Deck 12: Writing Stories of Lives: Biography and the Life Course

Question 1

A case study is generally not effective for the purpose of

A) Generating hypotheses
B) Examining relationships among many variables
C) Comprehending change over time
D) Testing hypotheses

Answer 1

Testing hypotheses

Question 2

In Murray's personology, a pattern of related needs and press plural), derived from infantile experience, which organizes or gives meaning to a large portion of an individual's life, is called a

A) Thema
B) Unity-thema
C) Durance
D) Serial

Answer 2

Unity-thema

Question 3

Which of the following is not a criterion identified by Alexander for the inclusion of a particular piece of data in a psychobiographical study?

A) Frequency
B) Uniqueness
C) Primacy
D) Consistency

Answer 3

Consistency

Question 4

In his work on the study of lives, Robert White identified a number of growth trends in human personality. Which of the following is not a major growth trend?

A) Freeing of personal relationships
B) Deepening of interests
C) Humanizing of values
D) Integration of needs

Question 5

The Icarus complex is a

A) Trait
B) Clinical syndrome
C) Thema
D) Biographical type

Question 6

Before the twentieth century, biographies tended to be

A) Overly subjective
B) Overly critical of their subjects
C) Not especially psychological in perspective
D) Confined to studies of the rich and famous

Question 7

Which of the following ideas is not a central characteristic of Henry Murray's personological system?

A) Lives set in time
B) Psychogenic needs
C) Diagnostic council
D) Consistency in selfhood

Question 8

A good interpretation of a case may most profitably be seen as functioning in ways similar to a

A) Clear ideology
B) Good theory
C) List of traits
D) Convincing plot

Question 9

Because a single case cannot adequately represent the whole population from which it is drawn, a case study may lack

A) Reliability
B) Internal coherence
C) External validity
D) Narrative truth

Question 10

Daniel Levinson views the overall pattern or design of a person's life as the person's

A) Lifestyle
B) Life structure
C) Sense of self
D) Ego

Question 11

Which of the following was not a central finding in Frenkel's study of life histories collected from European men and women in the 1920s and 30s?

A) Over the life course, the first half of life is taken up more with bodily needs and wishes whereas the second half focuses more on duties and responsibilities
B) Experiences of loneliness and daydreaming peak is old age
C) During their mid-40s men and women may endeavor to reexamine the past
D) Lives in which the pursuit of sexual gratification takes precedent over productivity in work and child-rearing suffer a subjective decline in the
Second half

Question 12

The smallest meaningful unit of behavior in Murray's system is a

A) Thema
B) Proceeding
C) Need
D) Durance

Question 13

Which of the following themes is not part of the Icarus complex?

A) Rising and then falling
B) Narcissism
C) Fire and water as images of sexuality
D) Striving to unite with others

Question 14

To analyze the data from a case study with a pattern-matching plan, the psychologist must first approach the data with

A) A purely objective outlook
B) The strong commitment to find order and coherence
C) A large number of competing or contradictory assumptions in mind
D) An open mind that is guided by certain theoretical expectations

Question 15

The main purpose of medieval hagiographies was

A) Veneration of Christian saints
B) Exposure of sinful ways of men and women
C) Moral instruction for everyday life
D) Entertainment

Question 16

In Frenkel's landmark study of the life histories of European men and women in the 1920s and 30s, the investigator focused on all of the following dimensions of human lives except

A) Significant external events such as wars)
B) Internal reactions to social changes
C) Specific accomplishments
D) Conflicts with parents

Question 17

In her study of life histories of European men and women in the 1920s and 30s, Frenkel found that a search for the "meaning of life" begins

A) In early childhood
B) In late adolescence
C) Around age 30
D) At midlife

Question 18

The art and science of interpreting texts is called

A) Hermeneutics
B) Dialogistics
C) The study of lives
D) Existentialism

Question 19

In Murray's personology, a series of overlapping proceedings that together comprise a temporally meaningful period in a person's life, analogous to a "chapter" in a person's life story, is called a

A) Thema
B) Unity-thema
C) Durance
D) Serial

Question 20

Murray's overall model of the personality is best characterized as a

A) Fluid conglomerate
B) Hydraulic machine
C) Internally consistent self
D) Information-processing system

Question 21

Which of the following methods for studying the lives of eminent individuals is typically used to test hypotheses about personality?

A) Psychobiography
B) Comparative method
C) Historiometry
D) Case study

Question 22

The growing "on time" concern about mortality during the midlife years is manifested in increasing experience and preoccupation with

A) Losses
B) Separations
C) Endings
D) All of the above

Question 23

According to a life course perspective, people move through developmental time with a particular cohort of friends, family members, associates, and so forth. This phenomenon is called

A) Social timing
B) Serendipity
C) Social convoy
D) Generative integration

Question 24

According to Levinson, men in their early 30s are in the process of

A) Getting into the adult world
B) Settling down
C) Becoming their own men
D) Reexamining the past

Question 25

Murray's understanding of "personology" included all of the following except

A) An understanding that each human life has a dominant theme
B) The belief that fantasies and narratives are at the core of human individuality
C) An emphasis on lives being set in time
D) An interdisciplinary approach to studying lives, incorporating the biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities

Question 26

According to Levinson, men may emerge from the midlife transition in their late 40s in a state of

A) Despair
B) Renewed confidence
C) Changed identity
D) Any of the above

Question 27

According to Levinson, a man's motivating vision for the future is his

A) Personality
B) Fictional finalism
C) Dream
D) Life schema

Question 28

Which of the following periods in a man's life is, in Levinson's scheme, parallel to the Oedipal child's search for power and glory?

A) Settling down
B) Becoming one's own man
C) Midlife transition
D) Restabilization

Question 29

If a person's own narrative identity represents a ____ account of his life, then the psychologist's story about that life represents a ____ account.

A) Idiographic, nomothetic
B) Narrative, paradigmatic
C) First-person, third-person
D) Personal, personological

Question 30

What is the social clock?

A) Society's expectations for what should happen at particular points in the life course.
B) A biologically based sense of timing that people experience regarding important social transitions
C) Historical events that a particular cohort experiences and uses to define its sense of generational identity
D) Daily rhythms of rest, activity, and social relaxation

Question 31

Research suggests that being "on time" for expected role transitions in life is associated with

A) Positive morale and well-being
B) Conformity
C) Depression
D) The experience of regrets later in life

Question 32

In considering why Vincent Van Gogh may have cut off is own ear, Runyan concludes that alternative psychobiographical explanations

A) Can be evaluated according to consensual standards
B) Need to be consistent with each other
C) Are all equally true or false
D) Should be consistent with psychoanalytic theory

Question 33

A psychologist who explains the emergence of a strong concern for world peace in a woman's life in terms of the social events and forces that impinge upon her at a particular time in her life is using _____ perspective for understanding personality.

A) Trait
B) Motivational
C) Life stage
D) Life course

Question 34

For the most part, midlife is defined by

A) Biological changes
B) Changes in self-esteem
C) Societal expectations
D) Political and religious institutions

Question 35

Some psychobiographers will automatically trace adult tendencies to early childhood experiences, even when little evidence exists that childhood forces caused the outcome. This problem in psychobiography is an example of

A) Overpathologizing
B) Eventism
C) The fundamental attribution error
D) Critical period fallacy

Question 36

In Murray's psychological analysis of Herman Melville's great novel, Moby-Dick, the great white whale represents

A) The Id
B) The Ego
C) The Superego
D) The entire Freudian psyche

Question 37

As opposed to "life stage" theories, "life course" theories tend to

A) Link developmental tasks to specific age ranges
B) Emphasize social context and the contingency of development
C) Test hypotheses that apply to particular individuals rather than people in general
D) Provide a clear goal for development to which individuals strive

Question 38

According to Jacques, the creative artist before midlife shows which of the following forms of creativity?

A) "Hot-from-the-fire^"
B) Sculpted and philosophical
C) "The golden mean"
D) Uneven and unfinished

Question 39

Allport criticized Freud's case studies for Freud's attempts to

A) Discover new theories in the case
B) Exemplify and prove his own theories through the case
C) Test hypotheses through the case study
D) Evaluate the outcome of therapy through the case study

Question 40

What aspect or emphasis in the "life-course" perspective suggests that personality psychology-the study of human individually-should play a central role in understanding human development?

A) Social timing
B) The role of chance events in development
C) Human agency
D) Social roles