Exam 4 Flashcards
A good psychobiography aims to…
a) trace adult issues and problms back to childhood causes
b) adhere to the principls of nomothetic science
c) explain a life rather than diagnose
d) include the strongest evidence in support of an interpretation, while downplaying evidence to the contrary
c) explain a life rather than diagnose
The Freudian approach to the interpretation of dreams, and other self-generated narratives, assumes all the following except…
a) behavior may be interpreted on many different levels
b) interpretation may be achieved through introspection and rational analysis
c) behavior is a product of compromise among conflicting forces
d) no single interpretation is ever complete and fully true
b) interpretation may be achieved through introspection and rational analysis
In a longitudinal study of college students, researchers found that deriving positive meanings from experiences of romantic love during freshman year tended to predict…
a) Significant increases in life satisfaction and positive mental health trajectory in the following months
b) significant increases in the tendency to find positive meanings in academic events, too
c) significant decrease in college grades in the following months
d) significant increase in the trait of agreeableness in the following months
a) Significant increases in life satisfaction and positive mental health trajectory in the following months
Research with college students shows that those memories that are likely to become part of a person’s long-term life story tend to show all the following characteristics except…
a) Shared with (told to) other people.
b) Link to current goals.
c) Consistent with expected life scripts.
d) Emotional intensity.
c) Consistent with expected life scripts.
In her book Composing a Life, Mary Catherine Bateson argued that women’s narrative identities (more so than men’s) tend to…
a) Express higher levels of communion.
b) Show multiple plots and interrupted sequences.
c) Build to a climax and then a strong resolution.
d) Show lower levels of improvisation.
b) show multiple plots and interrupted sequences
When it comes to narrative identity, people’s memories of important events from the past tend to…
a) Reflect life-long preferences and tendencies.
b) Be shaped by their current priorities and goals for the future.
c) Become less agentic as they move into middle adulthood.
d) Hue closely to the objective facts of the events.
b) Be shaped by their current priorities and goals for the future.
Studies of the contextualized stories that college students tell about their love lives show that constructing scenes that emphasize positive emotions in the romantic domain tends to be positively associated with…
a) College grades.
b) Mental health.
c) The trait of agreeableness.
d) Secure attachment styles.
d) Secure attachment styles.
In a sociological study of Taiwanese emigration to the United States, Christianity provided the immigrants with a master cultural narrative that…
a) Reinforced the religious faith they brought to the United States.
b) Taught them how to be an American.
c) Raised serious questions about equality and freedom in America.
d) Celebrated their Taiwanese heritage.
b) Taught them how to be an American.
In psychological terms, Luther’s breakthrough insight which led to the Protestant Reformation justification by faith marked his…
a) Attainment of late-life wisdom.
b) Fulfillment of a quest to be generative.
c) Culmination of the rebellion against his father.
d) Achievement of an integrated identity.
d) Achievement of an integrated identity.
A good case study should achieve all the following except…
a) Exhibit narrative truth.
b) Provide a full understanding of the social and historical context of the case.
c) Provide new insights that may, in principle, apply beyond the case.
d) Show how the person is completely unique like no other person who has ever lived.
d) Show how the person is completely unique like no other person who has ever lived.
All the following aspects of narrative identity tend to be associated with high levels of psychological well-being except…
a) Narrative complexity.
b) Communion.
c) Coherence.
d) Agency.
a) Narrative complexity.
In their characterization of master cultural narratives, Kate McLean and Moin Syed argue that all the following are true about these broad cultural stories except…
a) They are coercive they strongly urge you to do and believe certain things.
b) They are elastic they provide many different guidelines that can be expanded to fit most lives.
c) They are pervasive you encounter them nearly everywhere.
d) They are useful they help people construct their own life stories.
b) They are elastic they provide many different guidelines that can be expanded to fit most lives.
When former psychotherapy patients construct narratives about their previous experiences with therapy, those who are currently enjoying the highest levels of well-being and ego development tend to…
a) Emphasize the positive influence that their therapists had on them.
b) Describe therapy as their heroic victory over a treacherous foe (the problem that brought them into therapy in the first place).
c) Suggest that therapy was relatively ineffective in the short term, though improvement occurred later.
d) Describe their improvement in therapy as a matter of personal maturation.
b) Describe therapy as their heroic victory over a treacherous foe (the problem that brought them into therapy in the first place).
The redemptive self is a…
a) Personality type.
b) Motivational agenda.
c) Certain kind of situation that arises often for midlife adults.
d) Certain kind of life story.
d) Certain kind of life story.
The life course perspective on adult development tends to emphasize the impact of…
a) Declining cognitive powers with advanced aging.
b) The identity crisis of emerging adulthood.
c) Early experience in shaping later outcomes.
d) Social roles and their timing.
d) Social roles and their timing.
Parents who score high on measures of generativity tend to adopt which of the following parenting styles?
a) authoritarian
b) indulgent
c) neglectful
d) authoritative
d) authoritative
When a person’s brain is engaged in constructing social scenes, those parts of the brain that appear to be most centrally involved are parts of the…
a) mesolimbic reward circuitry
b) amygdala and behavioral inhibition circuitry
c) default mode network
d) prefrontal cortex
c) default mode network
All the following are examples of generativity except…
a) civic engagement
b) learning a new skill
c) mentoring
d) bearing children
b) learning a new skill
In what has been called the narrative turn, psychologists and social scientists began to take seriously the idea that stories shape reality and that people are fundamentally storytellers. When did this intellectual movement start?
a) in the past decade
b) the 1980s and 90s
c) the 1960s
d) in the years immediately preceding WWII
b) the 1980s and 90s
Research on expressive writing shows that when people tell stories about negative events in their lives, they tend to…
a) Re-experience the pain of the original events.
b) Enjoy subsequent boosts in physical and psychological health.
c) Engage in rumination, which may lead to depression.
d) Appreciate more keenly the positive events they have experienced.
b) Enjoy subsequent boosts in physical and psychological health.
In the narrative study of lives, the idea of positionality refers to the…
a) Specific societal niche within which the subject of a study lives.
b) Researcher’s life situation as it relates to the life situation of the subject of the study.
c) Theoretical position from which the researcher interprets the subject’s life narrative.
d) The specific moment in history when the study is being conducted.
b) Researcher’s life situation as it relates to the life situation of the subject of the study.
As described by Jefferson Singer, a self-defining memory tends to express all the following features except…
a) Unresolved psychological issues.
b) Strong negative emotions, like fear and anxiety.
c) Links to other important memories.
d) Vivid scenes.
b) Strong negative emotions, like fear and anxiety.
Hagiographies are…
a) Biographies of people suffering from mental illness.
b) Political autobiographies, aimed to sway voters.
c) Life narratives written as cautionary tales, spelling out the dangers of living a certain kind of life.
d) Life stories of saints, written to glorify God.
d) Life stories of saints, written to glorify God.
In a typical empirical study of narrative identity, what do researchers do once they have obtained written or spoken text regarding a person’s life story?
a) They score the text according to coding systems that measure themes and structures in the text.
b) They ask research participants to read the texts and provide their own interpretations of what they meant.
c) They examine the text for evidence of personality traits.
d) They share first impressions they have of the content of the text, aiming to find consensus on the meaning of the texts.
a) They score the text according to coding systems that measure themes and structures in the text.
According to Daniel Levinson’s conception of the seasons of adult life, the period of BOOM (Becoming One’s Own Man) in the adult lifespan corresponds with…
a) Emerging adulthood.
b) The age-30 transition.
c) The mid 40s when a man’s social power may be at its highest.
d) The period that immediately precedes the midlife crisis.
d) The period that immediately precedes the midlife crisis.
Cultural critiques of the redemptive self as a master cultural narrative might suggest that…
a) Positive outcomes do not necessarily follow from adverse events.
b) All the above.
c) Redemptive stories suggest more upward progress in life than what often takes place.
d) The protagonist of the redemptive self seems self-righteous.
b) All the above.
In narrative therapy, the client is encouraged to…
a) View the therapist as a creative partner.
b) Explore the unconscious meanings of their suffering.
c) Identify heroes whose life stories they might like to emulate.
d) Personify their problem and treat it as an antagonist, in a story for which the client is the protagonist.
d) Personify their problem and treat it as an antagonist, in a story for which the client is the protagonist.
Research evidence for a midlife crisis is…
a) Modest.
b) Strong.
c) Relatively strong for men, but not for women.
d) Virtually nonexistent.
d) Virtually nonexistent.
What is the grounded theory method as applied to case studies?
a) Using a case to test a general hypothesis.
b) Searching for multiple cases that support the same theoretical idea.
c) A close reading of the case to detect recurrent themes and pattern.
d) Applying personality theories to the careful interpretation of the case.
c) A close reading of the case to detect recurrent themes and pattern.
Research on autobiographical memory suggests that people typically organize their lives into…
a) A strict chronological order.
b) Functional domains, like family and work.
c) Broad organizing themes.
d) Chapters (life periods) and scenes (episodes).
d) Chapters (life periods) and scenes (episodes).
When it comes to deriving lessons and insights from their life stories and sequencing scenes in their stories to explain their own development over time, midlife adults show…
a) Greater variation than young adults in sophistication and skill across different storytelling contexts.
b) Greater sophistication and skill than younger adults.
c) The same level of sophistication and skill as younger adults.
d) Less sophistication and skill than younger adults.
b) Greater sophistication and skill than younger adults.
When a researcher applies the pattern-matching plan to a case study, the researcher looks for a coherent pattern in the data and then…
a) Excludes all evidence that does not match the pattern.
b) Writes up a report that describes the pattern.
c) Finds evidence in other cases to support the interpretation.
d) Looks for evidence in the case that goes against the pattern to see how well the pattern holds up.
d) Looks for evidence in the case that goes against the pattern to see how well the pattern holds up.
When it comes to expressing emotion in life stories, East Asian narrators are more likely than their European American counterparts to emphasize…
a) Low arousal negative emotions (e.g., mild anxiety, boredom).
b) Low arousal positive emotions (e.g., calm, pleasantness).
c) High arousal positive emotions (e.g., joy and excitement).
d) High arousal negative emotions (e.g., terror, sadness).
b) Low arousal positive emotions (e.g., calm, pleasantness).
People with high levels of openness to experience tend to construct life stories that show high levels of…
a) Communion.
b) Coherence.
c) Agency.
d) Narrative complexity.
d) Narrative complexity.
Research shows that engaging older adults in the process of life review tends to…
a) Promote generativity.
b) Promote healthy habits.
c) Increase longevity.
d) Decrease depression.
d) Decrease depression.
The analogue to generativity in human evolution is…
a) Gene-environment co-evolution.
b) Reciprocal altruism.
c) Inclusive fitness.
d) urvival of the fittest.
c) Inclusive fitness.
In Carl Jung’s theory of interpretation, archetypes are…
a) Personal symbols derived from early childhood experience.
b) Master cultural narratives.
c) Universal stories that are part of human nature.
d) Alternative narratives that may be invoked to overcome societal oppression.
c) Universal stories that are part of human nature.
When parents show a highly elaborative conversational style with their young children, the children tend to develop…
a) Life stories that feature strong ethical principles.
b) Emotionally richer autobiographical memories.
c) A stronger sense of autonomy.
d) Higher self-esteem.
b) Emotionally richer autobiographical memories.
The interdisciplinary movement called the narrative study of lives has tended to prioritize the life stories of…
a) People who have overcome adversity.
b) The politically powerful.
c) Socially marginalized people.
d) Artists, writers, and scientists.
c) Socially marginalized people.
In The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), the author revolutionized the practice of biography by doing all the following except…
a) Avoiding moral praise or condemnation of the subject.
b) Detailing both the virtues and the faults of the subject.
c) Considering the personal relationship between the biographer and their subject.
d) Writing the biography for a specialized literary audience.
d) Writing the biography for a specialized literary audience.
In the life stories told by highly generative American adults in their midlife years, the narrators often begin their tale by…
a) Contrasting their own early advantages in life to the suffering of others.
b) Describing early scenes in life that were happy and peaceful.
c) Underscoring the positive influence of their own parents.
d) Describing early scenes in life that were filled with conflict.
a) Contrasting their own early advantages in life to the suffering of others.
Highly generative adults tend to construct narrative identities that are…
a) Communal.
b) Tragic.
c) Redemptive.
d) Heroic.
c) Redemptive.
Which of the following themes is often highlighted in the life stories of highly generative American adults in their midlife years?
a) Learning lessons and gaining insights from others.
b) Contamination sequences.
c) Moral steadfastness.
d) A search for meaning in life.
c) Moral steadfastness.
The idea of a midlife crisis first captured the American imagination…
a) During the Great Depression (1930s).
b) Following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
c) Immediately after World War II (late 1940s).
d) In the 1970s.
d) In the 1970s.
According to Freud, the process of moving from the latent content to the manifest content in dreams is called dream…
a) Work.
b) Analysis.
c) Destruction.
d) Transference.
a) Work.
Feminist perspectives on interpreting life stories tend to emphasize all the following points except…
a) The expectation that life stories are not fully coherent.
b) The fundamental ways in which women and men differ from each other.
c) The role of power imbalances in shaping lives.
d) The importance of silence in life stories, and the need to listen carefully.
b) The fundamental ways in which women and men differ from each other.
In relation to master cultural narratives, counter narratives…
a) Question the values inherent in the master cultural narrative.
b) Provide strong support for the master cultural narrative.
c) Offer alternatives to the master cultural narrative that manage to uphold the same values that the master cultural narrative upholds.
d) Lay out the consequences of what may happen when a person defies a master cultural narrative.
a) Question the values inherent in the master cultural narrative.
With respect to Erik Erikson’s last stage of psychosocial development (ego integrity versus despair), the main challenge is to…
a) Resolve the contradictions of life.
b) Make a positive contribution to the younger generations.
c) Derive honest principles from life.
d) Accept life as a gift.
d) Accept life as a gift.
In Silvan Tomkins’s script theory, a nuclear script contains all the following except…
a) An opening scene that is emotionally negative or ambivalent.
b) An effort to undo or reverse early scenes of negative emotion.
c) The ultimate redemption of negative scenes by a positive ending.
d) The repeat of negative scenes, as in a tragedy.
c) The ultimate redemption of negative scenes by a positive ending.
Compared to European American children, East Asian children tend to form autobiographical memories that show more…
a) Mixture of positive and negative emotion.
b) Self-defining memories.
c) Self-enhancement.
d) Experiences of failure.
a) Mixture of positive and negative emotion.
Competence-building stories emphasize…
a) Positive narratives of the past and positive narratives for the future.
b) Agency in success and redemption in failure.
c) Negative narratives of the past and positive narratives for the future.
d) Communion in success and meaning making in failure.
b) Agency in success and redemption in failure.
In a life-narrative study of Orthodox Jews who identify as homosexual, the researchers concluded that the subjects in the study tended to…
a) Affirm both their religious and sexual identities, even though the two were in fundamental contradiction to each other.
b) Integrate their conflicting selves into a harmonious whole.
c) Disregard their religion because it conflicted with their sexuality.
d) Sink into depression because of the conflict between their religion and their sexuality.
a) Affirm both their religious and sexual identities, even though the two were in fundamental contradiction to each other.
Regarding conversational styles between mothers and their young children, which of the following statement is not true?
a) Securely attached children are more responsive to their mothers’ efforts to engage in shared storytelling.
b) Intervention programs designed to teach mothers to interact with their children in more elaborative ways have generally failed to change mothers’ behavior.
c) Mothers interact in more elaborative ways with securely attached children.
d) Mothers encourage girls to explore their emotions (especially negative emotions), more so than boys.
b) Intervention programs designed to teach mothers to interact with their children in more elaborative ways have generally failed to change mothers’ behavior.
Which of the following statements best captures how people construct narrative identities as young adults?
a) Young adults typically need to put some time aside in private to engage in personal introspection.
b) Young adults often gain critical insights into their lives during emotionally riveting turning point events.
c) Young adults internalize the stories about life that they find on social media.
d) Young adults form narrative identity gradually through interactions with peers and other important people in their lives.
d) Young adults form narrative identity gradually through interactions with peers and other important people in their lives.
According to Erikson’s theory, when people feel that they are failing to be generative, they may experience…
a) Identity confusion.
b) Shame and doubt.
c) Guilt.
d) Stagnation.
d) Stagnation.
According to Daniel Levinson’s conception of the seasons of adult life, each new stage in the adult lifespan ushers in a new…
a) Life structure.
b) Dream for the future.
c) Story of the past.
d) Personality type.
a) Life structure.
When it comes to life stories, the positivity effect of aging reveals itself as…
a) A stronger positive association between themes of narrative identity and personality traits as people get older.
b) The tendency to be increasingly assured of one’s convictions as one gets older.
c) An emphasis on positive emotion in older adults’ narrative identity.
d) An increase in the memory of vivid scenes of joy as one gets older.
c) An emphasis on positive emotion in older adults’ narrative identity.
Compared to the narrative mode of thinking, the paradigmatic mode…
a) Is commonly used to explain human lives.
b) Emphasizes analytic thinking and rational argument.
c) Provides more truthful statements about human motivation.
d) Fails to explain cause-and-effect in the material world.
b) Emphasizes analytic thinking and rational argument.
The tendency to recount several contamination sequences in one’s life story is associated with…
a) Lower socio-economic status.
b) Low agreeableness.
c) High neuroticism.
d) High openness to experience.
c) High neuroticism.
In research on what is called the reminiscence bump, psychologists have shown that people tend to have more than the expected number of strong autobiographical memories from which of the following periods of life?
a) Early childhood.
b) Grade school years.
c) Ages 35-45.
d) Ages 15-25.
d) Ages 15-25.
Compared to European Americans, Chinese adults tend to recall more memories of…
a) Harsh parenting.
b) Positive emotions.
c) Individual achievement.
d) Social and historical events.
d) Social and historical events.
In Freud’s approach to dream interpretation, a dream in which the dreamer’s father and the dreamer’s boss are both represented in the dream by an angry dog is an example of…
a) Secondary revision.
b) Displacement.
c) Symbolism.
d) Condensation.
d) Condensation.
Which of the following statements about generativity best captures the motivational meaning of the concept?
a) Highly generative people think they are being selfless, but others see them as selfish.
b) Highly generative people are selfless altruists.
c) Highly generative people are selfish egoists who manage to convince others that they are selfless.
d) Highly generative people are motivated by both selfish and selfless goals.
d) Highly generative people are motivated by both selfish and selfless goals.
In longitudinal studies of narrative identity among different age groups, which of the following groups tended to show the greatest level of stability (consistency) in their life story accounts over time?
a) Age 50-60.
b) Age 30-40.
c) Adolescents.
d) Emerging adults.
a) Age 50-60.
Under the conditions of cultural modernity, people often see their own lives as…
a) Driven by their traits.
b) Personal projects that they work on.
c) Determined by fate and chance.
d) Reflecting strongly the lives of their parents.
b) Personal projects that they work on.
Research on reading habits shows that greater lifetime exposure to high-quality fiction (novels, short stories) is positively associated with…
a) Better social skills.
b) Higher earnings.
c) Greater technical skills.
d) Higher intelligence.
a) Better social skills.
In the construction of narrative identity, culture provides individual narrators with…
a) A menu of images, themes, plots, and characters, from which a person may choose.
b) Weak guidelines that have little impact on the construction of narrative identity.
c) Strong encouragement to formulate a story that fits the person’s inner nature.
d) Rigid standards for telling the right kind of story.
a) A menu of images, themes, plots, and characters, from which a person may choose.
In Carl Jung’s theory of interpretation, the shadow is…
a) Any feature of the unconscious that is in opposition to conscious thought.
b) The feminine side of a man.
c) The inner beast.
d) The masculine side of a woman.
c) The inner beast.
Why did Levinson’s conception of the seasons of adult life eventually lose favor among personality psychologists?
a) All the above.
b) Because it focused mainly on relatively affluent white men.
c) Because it was too closely linked to a particular historical cohort.
d) Because it suggested a stage scheme that seemed too neat to be true.
a) All the above.
In a landmark study of changes in narrative identity over the course of psychotherapy, Jonathan Adler found that increases in narrative agency…
a) Happened at the same time as improvement in clinical symptoms happened.
b) Preceded and predicted improvement in clinical symptoms.
c) Were independent of improvement in clinical symptoms.
d) Followed (were the result of) improvement in clinical symptoms.
b) Preceded and predicted improvement in clinical symptoms.
Both ancient and modern conceptions of adult wisdom emphasize all the following characteristics except…
a) Finding meaning in suffering.
b) Acceptance.
c) Intellectual humility.
d) Overcoming adversity.
d) Overcoming adversity.
What is the appropriate role of personality theory in the practice of psychobiography?
a) Theory should be used sparingly; the psychobiographer should stick to the objective data.
b) The psychobiographer should use theory to guide interpretation of the case.
c) The case should illustrate how a theory works.
d) The psychobiographer should aim to disprove current theory.
b) The psychobiographer should use theory to guide interpretation of the case.
Which of the following statement best captures Freud’s approach to interpreting dreams, symptoms, and life stories more generally?
a) People’s lives are the manifest products of such latent sources as social conformity and peer pressure.
b) Master cultural narratives are the latent sources of people life stories.,
c) As autobiographical authors, people construct manifest life stories whose latent meanings are often consciously known.
d) Lived experience is a manifest text; its latent meanings are vast and hidden.
d) Lived experience is a manifest text; its latent meanings are vast and hidden.
Generativity is…
a) A person’s positioning within a multi-generational context.
b) About looking back on one’s life in late adulthood to evaluate its overall worth.
c) A person’s overall life satisfaction and mental health.
d) An adult’s commitment to promoting future generations.
d) An adult’s commitment to promoting future generations.
From the perspective of the autobiographical author, a person’s identity is…
a) The role that society provides for the person.
b) An inner story.
c) The true self.
d) A collection of traits.
b) An inner story.
Research conducted in hunting and foraging societies shows that those individuals who are especially skilled in storytelling tend to…
a) Become leaders in the group.
b) Exhibit more cooperation with others.
c) Fight more ferociously when conflicts arise with competing groups.
d) Enjoy fewer opportunities to mate with high-prestige partners.
b) Exhibit more cooperation with others.
In Erik Erikson’s case study of Martin Luther, the dramatic event involving Luther’s falling to the floor of the church and screaming out I am not! was a sign of his…
a) Identity confusion.
b) Desire for generativity.
c) Rejection of the Catholic church.
d) Mental illness.
a) Identity confusion.
Which of the following ideas best describes the postmodern attitude about self and identity?
a) Achieving identity requires hard psychological work.
b) The self is multiple and ambiguous.
c) Eternal truths exist within the person rather than in society.
d) Selves are discovered rather than made.
b) The self is multiple and ambiguous.
Language…
a) Is necessary for storytelling.
b) Is not necessary for storytelling but makes for better stories.
c) Simplifies the art of storytelling.
d) Is independent of the human proclivity for storytelling.
b) Is not necessary for storytelling but makes for better stories.
As people move from early adulthood into midlife, their life stories become more…
a) Redemptive.
b) Agentic.
c) Complex.
d) Coherent.
d) Coherent.
Compared to younger adults, midlife adults tend to tell life stories that show more emphasis on all the following except…
a) Vivid and emotionally charged imagery.
b) Sophisticated autobiographical reasoning.
c) Story asides and digressions.
d) Personality stability.
a) Vivid and emotionally charged imagery.
Narrative identity is…
a) the basic principles that guide a life.
b) A collection of unrelated scenes and scripts about life.
c) An internalized and evolving life story.
d) An objective biography of a person’s life.
c) An internalized and evolving life story.
A social convoy is…
a) The social relationships and social institutions that prevail during one’s childhood.
b) A group of peers who block a person’s goal striving.
c) The people, similar in age, with whom a person grows up and develops.
d) The new friends and acquaintances made when a person goes through a major transition in life.
c) The people, similar in age, with whom a person grows up and develops.
When people derive broad meanings about the self from their life stories, they are showing their capacity for…
a) Psychological magnification.
b) Wisdom.
c) Autobiographical reasoning.
d) Autobiographical memory.
c) Autobiographical reasoning.
Many life-narrative scholars today view people as expressing a dialogical self. What does this mean?
a) The self is unitary, but it engages in dialogue with a collective unconscious.
b) Different parts of the self speak to each other.
c) People create selves in dialogue with other people.
d) Life narratives are always expressed through language.
b) Different parts of the self speak to each other.
As illustrated in the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the prime virtue of generativity is…
a) Courage.
b) Care.
c) Optimism.
d) Fidelity.
b) Care.
According to Carl Jung, the developmental process of individuation results in…
a) The full realization of human rationality.
b) The fulfillment of a person’s life dream.
c) The triumph of the collective unconscious over the personal unconscious.
d) The achievement of unity among different parts of the self.
d) The achievement of unity among different parts of the self.
Life narrative accounts that are easy to follow and show a recognizable form tend to score high on the dimension of…
a) Narrative complexity.
b) Agency.
c) Autobiographical reasoning.
d) Coherence.
d) Coherence.
In Silvan Tomkins’s script theory, a scene must contain…
a) At least one affect.
b) At least two characters.
c) A decision rule.
d) A script.
a) At least one affect.
Surveying the creative contributions of history’s greatest artists, composers, dramatists, and novelists, Elliot Jaques observed that in midlife (around age 40-50) creativity…
a) Expressed more themes of self-fulfillment.
b) Became more philosophical and refined.
c) Often dried up.
d) Became more passionate and spontaneous.
b) Became more philosophical and refined.
In a study of people afflicted with alcoholism who entered a sobriety program, the participants were asked to narrate the experience of their last drink. What kinds of narrations predicted staying sober over time?
a) Stories of bonding with the treatment community.
b) Redemptive stories.
c) Stories of gratitude for the treatment.
d) Especially coherent stories.
b) Redemptive stories.
Research on narrative identity often employs the data collection method of…
a) Behavioral observation in naturalistic settings.
b) Life story interviews.
c) Experience sampling.
d) Self-report questionnaires.
b) Life story interviews.
Which of the following features of narrative identity tends to be positively associated with stability (consistency) in life story accounts over time?
a) Communion.
b) Agency.
c) Telling normative events (such as entering college, first job, etc.).
d) telling non-normative events (surprising and unexpected life events).
c) Telling normative events (such as entering college, first job, etc.).
Freud’s approach to dream interpretation and the postmodern approach to understanding life stories share which of the following principles in common?
a) People’s stories are not as coherent as they initially seem.
b) People’s stories are determined by inner, unconscious forces.
c) People actively and consciously control the process of constructing life stories.
d) People’s stories are strongly shaped by cultural norms and categories.
a) People’s stories are not as coherent as they initially seem.
Which of the following statements describes the biggest limitation of the case study method in science?
a) The findings may not generalize beyond the case itself.
b) It does not work well for discovering new ideas.
c) It does not work well for illustrating complexity in a life.
d) The process is too subjective and biased by the researcher’s point of view.
a) The findings may not generalize beyond the case itself.
Social scientists use the term intersectionality to refer to…
a) The coming together of a life story and cultural master narratives.
b) Life trajectories that involve repeated interactions with people from other cultures, races, or ethnicities.
c) The complex dynamics involved in multi-racial social settings.
d) Combinations of two (or more) ascribed societal categories, like ethnicity and gender.
d) Combinations of two (or more) ascribed societal categories, like ethnicity and gender.
A master cultural narrative is all the following except…
a) A collective story valued by a group.
b) A story that rarely brings disapproval or dissent in the group.
c) A story that reflects a culture’s values.
d) A story that tells people how to live a good life.
b) A story that rarely brings disapproval or dissent in the group.
Even before the advent of language, our human ancestors evolved a tendency to think in story terms so that they could…
a) Predict the outcomes of social scenarios in their minds.
b) Better understand the physical world.
c) Establish more secure attachment bonds with infants and children.
d) Improve hunting and gathering techniques.
a) Predict the outcomes of social scenarios in their minds.
Which of the following terms best captures the ideal perspective from which a psychobiographer should view their subject?
a) Admiration.
b) Distrust.
c) Objectivity.
d) Empathy.
d) Empathy.
In Silvan Tomkins’s script theory, a commitment script shows…
a) An opening scene that is good and continues to recruit positive affect.
b) An opening scene that is bad and continues to recruit negative affect.
c) An opening scene that turns from good to bad.
d) An opening scene that turns from bad to good.
a) An opening scene that is good and continues to recruit positive affect.
