Deck 17: General Questions

Question 1

Research findings sometimes lead to a revision of a theory. Each of the following except one is an example of a theory that has been formally revised in recent years. Which one?

A) Frustration-aggression hypothesis
B) Evolutionary personality theory
C) Androgyny theory
D) Learned helplessness theory

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Psychologists look at people's attributions for the causes of their behavior to explain

A) pessimism.
B) guilt.
C) aggression.
D) achievement.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which theorist emphasized the importance of development during childhood and adolescent years?

A) Erikson
B) Eysenck
C) Skinner
D) Kelly

Answer 3

A

Question 4

There was a time during the history of personality psychology when studying personality meant comparing the theories of Freud and Jung and Adler. Today, the relative importance of the neo-Freudian theories

A) appears to have declined.
B) remains popular among a greater variety of approaches.
C) is enjoying a "come back."
D) stands as a testament to the significance of their psychoanalytic roots.

Question 5

Some psychologists have argued that behavior appears to be stable over time because we often see people in the same situation. These psychologists directly challenge which approach to personality?

A) Freudian
B) Trait
C) Humanistic
D) Behavioral/social learning

Question 6

Linda is interested in learning what psychology has to say about religion. Which theorist's writings should you direct her to?

A) Adler
B) Jung
C) Skinner
D) Kelly

Question 7

Which two theorists are most alike in their approach to understanding personality?

A) Freud and Skinner
B) Skinner and Rogers
C) Freud and Jung
D) Maslow and Eysenck

Question 8

Which of these personality theorists used the least scientifically-rigorous methods to collect data in support of his theory?

A) Eysenck
B) Maslow
C) Skinner
D) Bandura

Question 9

Which of the following is a situation factor in predicting aggressive behavior?

A) Past experiences
B) Attitudes
C) Genetic predisposition
D) Noises and visual cues

Question 10

One component of Type A that is a relatively strong predictor of health problems is

A) frustration.
B) need for Achievement.
C) anger and hostility.
D) the toxic component.

Question 11

Which of the following theories contributed most directly to the development of the cognitive approach to understanding personality?

A) Freudian personality theory
B) Social learning theory
C) Trait theory
D) Radical behaviorism

Question 12

Projective tests like _______ remain immensely popular measures of personality.

A) the Rorschach
B) the Bem
C) the MMPI
D) the Q-sort

Question 13

Recent research suggests that biology plays an important role in the development of adult personality. Which theorist would probably have the most difficult time accepting this notion?

A) Freud
B) Jung
C) Eysenck
D) Watson

Question 14

A psychologist speculates that leaders in the business world are motivated by a sense of inadequacy. She argues that business executives need to make big deals and rise to the top of the corporate ladder to overcome feelings that they are less worthy than others. Which of the following is probably most compatible with her ideas?

A) Freud's theory of personality
B) Adler's theory of personality
C) Research on need for Achievement
D) Research on Type A people

Question 15

Which of the following approaches to personality is based less on empirical research and more on observations during psychotherapy?

A) Trait approach
B) Behavioral/social learning approach
C) Cognitive approach
D) Humanistic approach

Question 16

Behaviorists argue that many of our seemingly irrational fears are the result of

A) inadequate construct systems.
B) conditioning.
C) innate reflexes.
D) unconscious forces.

Question 17

The personality theory developed by ___ later led to empirical research on ___ .

A) Eysenck; Type A
B) Kelly; attributions
C) Murray; need for Achievement
D) Adler; hypnosis

Question 18

Of the following psychotherapists, who did Abraham Maslow meet during his teaching career?

A) Freud
B) Alder
C) Jung
D) Rogers

Question 19

Although it has been around for many years and is one of the most widely used personality tests, many psychologists argue that it lacks evidence for reliability and validity. Which test is this?

A) Rorschach inkblot test
B) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
C) California Q-Sort
D) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Question 20

Personality theorists are often influenced by the works of earlier theorists. A good example of this is how

A) Rogers influenced Kelly.
B) Watson influenced Skinner.
C) Jung influenced Eysenck.
D) Freud influenced Maslow.

Question 21

Which approach to personality probably has seen the greatest increase in interest among personality psychologists during the past decade?

A) Neo-Freudian
B) Trait
C) Biological
D) Humanistic

Question 22

Recent work on attachment styles suggests that our childhood experiences with caregivers can determine our ways at looking at

A) the same and opposite gender.
B) ourselves.
C) our possible selves.
D) adult relationships.

Question 23

According to some researchers, the reason studies don't always find a relationship between Type A behavior and health problems may be that

A) only some of the behaviors within the Type A pattern are related to health problems.
B) researchers are doing a better job of measuring Type A today.
C) people have become aware of the causes of heart attacks in recent years and have taken actions to prevent them.
D) people today are working to reduce stress in their lives.

Question 24

Trudy wants to conduct research on individual differences in proneness to depression. If she wants to first discover what researchers have already found out about this question, she should probably look into research on each of the following except one. Which one?

A) Type A
B) Explanatory style
C) Locus of control
D) Schemas

Question 25

Researchers have found that individual differences in Type A, self-disclosure, and locus of control are all related to

A) achievement.
B) depression.
C) aggression.
D) health.

Question 26

The trait approach to personality

A) appears to have declined.
B) has changed to include explanations for personal constructs.
C) is alive and well.
D) has not advanced since the original theories of Murray and Cattell.

Question 27

One similarity between Jung and Eysenck is that they both identified a personality variable they called

A) extraversion.
B) neuroticism.
C) sensing-feeling.
D) psychoticism.

Question 28

One issue that separates personality theories is the extent to which people are seen as acting on their own "free will." The two theories that most differ on this issue are probably

A) Freudian theory and evolutionary personality theory.
B) behaviorism and humanistic personality theory.
C) the trait approach and the cognitive approach.
D) behaviorism and social learning theory.

Question 29

A psychotherapist tries to get her depressed client to understand the logical process he uses when coming to the conclusion that he is a worthless person. This psychologist probably is an advocate of which approach to psychotherapy?

A) Psychoanalysis
B) Humanistic psychotherapy
C) Behavior therapy
D) Rational emotive behavior therapy

Question 30

Studies of ___________ indicate that internals and externals typically have different ideas about their role in maintaining physical health.

A) locus of control
B) attributional style
C) self-schemas
D) extraversion

Question 31

Anxiety plays a prominent role in the personality theory of each of the following theorists except one. Which one?

A) Freud B Horney
C) Skinner
D) Kelly

Question 32

Many researchers have examined achievement behavior by looking at

A) responses from the presentation of TAT cards.
B) the words people recall from a list.
C) number of years of education.
D) how people react to failure.

Question 33

A psychologist is working on a book about student reactions to success and failure on exams. If he does a good job of researching the topic, he will find each of the following personality variables except one is useful in predicting the students' behavior. Which one?

A) Extraversion-introversion
B) Self-esteem
C) Locus of control
D) Explanatory style

Question 34

The ____ was developed to measure individual differences proposed by ___ _ .

A) Rorschach inkblot test; Adler
B) Rep Test; Kelly
C) California Q-Sort; Kelly
D) MMPI; Allport

Question 35

The concept of a "self" was described __ _ and later examined in research on __ .

A) by Freud; hypnosis
B) by Horney; coping strategies
C) by Murray; need for Achievement
D) by Allport; self-schemas

Question 36

Ricardo is writing a paper on the causes of aggression. If he does a good job, his paper will probably cover research on each of the following except one. Which one?

A) Frustration
B) Observational learning
C) Mass media violence
D) Locus of control

Question 37

One of the statistical tools available to personality researchers is the correlation coefficient. Research on which topic has relied most heavily on this statistic?

A) Dream interpretation
B) Big Five factors
C) Learned helplessness
D) Schemas

Question 38

Louis wants to understand the effects of watching violence on television. Which approach to personality would probably be the most useful for him to examine?

A) Freudian
B) Biological
C) Behavioral/social learning
D) Cognitive

Question 39

Based on research findings, we can say that the characteristics and behaviors of people high in social anxiety are most similar to the characteristics and behaviors of people

A) high in introversion.
B) low in self-esteem.
C) with an external locus of control.
D) high in femininity.

Question 40

Each of the following theorists except one wrote about a case study that was reported in the textbook. Which one?

A) Freud
B) Allport
C) Eysenck
D) Watson

Question 41

Consider the manner in which Freud and those who disagreed with him were viewed by his admirers. Critically evaluate the scientific status of the contributions of the neo-Freudians who broke with Freud and elaborated on his theory.

Question 42

Researchers have examined individual differences in a personality variable in terms of unmitigated communion. What is that variable?

A) Aggression
B) Hypnotic susceptibility
C) Gender type
D) Temperament

Question 43

Summarize the current status of each of the major theoretical approaches to personality. Specify which continue in popularity and which are in decline. With which do you most agree? Support your answer.

Question 44

Many of the approaches to understanding personality have generated or been associated with schools of psychotherapy. An exception to this pattern is the

A) neo-Freudian approach.
B) trait approach.
C) behavioral/social learning approach.
D) humanistic approach.

Question 45

Although projective tests have been used extensively by psychologists to examine psychoanalytic concepts, they have also been used to study

A) coping strategies.
B) social desirability.
C) need for Achievement.
D) temperament.

Question 46

Suppose a researcher finds the events that make people anxious vary tremendously from culture to culture. Which theory would probably be the least able to account for this?

A) Horney's theory
B) evolutionary personality theory
C) behaviorism
D) social learning theory

Question 47

Among the disadvantages of the case study method is

A) the possibility of subjective judgments.
B) the difficulty with determining relationships among variables.
C) the difficulty of examining certain concepts experimentally.
D) the problem of replicating a treatment.

Question 48

Which of the following theorist's ideas have the most in common with social learning theory?

A) Freud
B) Jung
C) Bandura
D) Murray

Question 49

If the humanistic approach to personality is the "third force" in American psychology, what were the first and second forces? Carefully contrast these "forces" by emphasizing their similarities and differences in theory, application, and assessment.

Question 50

Contrast cognitive psychotherapy with the approaches of Freud and Rogers. Use the methods of Kelly as an example of cognitive therapy in your discussion. Next, contrast Kelly's approach to psychotherapy and Ellis's approach. What differences are in the goals of each approach?

Question 51

List three fundamental ways in which Allport disagreed with Freud. What alternative explanations for adult behavior and personality did he propose? What did Cattell discover concerning the structure of personality using the general process of factor analysis?

Question 52

List specific ways in which social learning theory provides a bridge between traditional behaviorism and the more recent cognitive approaches to personality.

Question 53

Which theorist's ideas about personality were probably influenced by the theorist's personal experiences with social inequality?

A) Jung
B) Horney
C) Murray
D) Bandura

Question 54

Researchers have found consistent gender differences when comparing males and females on the extent to which they

A) respond to hypnotic suggestions.
B) dream about males and females.
C) are extraverted or introverted.
D) experience learned helplessness.

Question 55

Compare Kelly's conception of human personality with Freud's view. Discuss the factors that influence personality and any similarities between these two conceptions. How can personal constructs be used to explain personality differences? According to Kelly, how do we make predictions about the world?