Question 1

A person's ______ is a complex mix of emotional and cognitive mechanisms acquired by internalizing the moral rules of our social group.

Accepted Answer

The description best fits the concept of conscience, which includes emotional and cognitive mechanisms acquired through socialization and internalized moral rules. Level of arousal and temperament refer to more basic physiological and behavioral traits, while superego is a Freudian concept that overlaps with conscience but is more specific in its meaning.

Question 2

Psychologists refer to the different components of one's personality as ______.

Accepted Answer

Psychologists refer to the different components of one's personality as traits. Traits can be described as stable characteristics that influence a person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Examples of traits include honesty, extraversion, and neuroticism.

Question 3

The social push hypothesis refers to which of the following?

Accepted Answer

The social push hypothesis suggests that antisocial or criminal behavior in individuals who do not have significant psychosocial risk factors (such as poverty, family issues, or peer influences) is more likely to be rooted in biological or genetic predispositions. This contrasts with the idea that social and environmental factors alone are responsible for such behaviors.

Question 4

______ refers to an individual characteristic that constitutes a person's habitual mode of emotionally responding to stimuli.

Accepted Answer

Temperament refers to an individual's innate and stable way of reacting emotionally to stimuli. It is considered to be biologically based and relatively consistent throughout the lifespan, whereas personality refers to a more complex pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that develop through interactions between biology and the environment. Altruism and intelligence are unrelated concepts.

Question 5

_____ can be thought of as the action component of empathy; if you feel empathy for someone, you will probably feel motivated to take some sort of action to alleviate that person's distress.

Accepted Answer

Empathy alone is just feeling the emotions of another person without necessarily taking action. Altruism, on the other hand, involves acting for the benefit of others, even if it comes at a personal cost. Therefore, altruism is the best choice to describe the action component of empathy.

Question 6

Upon hearing of the murder of a child in the news, Johnny feels the pain and distress of the parents as though it were his own.In this case, Johnny would best be described as high in ______.

Accepted Answer

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. In this scenario, Johnny is experiencing the pain and distress of the parents, demonstrating high levels of empathy.

Question 7

The individual who helped to define the concept of intelligence, and who had created many of the IQ tests in use today, was

Accepted Answer

David Wechsler is credited with designing various intelligence tests, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), which are widely used IQ tests today. He helped to define the concept of intelligence as a global construct consisting of various cognitive abilities.

Question 8

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological Association's Task Force have concluded that ______ are not biased against any group.

Accepted Answer

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological Association's Task Force have concluded that IQ tests are not biased against any group. This conclusion is based on extensive research and analysis of the tests' design and application across different demographic groups.

Question 9

The aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully [and] think rationally is part of the person's______.

Accepted Answer

The capacity to act purposefully and think rationally is reflective of an individual's intelligence, which is a measure of their cognitive abilities. Altruism, personality and temperament may all play a role in an individual's behavior, but they do not necessarily reflect their ability to think and act purposefully.

Question 10

In a phenomenon referred to as the "intellectual imbalance," it has been found that offenders tend to score lower than the overall population on the ______ intelligence subscale, but not on the ______ intelligence subscale.

Accepted Answer

Research has consistently shown that offenders score lower than the overall population on the verbal intelligence subscale, but not on the performance intelligence subscale. This suggests that difficulties with language and communication may be a contributing factor to criminal behavior.

Question 11

______ is a primary trait composed of several secondary traits such as well organized, disciplined, scrupulous, responsible, and reliable at one pole, and disorganized, careless, unreliable, irresponsible, and unscrupulous at the other.

Accepted Answer

The primary trait described is conscientiousness, which is composed of several secondary traits including being well-organized, disciplined, responsible, and reliable at one end of the spectrum and disorganized, careless, unreliable, irresponsible, and unscrupulous at the other end. Negative emotionality refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions, sensation seeking refers to seeking out novel and exciting experiences, and impulsiveness refers to acting on sudden impulses without considering the consequences.

Question 12

Johnny is friendly, considerate, courteous, helpful, and cooperative with others.He might best be described as high in ______.

Accepted Answer

Johnny displaying traits such as being friendly, considerate, courteous, helpful, and cooperative with others are all indicative of high agreeableness.

Question 13

Which of the following is associated with increased risk of criminality?

Accepted Answer

A relatively unresponsive autonomic nervous system (ANS) is associated with increased risk of criminality because it may impair the body's natural fear response, potentially making individuals less likely to refrain from risky or antisocial behavior due to fear of punishment.

Question 14

The theorist identified with lifestyle theory is

Accepted Answer

Glen Walters is the theorist associated with lifestyle theory. This theory suggests that individuals engage in criminal activity as a result of their lifestyle choices, which may lead them to be exposed to criminal opportunities and associates.

Question 15

Classical conditioning is best described as

Accepted Answer

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. In other words, it involves building a subconscious association between two paired stimuli. For example, Pavlov's dog learned to associate the sound of a bell with food and began to salivate at the sound of the bell alone.

Question 16

The ______ effect refers to the phenomenon of genetics and environment tending to be matched, so that a person's genetic advantage or disadvantage intellectually will tend to be magnified over time due to environmental influences.

Accepted Answer

The statement is referring to the multiplier effect, which is the interaction between genetics and environmental factors that creates a magnifying effect on a person's intellectual advantages or disadvantages over time. None of the other answer choices relate to this phenomenon.

Question 17

Johnny has such a strong drive for novel, varied, and extreme experiences that he is willing to take physical and social risks.He might best be described as high in which trait?

Accepted Answer

Sensation seeking refers to the tendency to pursue novel and exciting experiences, even if they involve physical or social risks. This trait is characterized by a desire for varied and intense experiences, and a willingness to take risks to achieve them. Johnny's behavior of seeking novel and extreme experiences suggests that he is high in sensation seeking.

Question 18

Mood (happy/sad), sociability (introverted/extraverted), and reactivity (calm/excitable) are components indicative of a person's

Accepted Answer

These three components are all linked to a person's temperament, which refers to their innate personality traits and behavioral tendencies. Mood, sociability, and reactivity are all key aspects of temperament, which can have a significant impact on a person's behavior, emotions, and relationships with others.

Question 19

______ is a personality trait that refers to the tendency to experience many situations as aversive, and react to them with irritation and anger.

Accepted Answer

Negative emotionality, also known as neuroticism, is characterized by the tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and anger. People who score high in negative emotionality are more likely to perceive many situations as aversive and react with irritability and hostility.

Question 20

The ______ carries out the basic housekeeping functions of the body by funneling messages from the environment to the various internal organs so that they may keep the organism in a state of biological balance.

Accepted Answer

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is responsible for the basic housekeeping functions of the body, as it regulates involuntary bodily functions, including heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal. This system operates by receiving information about the body and its external environment, and then responding by stimulating body processes, either through activation or inhibition.

Quiz 9: Psychosocial Theories: Individual Traits and Criminal Behavior