Deck 7: Motives and Goals: What Do We Want in Life

Question 1

According to Rogers, the most powerful means whereby a person can promote another person's development is

A) Empathy
B) Contingent reinforcement
C) Unconditional positive regard
D) Confrontation through angst

Answer 1

Unconditional positive regard

Question 2

According to Freud, the aspect of the psyche that provides energy for thought and behavior is the

A) Superego
B) Oral stage
C) Cathexis
D) Instincts

Answer 2

Instincts

Question 3

Which of the following statements best characterizes the Thematic Apperception Test TAT)?

A) The psychologist seeks to determine what the person sees in each picture cue
B) Picture cues are designed to elicit conflict and stress in the subject
C) The purpose of the picture cue is to elicit an imaginative story, whose content is analyzed
D) The purpose of the picture cue is to provide different characters with whom the subject can identify in telling a story

Answer 3

The purpose of the picture cue is to elicit an imaginative story, whose content is analyzed

Question 4

A person high in achievement motivation desires

A) To perform better
B) To become independent
C) To exert influence
D) All of the above

Question 5

According to Freud, the structure of the psyche that exerts a primitive moral force is the

A) Id
B) Ego
C) Superego
D) Self-concept

Question 6

According to Freud, the structure of the psyche most responsible for rational coping with the world is the

A) Id
B) Ego
C) Superego
D) Self-concept

Question 7

Which of the following is not a basic need in self-determination theory?

A) Need for competence
B) Need for approval
C) Need for autonomy
D) Need for relatedness

Question 8

As an intellectual movement of the 19th century, Romanticism was a strong influence on Sigmund Freud's thought in all of the following areas except

A) Glorification of the emotional and irrational aspects of human nature
B) Focus on the uniqueness of the inner self
C) Belief that humans are in conflict with society
D) Emphasis on the role of the family dynamics in forming personality

Question 9

Research on intrinsic motivation suggests that in certain cases a person will lose interest in an intrinsically interesting task when

A) Punishment is delivered so that the person will change his or her preferences
B) Rewards are given, suggesting that the task is controlled by external factors
C) He or she is not reinforced
D) Rewards are provided to give feedback on performance

Question 10

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following types of needs are at the highest level?

A) Safety
B) Esteem
C) Belongingness
D) Physiological

Question 11

Repression means to

A) Make something unconscious
B) Consciously hold back threatening information
C) Hurt another person or damage the environment
D) Defend against anxiety

Question 12

According to Rogers, the most important means by which the psychologist can understand another person is

A) Positive regard
B) Introspection
C) Being cognition
D) Empathy

Question 13

Which of the following is not necessarily a characteristic of the self-actualized person, according to Maslow?

A) Many peak experiences
B) Motivated by being values
C) Few experiences of negative emotions
D) Satisfaction of lower needs in the hierarchy

Question 14

Which of the following is not a function of the work of defense mechanisms?

A) To reduce anxiety
B) To distort reality
C) To lift repression
D) To lessen conflict

Question 15

When people high in power motivation experience defeat in competitive situations, they tend to

A) Experience a strong increase in cortisol and other stress hormones
B) Experience increases in testosterone level
C) Show a sharp decrease in oxytocin and other hormones associated with affiliation
D) Show a resilient physiological profile that enables them to rebound and seek out opportunities for dominance

Question 16

Research on repression suggests that repressors organize their negative emotional memories

A) In especially complex associative networks
B) By using overlapping categories
C) In random order throughout an associative system
D) As simple episodes that do not connect to other associations

Question 17

Children who cope best with traumatic events employ what kind of defense mechanisms?

A) Defense mechanisms that match their chronological age
B) Mature defense mechanisms
C) Rationalization and reaction formation
D) Defense mechanisms that are consistent and stable

Question 18

As people move from young adulthood into middle age, their goal pursuits tend to change in which of the following ways?

A) They tend to pursue shorter-term goals
B) They tend to adopt secondary control mechanisms, rather than primary control, to cope with goal loss and their own constraints
C) They move from intimacy and achievement oriented goals to goals associated with power motivation
D) They experience more conflict between different goals

Question 19

Research on intrinsic motivation contradicts certain tenets of behaviorism because it shows that in certain cases

A) People do not seek rewards
B) Rewards lead to decrease in performance
C) Punishment is more effective than rewards in promoting positive behavior
D) Non-contingent rewards are superior to contingent ones

Question 20

In Rogers's theory, the basic human motive is toward

A) Organismic enhancement
B) Tension reduction
C) Greater levels of happiness
D) Cognitive efficiency

Question 21

Which of the following has not been associated with high intimacy motivation?

A) Smiling and eye contact
B) Spending time thinking about people
C) Larger friendship networks
D) Being rated by others as especially "sincere"

Question 22

According to self-determination theory, behaviors that enhance organismic integration are those that

A) Fulfill basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness
B) Are consistent with the values that society espouses
C) Are congruent with a person's self-chosen goals and aspirations
D) produce experiences of flow

Question 23

On the average, women tend to score higher than men on which of the following motives?

A) Achievement
B) Power
C) Intimacy
D) None of the above

Question 24

In decision-making groups, leaders who are high in power motivation

A) Encourage input from other groups members
B) Consider a large number of alternative proposals before settling on a decision
C) Encourage groupthink
D) Dominate the discussions so as to make other group members feel inferior

Question 25

High achievement motivation has proven an asset in certain business contexts because it is correlated with

A) A stronger drive to compete
B) Entrepreneurship
C) Leadership
D) Positive mental attitude

Question 26

According to research by McClelland, individuals who are most vulnerable to illness have all of the following characteristics except

A) Low self-control
B) High power motivation
C) High power stress
D) Low intimacy motivation

Question 27

Psychological well-being is positively associated with involvement in personal projects that are

A) Short-term and moderately challenging
B) Difficult to mange but highly meaningful
C) Long-term and connected to basic values and beliefs
D) Easy to manage but generally not very personally meaningful

Question 28

Which of the following defense mechanisms is the most primitive and immature?

A) Projection
B) Denial
C) Identification
D) Reaction formation

Question 29

McClelland distinguishes between implicit and self-attributed motives. Which of the following things is not true about implicit motives?

A) They are assessed through respondent methods
B) They reflect unconscious goals
C) They connect to activity incentives, rather than social incentives
D) They tend to be statistically uncorrelated with self-attributed motives

Question 30

The PSE scoring system for the achievement motive was originally derived

A) From a theoretical analysis of Murray's concept of the need for achievement
B) By administering the PSE to people who were extremely successful in life
C) From examining folktales that came from societies whose economies were strong
D) By comparing stories written under achievement arousal conditions to those written under neutral conditions

Question 31

How might McClelland assess a society's overall level of achievement motivation?

A) Self-report surveys from a national sample
B) Scoring PSEs from a random national sample of adults
C) Assessing achievement themes in current events
D) Scoring a society's expressive literature

Question 32

Which of the following motives is associated with rising to the highest echelons in bureaucratic corporations?

A) Achievement
B) Power
C) Intimacy
D) A combination of a and b

Question 33

When people high in intimacy motivation spend time with their friends, they tend to engage in high levels of

A) Large-group activities
B) Self-disclosure
C) Helping behavior
D) Playing games

Question 34

In Henry Murray's theory, the term that refers to an environmental challenge or constraint is

A) Thema
B) Stimulus situation
C) Press
D) Vector

Question 35

On the average, men tend to score higher than women on which of the following motives?

A) Achievement
B) Power
C) Intimacy
D) None of the above

Question 36

According to the research of Robert Emmons, which of the following kinds of personal strivings are positively associated with psychological well-being?

A) Power strivings
B) Personal growth and health strivings
C) Independence strivings
D) Intimacy strivings

Question 37

Vaillant's longitudinal study of men showed that the use of mature defense mechanisms was positively associated with

A) Higher levels of stress
B) Greater levels of social support from friends and family
C) Greater levels of overall adjustment
D) Age

Question 38

Which of the following has not been positively associated with achievement motivation?

A) Higher school grades
B) Efficient performance
C) Future time perspective
D) Preference for tasks of moderate challenge

Question 39

Why might we classify motives and goals as "characteristic adaptations" instead of "dispositional traits?"

A) Because motives and goals predict both emotions and behavior, whereas traits predict only behavior
B) Because motives and goals are contextualized in time
C) Because motives and goals are unconscious
D) Because motives and goals are self-chosen whereas traits are outside of our control

Question 40

Which of the following motives in U.S. presidents has been positively associated with historians' ratings of presidential "greatness"?

A) Achievement
B) Power
C) Intimacy
D) Affiliation