Deck 2: Personality Assessment, Measurement, and Research Design

Question 1

Dr.Larsen conducts a study in which participants are given pagers.Every time the participants are paged,they complete a short questionnaire.Participants are paged three times a day for eight days.This type of research is called:

A)experiential research.
B)experience sampling.
C)life sampling.
D)observer query.

Answer 1

experience sampling.

Question 2

Most commonly,a personality scale consists of:

A)a single rating on a Likert scale.
B)summing the scores on a series of individual rating scales.
C)open-ended questions.
D)projective ratings of personality.

Answer 2

summing the scores on a series of individual rating scales.

Question 3

Which of the following sources of personality data places participants in a standardized testing situation to obtain personality-relevant information?

A)Self-report data (S-data)
B)Observer-report data (O-data)
C)Test data (T-data)
D)Life-outcome data (L-data)

Answer 3

Test data (T-data)

Question 4

In the context of observer-report data (O-data),which of the following statements is true about professional personality assessors?

A)They are in a better position to observe an individual's natural behavior.
B)They observe each participant in a public context rather than a private context.
C)They have access to privileged information that is accessible through spouses or close friends.
D)They are in a better position to assess multiple social personalities of individuals.

Question 5

According to the journals that publish the latest research in personality,which of the following is the most common method for measuring personality?

A)Self-report data (S-data)
B)Observer-report data (O-data)
C)Test data (T-data)
D)Life-outcome data (L-data)

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT a weakness of self-report data?

A)People may intentionally lie about themselves.
B)People may not know how to answer questions accurately.
C)Self-report data are especially difficult to collect.
D)People may intentionally distort reports on unusual experiences.

Question 7

Usually,combining data from multiple observers is:

A)more confusing and less precise than using data from a single observer.
B)more valid and more reliable than using data obtained by a single observer.
C)less reliable and less valid than data obtained by a single clinical psychologist.
D)more reliable and more valid than using single measures of personality.

Question 8

Which of the following is by far the most commonly used self-report assessment procedure?

A)The interview method
B)The periodic report method
C)The questionnaire method
D)The experience sampling method

Question 9

An advantage of experience sampling data is that:

A)one is able to detect patterns of behavior over time.
B)it is easier to collect than other forms of self-report data.
C)it is a completely objective form of self-report data.
D)it is free of the biases associated with other self-report methods.

Question 10

Which of the following sources of personality data refers to the information people reveal about themselves?

A)Self-report data (S-data)
B)Observer-report data (O-data)
C)Test data (T-data)
D)Life-outcome data (L-data)

Question 11

In order to collect experience sampling data,a researcher might:

A)manipulate participants' experiences in laboratory.
B)ask participants to fill out the same questionnaire every day for several weeks.
C)record participants' physiological reactions in laboratory.
D)conduct a telephonic survey.

Question 12

Which of the following is the most obvious reason for using self-report?

A)Individuals have access to a wealth of information about themselves that is inaccessible to anyone else.
B)Observer bias is very difficult to remove from collected data.
C)The desire to portray oneself in a positive light is highly prevalent.
D)There is a negligible amount of bias in self-report data.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of observer-report data (O-data)?

A)They provide another point of view to self-report datA.
B)Many observers' data can be combined.
C)Observers have unique access to information about a person.
D)Observers can best capture the subjective experience of the people being measureD.

Question 14

A person's police record would most likely be considered:

A)self-report data (S-data).
B)observer-report data (O-data).
C)test data (T-data).
D)life-outcome data (L-data).

Question 15

Which of the following is a way for an individual to express with numbers the degree to which a particular trait describes him or her?

A)A Likert rating scale
B)The Self-Deceptive Enhancement subscale
C)A forced-choice questionnaire
D)The California Psychological Inventory Dominance scale

Question 16

Which of the following sources of personality data capitalizes on observers who form impressions of a person for gathering information about his or her personality?

A)Self-report data (S-data)
B)Observer-report data (O-data)
C)Test data (T-data)
D)Life-outcome data (L-data)

Question 17

Roger,who works for a major insurance company,conducts a study on safe drivers.He collects data from a sample of 1,000 drivers and examines their driving records over a 10-year period.This study most likely uses:

A)life-outcome data (L-data).
B)observer-report data (O-data).
C)test-report data (T-data).
D)self-report data (S-data).

Question 18

In the context of observer-report data (O-data),which of the following statements is true about naturalistic observation?

A)It offers researchers the ability to secure information in the realistic context of a person's everyday life.
B)Researchers are allowed to control a context and to eliminate extraneous sources of influence.
C)It requires the individuals being examined to exhibit behavior elicited by researchers.
D)People are contacted electronically one or more times a day at random intervals to answer questions pertaining to a context.

Question 19

Which of the following is an advantage of using intimate observers to collect O-data?

A)Multiple social personalities can be assessed.
B)It helps eliminate biases that are found in professional observers.
C)Participants' personalities can be studied in a public context.
D)It helps ascertain whether a person has lots of friends.

Question 20

Which of the following is an example of an unstructured personality test?

A)A true-or-false question format
B)A forced-choice questionnaire
C)An open-ended questionnaire
D)The Rorschach test

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT a limitation of physiological data?

A)They are typically constrained by a relatively artificial laboratory situation.
B)A testing situation might be defined in different ways by research participants and experimenters.
C)It is easy for participants to fake desirable responses.
D)They share most of the limitations of other types of test data.

Question 22

Projective techniques are considered T-data for all of these reasons EXCEPT that:

A)all participants are given the same instructions during a testing session.
B)all persons are presented with a standard testing situation.
C)stimuli are ambiguous for all the participants in a study.
D)a test situation elicits behaviors that are thought to reveal personality.

Question 23

In the context of physiological measures,psychologist Christopher Patrick found that when most people look at anxiety-producing photographs,_____.

A)their startle reflex is no different than usual
B)their startle reflex is faster than usual
C)their startle reflex is slower than usual
D)they cannot be startled

Question 24

David is presented with a set of inkblots and asked to describe what he sees-for example,what is in the inkblot.This scenario most likely exemplifies a(n):

A)projective technique.
B)ambiguous test.
C)psychoanalytic technique.
D)visual span test.

Question 25

Peter,who works for a major insurance company,conducts a study of drivers who have received a speeding ticket.He collects data from 500 drivers and examines their driving records over a 10-year period.This study most likely uses:

A)life-outcome datA.
B)observer-report data.
C)test-report data.
D)self-report data.

Question 26

Avshalom Caspi and his colleagues examined whether ill-temperedness,measured in childhood,predicted significant life outcomes two to three decades later.This is an example of _____ predicting _____.

A)T-data;S-data
B)O-data;L-data
C)L-data;T-data
D)S-data;T-data

Question 27

Edwin Megargee's (1969)study of manifestations of dominance found that:

A)there were no significant differences in dominance between men and women.
B)women did not want to be followers as they generally lacked mechanical ability.
C)dominant women expressed their dominance in a different manner than men in a mixed-gender condition.
D)dominant men became submissive under certain experimental conditions.

Question 28

An actometer is used to:

A)assess personality differences in activity level.
B)measure action counts.
C)assess actor influence.
D)measure the length of an activity.

Question 29

Which of the following statements is true about electronic and Internet recording devices?

A)They produce recordings that cannot cut across the categories of test data (T-data),self-report data (S-data),and observer-report data (O-data).
B)They can assess naturally occurring behavior in ways that are unobtainable through laboratory or self-report methods.
C)They rule out the possibility of participants responding in accordance with what an experimenter wants to see.
D)They make it difficult for participants to fake their responses during evaluation.

Question 30

The bridge-building test,found in Henry Murray's classic book The Assessment of Men,is an example of:

A)S-datA.
B)O-data.
C)T-data.
D)L-data.

Question 31

Edwin Megargee's (1969)study of manifestations of dominance highlights all of these key points about laboratory studies EXCEPT that:

A)laboratory experimenters should be sensitive to manifestations of personality that occur in incidental parts of an experiment.
B)there are often interesting links between S-data obtained through questionnaires and T-data obtained through controlled testing conditions.
C)the interpersonal style of an experimenter changes the results of the study.
D)it is possible to set up conditions to reveal key indicators of personality.

Question 32

Psychologists who advocate projective measures argue that these tests:

A)are useful for getting at wishes,desires,fantasies,and conflicts that participants themselves may be unaware of and so could not report them in other ways.
B)are useful for determining individuals' reactions when they are placed in ambiguous situations.
C)are useful in eliciting unconscious anger and inciting arguments in married couples during laboratory sessions.
D)are best used in areas of personality psychology that relate to psychopathology and mental illness.

Question 33

Edwin Megargee's (1969)study of manifestations of dominance found that dominant women were most likely to _____ leadership roles when placed in mixed-gender dyads with _____.

A)assume;submissive males
B)delegate;submissive males
C)assume;dominant males
D)delegate;submissive females

Question 34

Which of the following can provide information about the speed at which a person takes in new information?

A)Physiological measures
B)Projective tests
C)Actometers
D)Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Question 35

Avshalom Caspi and his colleagues showed that,for men,early temper tantrums were linked with:

A)many negative life outcomes in adult life.
B)many positive life outcomes in adult life.
C)higher ranks in their military service.
D)increased temper tantrums as adults.

Question 36

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI):

A)is extremely useful for eliciting eyeblink responses when individuals are startled.
B)can be used to assess an individual's activity level.
C)is used to identify the areas of the brain that "light up" when performing certain tasks.
D)is used to discover individuals with "magnetic" personalities.

Question 37

Projective techniques are a type of:

A)S-datA.
B)O-data.
C)T-data.
D)L-data.

Question 38

An advantage of using a mechanical device,such as an actometer,is that:

A)it permits a researcher to be free to measure other things in his or her study.
B)it is unhampered by the biases associated with a human observer.
C)it can assess a wide range of overt and covert behaviors.
D)it is easier than questionnaires to use with children.

Question 39

Which of the following is a disadvantage of test data (T-data)?

A)Experimenters are unable to control a context and eliminate extraneous sources of influence.
B)It is difficult to verify that a research participant defines a testing situation in the same way as the experimenter.
C)Experimenters are unable to test specific hypotheses by exerting control over the variables that are predicted to have causal influence.
D)It is hard to design procedures to elicit behavior that is difficult to observe in everyday life.

Question 40

Naturalistic observation occurs:

A)only when a person does not know that he or she is being observed.
B)when people are observed in the normal course of their daily lives.
C)when people are observed in a natural setting like a forest,a beach,or a desert.
D)only when humans provide personality ratings.

Question 41

If a personality measure is administered to a person four times and each time the measure yields the same score,it is:

A)reliable.
B)valid.
C)statistically significant.
D)repetitive.

Question 42

Triangulation refers to:

A)assessing personality traits in a geometric space.
B)a statistical technique that compares three traits.
C)a procedure that examines results that transcend data sources.
D)a method for plotting personality profiles.

Question 43

In the context of validity,which of the following refers to whether a test foretells criteria external to the test?

A)Predictive validity
B)Convergent validity
C)Discriminant validity
D)Face validity

Question 44

In the context of reliability,which of the following approaches minimizes the effects of socially desirable responding?

A)Using noncontent responding
B)Using a forced-choice questionnaire format
C)Using a Likert rating scale
D)Using experience sampling for negative traits

Question 45

In the context of evaluation of personality measures,when two tests are highly correlated,yielding similar scores for most people,the resulting measure is said to have high:

A)predictive validity.
B)discriminant validity.
C)inter-rater reliability.
D)test-retest reliability.

Question 46

In the context of evaluation of personality measures,when all the items within a test-viewed as a form of repeated measurement-correlate well with each other,the measure is said to have high:

A)compatibility and integration across domains and levels.
B)Likert rating.
C)social desirability.
D)internal consistency reliability.

Question 47

Which of the following terms refers to the extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure?

A)Reliability
B)Validity
C)Correlation coefficient
D)Internal consistency

Question 48

In the context of validity,which of the following refers to whether a test,on the surface,appears to measure what it is supposed to measure?

A)Discriminant validity
B)Predictive validity
C)Convergent validity
D)Face validity

Question 49

In the context of validity,which of the following refers to what a measure should not correlate with?

A)Convergent validity
B)Discriminant validity
C)Predictive validity
D)Face validity

Question 50

Validity refers to the:

A)extent to which a personality test produces the same test score for an individual at repeated intervals.
B)ability to assign a personality test score to a person.
C)ability of a personality test to measure other personality traits.
D)extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure.

Question 51

Construct validity is based on the notion that personality variables are:

A)highly heritable.
B)unambiguous.
C)theoretical constructs.
D)easily assessed with questionnaires.

Question 52

Shimeath measures dominance in male business managers in a variety of ways.The managers complete a dominance questionnaire,and their subordinates complete observer reports of their managers' dominance.Shimeath examines the managers' employment histories and also measures their serum testosterone.Collecting all this data about one specific personality characteristic is referred to as:

A)cross-fertilization.
B)triangulation.
C)cross-validation.
D)data manipulation.

Question 53

In the context of validity,which of the following refers to whether a test correlates with other measures that it should correlate with?

A)Convergent validity
B)Discriminant validity
C)Face validity
D)Criterion validity

Question 54

When alternative measures of the same construct correlate or converge with a target measure,the target measure is most likely to have high:

A)face validity.
B)discriminant validity.
C)predictive validity.
D)construct validity.

Question 55

A type of validity that subsumes all other types of validity is:

A)predictive validity.
B)construct validity.
C)face validity.
D)discriminant validity.

Question 56

Reliability refers to the:

A)ability to assign a personality test score to a person.
B)ability to measure what a personality test purports to measure.
C)degree to which an obtained measure represents the true level of the trait being measured.
D)degree to which a personality test can measure other personality traits effectively.

Question 57

_____ is NOT a way to measure reliability.

A)Internal consistency reliability
B)Inter-rater reliability
C)Construct reliability
D)Test-retest reliability

Question 58

In the context of evaluation of observer-based personality measures,when different observers fail to agree with each other,the measure is said to have low:

A)face validity.
B)discriminant validity.
C)inter-rater reliability.
D)test-retest reliability.

Question 59

A central advantage of using multiple measures from various data sources is that researchers are able to:

A)establish cross-data source consistency across all the sources of datA.
B)increase the validity of each of the data sources under investigation.
C)average out unique idiosyncrasies and home in on the key variable under study.
D)increase the resultant split half reliability coefficients.

Question 60

The shoe size of an individual is positively correlated with his or her height and hand size but is not correlated with his or her intelligence.Thus,shoe size has _____ validity with height and hand size has _____ validity with intelligence.

A)convergent;discriminant
B)discriminant;convergent
C)predictive;face
D)face;predictive

Question 61

In the context of the key features of good experimental design,it is important to know if the observed differences between experimental groups are:

A)directional.
B)statistically significant.
C)correlational.
D)inferential.

Question 62

In the context of the three basic research designs in the field of personality psychology,when two variables,A and B,are correlated,and one does not know if A is the cause of B or if B is the cause of A,it is called _____.

A)the third variable problem
B)the directionality problem
C)random assignment
D)manipulation

Question 63

Correlation cannot provide any information about:

A)significance.
B)causality.
C)directionality.
D)generalizability.

Question 64

Which of the following pieces of information is NOT needed to establish statistical significance in an experimental design?

A)The mean
B)The standard deviation
C)The alpha coefficient
D)The sample size

Question 65

Statistically significant correlations may be observed between two variables that are actually unrelated.This is an example of:

A)correlations inferring causality.
B)the directionality problem.
C)the third variable problem.
D)the restriction of range problem.

Question 66

Which of the following is a major advantage of correlational studies,one of the basic research designs in the field of personality psychology?

A)They are ideally suited for generating hypotheses that can be tested subsequently using the experimental methods.
B)They are used to identify patterns in individual psychological functioning.
C)They allow people to identify relationships among variables as they occur naturally.
D)They are typically used to infer causation from correlations.

Question 67

A measure of extraversion that has construct validity for samples in the United States also has construct validity for samples of participants assessed for extraversion in Japan.This demonstrates:

A)convergent validity.
B)generalizability.
C)test-retest reliability.
D)cross-cultural validity.

Question 68

In order to show that variable A has an influence on variable B,you need to _____ variable A.

A)manipulate
B)counterbalance
C)randomly assign
D)control

Question 69

Which of the following basic research designs in the field of personality psychology is typically used to determine causality?

A)Correlational methods
B)Experimental methods
C)Case study methods
D)Historical methods

Question 70

Which of the following is defined as the degree to which a measure retains its validity across various contexts?

A)Reliability
B)Social desirability
C)Construct validity
D)Generalizability

Question 71

If people who score high on extraversion also score high on measures of happiness,extraversion and happiness are:

A)not correlated.
B)positively correlated.
C)negatively correlated.
D)possibly correlated,but there is insufficient information to be sure.

Question 72

If a researcher wants to know whether people who score high on extraversion also score high on activity level,the researcher should use the _____ method.

A)experimental
B)case study
C)correlational
D)ANOVA

Question 73

One of the key requirements of good experimental design is to ensure that at the beginning of a study participants in each experimental condition are:

A)manipulated by each other.
B)equivalent to each other.
C)randomly assigned.
D)counterbalanceD.

Question 74

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic research designs in the field of personality psychology?

A)Correlational studies
B)Physiological measurements
C)Experimental methods
D)Case study methods

Question 75

When a personality measure applies widely to different persons,situations,cultures,and times,the measure is most likely to have high:

A)criterion validity.
B)reliability.
C)generalizability.
D)social desirability.

Question 76

In the context of the key features of good experimental design,counterbalancing allows an experimenter to rule out:

A)manipulations.
B)personality effects.
C)random assignment.
D)order effects.

Question 77

Which of the following is NOT important in evaluating a personality measure?

A)Manipulation
B)Generalizability
C)Validity
D)Reliability

Question 78

The process of random assignment helps to ensure:

A)statistical significance.
B)good counterbalancing.
C)equivalence.
D)fairness.

Question 79

If dominance correlates positively with ego strength,then:

A)dominance causes ego strength.
B)ego strength causes dominance.
C)people who score high on dominance tend to score high on ego strength.
D)people who score high on dominance tend to score low on ego strength.

Question 80

To meet the requirements of good experimental design when establishing the influence of one or more variables,a(n)_____ variable is manipulated.

A)dependent
B)controlled
C)independent
D)causal