent
D) Independent
E) Intradependent

Question 79

Which group of individuals seems to display the characteristics features associated with an independent culture?

A) Japanese
B) American
C) Hispanic
D) Indian
E) Nordic

Question 80

A personality psychologist studying primitive cultures discovers that a tribe living north of the river has 13 different words for the personality trait of "friendliness" while the tribe living south of the river has only two words for it. Based on the ______ approach, the northern tribe seems to value friendliness more than the southern tribe.

A) Big Five
B) lexical
C) collectivistic
D) idiographic
E) word-frequency