Deck 1: The Psychology of Personality: An Overview

Question 1

The Common features of most of definitions of personality include a statement about the:

A) Uniqueness of the individual
B) Consistency of behavior
C) a & b
D) a, b, & c

Answer 1

a, b, & c

Question 2

A police officer is discussing with the judge an arrest she made. She tells the judge that she read in the criminal's file that the individual had a history of physical abuse that may have resulted in brain damage. Rather than putting the individual in jail, the judge sends the individual to a hospital for rehabilitation therapy. The judge's assumption about the brain damage influencing the criminal's behavior reflects what component of a definition of personality?

A) Content and process of personality
B) The role of subjective experience
C) Phenomenological valuing
D) Bootstrap empiricism

Answer 2

Content and process of personality

Question 3

Pat's therapist believes that the trouble she has relating to people is due to her lack of empathy and social sensitivity, which the therapists believes is caused by an imbalance of certain brain chemicals. The therapist tells Pat that her problems relating to others will continue into the future. The therapist recommends that Pat see a medical doctor to have some blood work done to determine the nature of the chemical imbalance and obtain a prescription for a medication to correct the chemical imbalance. The therapist's comments and recommendations are based on a ________ she has about what is causing Pat's problems.

A) Hypothesis
B) Theorem
C) Postulate
D) Generalization
E) Theory

Answer 3

Theory

Question 4

DRD4 is a protein-producing gene that has been linked to the personality characteristic of:

A) Loneliness
B) Thrill-seeking
C) Procrastination
D) Shyness
E) Sense of humor

Question 5

To demonstrate her qualifications as a potential employee during a job interview, a job candidate emphasizes that her two sisters and her uncle have been employed with the same company for over ten years. Such a self-presentation strategy reflects a more _______ cultural viewpoint of personality.

A) Northern
B) Eastern
C) Western
D) Southern

Question 6

The criterion of comprehensiveness is used to evaluate the extent to which a theory explains:

A) The biological bases of behavior
B) Many different aspects of personality.
C) Only a few aspects of personality completely.
D) The thoughts of individuals.

Question 7

Professor Ponderous has a theory of personality that requires eight different personality factors to explain why shoppers prefer bright colors over more muted colors when purchasing clothes while Professor Eleganté has a theory that is just as accurate but only requires three personality factors. Based on the criterion of ______, the theory of _______would be evaluated more favorably.

A) External consistency; Professor Ponderous
B) Parsimony; Professor Eleganté
C) Utility; Professor Ponderous
D) Internal validity; Professor Eleganté
E) Practicality; Professor Ponderous

Question 8

A personality researcher predicted that an increase in alcohol consumption would produce an increase in the aggressive behavior for highly impulsive individuals sitting in the stands of a crowded soccer match. The proposed relationship between alcohol consumption and increased aggressive behavior is an example of a:

A) Hypothesis
B) Hypotenuse
C) Theorem
D) Theory
E) Statement of utility

Question 9

A personality psychologist is testing her belief that shy children make better students because they are less active and more attentive. At the end of the year, she compares the grade-point average of the shy and non-shy students. This is an example of what type of activity engaged in by personality psychologists?

A) Personality development
B) Personality testing
C) Personality research
D) Personality bootstrapping

Question 10

A personality psychologist is doing research to determine what parents can do to promote moral behavior in their children. This is an example of what type of activity engaged in by personality psychologists?

A) Personality development
B) Personality assessment
C) Theory construction
D) Trait identification and verification

Question 11

It was discovered that those infants who were raised by parents who used democratic discipline practices had a higher sense of self-esteem during adolescence than those infants raised by parents who used inconsistent discipline practices. This illustrates what aspect of the study of personality psychology?

A) Personality assessment
B) Theory development
C) Personality development
D) Personality content and processes

Question 12

A personality psychologist working with a personnel manager for a chain of discount appliance stores is trying to develop a test that identifies potential employees who are likely to steal. This is an example of what type of activity engaged in by personality psychologists?

A) Personality development
B) Theory testing
C) Personality assessment
D) Personality configuration

Question 13

As a personality psychologist, you are trying to develop a test to measure shyness. Your efforts represent what aspect of the study of personality?

A) Personality assessment
B) Personality development
C) Theory development
D) Personality dynamics

Question 14

After refining his personality test to identify individuals with a high risk for heart trouble, a personality psychologist working for a hospital is now ready to use the test in the actual screening of patients for medical treatment. This is an example of what type of activity engaged in by personality psychologists?

A) Personality development
B) Theory testing
C) Personality differentiation
D) Application in personality psychology
E) a & b

Question 15

Using a technique that is based on the psychoanalytic viewpoint of personality to deal with his fear of closed spaces, Ralph is asked by his _________ to talk about a dream he had where he got lost on his way to an important job interview that involved taking a 50-story elevator ride to get to the office of the potential employer.

A) Psychotherapist
B) Psychometrician
C) Psychosomatician
D) Psychophysicist
E) Psychophysician

Question 16

"It's all about me and how powerful I am." Such a statement is most characteristic of ______ owners.

A) SUV
B) Vintage sports car
C) Motorcycle
D) Hybrid car

Question 17

_______ owners prefer to have practical features, such as removable seats and cup holders.

A) Minivan
B) Bio-fuel car
C) Motor scooter
D) Hybrid car

Question 18

A personality psychologist studies the letters written by a 19th-century serial killer in an attempt to understand the motives behind the crimes. In what category is this type of research?

A) The clinical method
B) The experimental method
C) The correlational method
D) The meta-analysis method
E) The factor analysis method

Question 19

The _____ is a detailed investigation of the past and present influences on an individual's personality.

A) Assessment approach
B) Case study method
C) Literary criticism character analysis
D) Personality profiling

Question 20

The investigation of the mass murderer James Huberty is a good example of the:

A) Manifest analysis of personality
B) Retroactive methods
C) Case study method
D) Correlational approach
E) Survey approach

Question 21

As a personality psychologist working in a marketing research firm, you are studying the effects of home stress on creativity. Your study involves talking to individuals about the nature of the home-related stress they are experiencing. You are employing what research technique?

A) The psychobiographic technique
B) The case record method
C) The ecological validity technique
D) The psychoactive method
E) The individual interview

Question 22

A clinical psychologist is careful not to ask too many probing questions during an initial conversation with a client at a suicide clinic telephone hot line. This is an example of the clinical psychologist trying to establish:

A) High billable hours for the center
B) Rapport with the client
C) Traditional non-verbal communication
D) Subjective wellbeing

Question 23

A counselor at the student mental health clinic asks a student a series of questions about classes, work, and friendships when the student comes to the center complaining of loneliness. The set of questions illustrates the:

A) Individual interview
B) Verbal-analysis approach
C) Linguistic-assessment technique
D) Verbalization method
E) Student's right to privacy being violated

Question 24

The analysis of personal documents can include an examination of:

A) Letters
B) Diaries
C) Verbatim recordings
D) a & b
E) a, b, & c

Question 25

The analysis of President Nixon's public and private comments during his resignation of the presidency in the form of a _____ helps us to better understand his personality.

A) Retrograde analysis
B) Proactive profiling
C) Psychobiography
D) Structure interview

Question 26

A police detective examines the letters of a rapist for the purpose of identifying a consistent theme in the rapist's selection of victims. This is an example of a:

A) Content analysis
B) Functional analysis
C) Protracted analysis
D) Criterion analysis

Question 27

In an examination of suicide notes, the most common emotional category was:

A) Positive
B) Negative (hostile)
C) Neutral
D) Mixed

Question 28

A characteristic strength of the clinical approach to the study of personality is:

A) It makes possible an in-depth understanding of the individual
B) Its limited degree of generalizability reduces false conclusions
C) It makes it possible to investigate extreme and rare events
D) a & c
E) a, b, & c

Question 29

A characteristic strength of the ______ approach is that it makes possible the study of an individual or small group of individuals in great detail.

A) Correlational
B) Meta analysis
C) Experimental
D) Clinical
E) Retrospective

Question 30

A personality psychologist interviewing a former prisoner of war for a book on coping under extreme conditions of stress is worried the individual may make up things as details begin to get harder to recall. This illustrates the problem of:

A) Researcher bias
B) Rememory-fade syndrome
C) Generalizability of shared experiences
D) Subject bias

Question 31

To investigate the relationship between self-esteem and happiness, a personality psychologist gives a group of individuals a self-esteem scale and a subjective wellbeing (i.e., happiness) inventory. This type of research illustrates the _____ approach.

A) Correlational
B) Survey
C) Experimental
D) Case study
E) Exploratory

Question 32

An elementary school teacher arranges the test anxiety scores and grade-point averages of her two morning classes to investigate the relationship between test anxiety and school performance. She is likely to organize these two scores for each student in the form of a:

A) Point-by-point array
B) Profile pattern
C) Scatter plot
D) Data-point format

Question 33

In a study of college students, it was found that the higher a person's self-esteem score, the more time the individual spent volunteering in the community to help less-fortunate individuals. The correlational relationship between self-esteem and volunteerism is said to be:

A) Negative
B) Positive
C) Unilateral
D) Bilateral
E) Reciprocal

Question 34

A police psychologist has discovered that the higher a criminal's score on a test of hostility, the lower the individual's score on a victim-empathy test. The correlational relationship between hostility and empathy is said to be:

A) False
B) Imbalanced
C) Projected
D) Negative
E) Retroactive

Question 35

The correlation coefficient for loneliness and social anxiety scores is r = +.45 while the correlation coefficient for social anxiety and self-esteem scores is r = -.38. However, the correlation for self-esteem and loneliness scores is r = -.67 while the correlation coefficient between self-esteem and popularity scores is r = +.55. Which relationship has the strongest correlation coefficient?

A) Loneliness and social anxiety
B) Social anxiety and self-esteem
C) Self-esteem and loneliness
D) Self-esteem and popularity

Question 36

A school psychologist discovered that there is a positive relationship between the number of years individuals attend school and their self-esteem. However, another school psychologist pointed out that this relationship could be explained by his research that notes as individuals get older, their self-esteem tends to increase. In the relationship between years in school and self-esteem, age is considered a(n):

A) Infused factor
B) Third variable
C) Secondary source of variance
D) Abstract-association variable
E) Primary-process correlation

Question 37

The third-variable problem interferes with the:

A) Interpretation of the data
B) Measurement of the data
C) Formation of the hypothesis
D) Collection of the data

Question 38

The third-variable problem usually involves interfering with the interpretation of what form of research data in the study of personality?

A) Case study data
B) Meta analysis data
C) Correlational data
D) The moderator variable
E) Personality assessment

Question 39

A characteristic strength of the correlational approach is it:

A) Can identify the nature and strength of the relationship between two variables
B) Can determine the direction of causal correlation of the third-variable problem
C) Makes possible the study of certain topics and problems that are very ethically sensitive but do occur naturally in the real world
D) a & b
E) a & c

Question 40

A characteristic limitation of the correlational approach is it:

A) Cannot determine causal relationships
B) Is limited to studying scores obtained from personality tests
C) Is affected by the third-variable problem
D) a & b
E) a & c

Question 41

In a study of the effect of test anxiety on test performance, test anxiety is the _____ variable.

A) Dependent
B) Third
C) Independent
D) Control
E) Moderator

Question 42

In a study of the effect of self-esteem on pre-performance self-ratings, the pre-performance self-rating is the _____ variable.

A) Dependent
B) Independent
C) Factorial
D) Causal
E) Control

Question 43

In a study of the effects of failure on self-esteem, self esteem is the:

A) Dependent variable
B) Control-group variable
C) Third-variable
D) Independent variable
E) Moderator variable

Question 44

Overall, the individuals in the shy group made an average of six statements during the 10-minute pre-interview session while the individuals in the non-shy group made an average of 18 statements. The average number of statements made by each group represents the:

A) Collectivistic factor
B) Group mean
C) Median index
D) Modal response
E) Shyness quotient

Question 45

The purpose of experimental control is to:

A) Introduce the third variable
B) Sustain the dependent variable
C) Minimize alternative explanations
D) Reduce the meta analysis
E) Establish undetermined relationships

Question 46

A personnel manager flips a coin to determine if new employees will be assigned to the traditional lecture-format training or the new video-training program. Flipping the coin is an example of:

A) Experimental control
B) Randomly assigning subjects
C) Research bias
D) Confounding the independent and dependent variables
E) a & b

Question 47

Making sure all of the victims enrolled in a new spouse abuse recovery treatment program get the same information and the amount of therapist contact as those in the old treatment program is an example of:

A) Standardization of procedures
B) Randomly assigning subjects
C) Experimental control
D) a & c
E) a, b, & c

Question 48

In a study to test the effects of stress on public speaking, high vs. low thrill seekers were asked to give a 5-minute speech without any time to prepare. One third of the individuals was asked to give the speech in front of 10 people while another third was asked to give the speech in front of two people. The final third was asked to give a speech in a room with no one else present. In this research, the final third of individuals was part of the _______ group.

A) Contrast
B) Control
C) Dependent
D) Deception
E) Confound

Question 49

A clinical psychologist examined the effectiveness of self-esteem enhancement programs by comparing 75 studies that used a variety of different types of clients, ran for various lengths of time, and employed an assortment of methods for presenting the information. The researcher used what research technique to investigate this issue?

A) Modem-analysis
B) Mensa-analysis
C) Meta-analysis
D) Means-analysis
E) Multimethod-analysis

Question 50

A characteristic strength of the experimental approach is:

A) Its ability to assess the nature and strength of correlational coefficients
B) The presence of experimental control
C) The possibility of establishing causal relationships
D) b & c
E) a, b, & c

Question 51

A characteristic limitation of the experimental approach is:

A) An emphasis on group means
B) The difficulty of generalizing results of controlled laboratory research
C) The possibility of researcher bias
D) a & b
E) a, b, & c

Question 52

Without being aware of it, a personality psychologist studying self-consciousness tends to smile more at those individuals being assessed in the afternoon while yawning more at those individuals being assessed in the morning and late evening. The researcher's behavior illustrates:

A) The use of a control group
B) An experimenter bias
C) A limitation of meta-analysis
D) A lack of a dependent variable
E) Mistaking self-consciousness for self-awareness

Question 53

To study the effects of failure on future test performance, a researcher tells half of the participants in her study that they failed the test they were given at the beginning of the session while telling the other half that they scored in the top-ten percent. In reality, she did not even score the test but wanted to create differences in feelings of failure in the two groups. In this case, the researcher used:

A) The third-variable procedure
B) Deception
C) Subception
D) Subversion
E) a & c

Question 54

In a study of achievement motivation, a group of individuals is told that they scored poorly on an intelligence test to create a sense of failure. Such a procedure characterizes:

A) The presence of informed consent
B) A lack of experimental control
C) The use of deception
D) The dependent variable problem

Question 55

Before using deception, the researcher must determine that:

A) No other alternative procedures exist
B) Any possible pain to the participants is justified by what will be gained from the research
C) The researcher's reputation will be enhanced, along with the publication of the results
D) a & b
E) b & c

Question 56

Prior to their participation, individuals who signed up for a study titled "Personality, Stress, and Repression Sensitization" were told that they would be receiving a mild electric shock that would hurt for about ten seconds and then asked to complete three questionnaires. After hearing the explanation, the individuals are given the chance to withdraw from the study. The researcher is using what ethical safeguard with these participants?

A) Controlled confession
B) Informed consent
C) Laboratory lying
D) Participant priming
E) Information constraint

Question 57

After deception has been used with participants, the researcher must provide:

A) Informed consent
B) A debriefing session
C) Documentation that the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association have been met
D) Receive permission to conduct the study from an ethics review board
E) all of the above

Question 58

After their participation, groups of individuals who signed up for a study titled "Personaity, Stress, and Repression Sensitization" were told that the true purpose of the study was to investigate the non-verbal behavior of strangers during unstructured interactions. The revealing of the true purpose of the research to the participants is an example of:

A) Post-participation confession
B) Debriefing
C) Procedural debunking
D) Truth-in-participation laws

Question 59

To prevent personality researchers from distorting the significance of their research to justify using deception, a proposal outlining their work must first obtain approval from:

A) Other members of the researcher's team
B) An ethics review board
C) Debriefing committee
D) Those individuals who will be serving as participants

Question 60

Before he can conduct his research on the effects of stress on anxiety reactions, a researcher must have the procedures of the study evaluated by:

A) The Dean or Director of Research
B) All of the other members of the research team
C) A group of potential participants
D) An ethics review board
E) A majority of the other researchers in the department