Unit 08: Personality

Question 1

Which of the following statements best describes the difference between the nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality?

a) The nomothetic approach focuses on traits found across large groups, whereas the idiographic approach focuses on individuals.
b) The idiographic approach focuses on traits found across large groups, whereas the nomothetic approach focuses on individuals.
c) The idiographic approach allows psychologists to ask questions about the genetic and cultural basis of personality traits.
d) The idiographic approach relies on measures such as the Big Five, whereas the Big Five is of no use to a nomothetic approach.

Answer 1

a)

Question 2

You are the type of person who tends to go to the same restaurant and order the same thing, sticking to your daily routine. You have even turned down opportunities to travel to new destinations. Which of the Big Five factors would account for this description of your personality?

a) neuroticism
b) conscientiousness
c) agreeableness
d) openness

Answer 2

d)

Question 3

Which of the following concepts developed by Bandura refers to interactions that occur among behaviour, internal factors, and external factors as an explanation for personality?

a) egocentrism
b) positive psychology
c) reciprocal determinism
d) intersubjectivity

Answer 3

c)

Question 4

Kaitlin describes herself as unmotivated. She has not felt rewarded by her attempts to succeed at school or work and, therefore, has given up trying. How might a psychologist who adopts a strict behaviourist approach account for Kaitlin’s behaviour?

a) Kaitlin has low levels of the trait known as extraversion.
b) Kaitlin has a history of not being reinforced for trying to succeed and, therefore, has stopped trying.
c) Kaitlin believes that she cannot succeed and, therefore, avoids putting herself in situations where she might fail.
d) Kaitlin focuses too much on negatives and does not have a positive outlook on life.

Answer 4

b)

Question 5

One of your colleagues, Greg, enjoys starting conflicts with other coworkers, likes being in control, and doesn’t seem to be bothered when his actions hurt those around him. Which personality trait best fits with Greg’s behaviours?

a) psychopathy
b) narcissism
c) extraversion
d) machiavellianism

Answer 5

a)

Question 6

What does the WEIRD acronym refer to?

a) the application of personality to the various cultures from East Asia
b) a database that compiles personality profiles from people of all walks of life
c) psychologists’ preoccupation with abnormal personalities
d) a single, specific group on which major perspectives and theories of personality are based

Answer 6

d)

Question 7

How does the HEXACO model of personality differ from the Big Five factors?

a) HEXACO is a nomothetic model whereas the Big Five is an idiographic model.
b) HEXACO is the only personality theory to include psychopathy.
c) The Big Five model includes five traits whereas the HEXACO model explains personality using three traits.
d) HEXACO includes a sixth personality trait: honesty–humility.

Answer 7

d)

Question 8

Even when identical twins are reared apart, they still tend to be very similar in personality. How is this strong evidence that genes contribute to personality?

a) Identical twins who are raised apart actually show very little similarity.
b) There are fewer similarities when twins are reared together.
c) Identical twins who were reared apart were most likely treated in very similar ways.
d) The similarities remain, even though there were probably significant differences in how the twins were raised.

Answer 8

d)

Question 9

What is an important piece of evidence supporting an evolutionary basis of personality?

a) Changes in personality can be seen over generations.
b) Personality traits are not stable and cannot be found in nonhuman species.
c) Personality traits are stable in the sense that they are common among humans and can be found in nonhuman species.
d) No valid evidence supports an evolutionary approach to personality.

Answer 9

c)

Question 10

Lisa and Elaine work at the same place and were both being considered for a promotion. In order to secure the promotion for herself, Lisa told her bosses lies about Elaine being selfish and difficult to work with. As a result, Elaine did not receive the promotion. Lisa’s behaviour is an example of which personality trait?

a) psychopathy
b) Machiavellianism
c) neuroticism
d) humility

Answer 10

b)

Question 11

According to Freud, the ______ is the personality component that is responsible for seeking to immediately satisfy basic biological needs.

a) id
b) superego
c) ego
d) libido

Answer 11

a)

Question 12

Adam is willing to manipulate and deceive others to get what he wants largely because he sees other people as cynical and selfish. According to the psychodynamic perspective, Adam is displaying _____________.

a) identification
b) rationalization
c) projection
d) sublimination

Answer 12

c)

Question 13

A defence mechanism would be employed

a) by the superego to create anxiety.
b) by the id to create anxiety.
c) by the ego to reduce or avoid anxiety.
d) by the superego to reduce or avoid anxiety.

Answer 13

c)

Question 14

The aspect of consciousness proposed by Carl Jung that reflects a store of archetypes representing symbols and experiences common to all cultures is called the ______.

a) collective unconscious
b) analytical conscious
c) preconscious
d) subconscious

Answer 14

a)

Question 15

According to Freud, a person who is obsessed with cleanliness may be fixated on the ___________ stage of psychosexual development.

a) anal
b) oral
c) genital
d) phallic

Answer 15

b)

Question 16

One reason for going beyond the Big Five, such as the three lines of research on Honesty–Humility, the Dark Triad, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism, is

a) these three theories can be used to diagnose personality disorders that could justify preventative action, such as incarcerating “dangerous” personalities before they are able to commit any crimes and cause harm to others.
b) they predict anti-social tendencies, such as violence and prejudice, better than the Big Five traits.
c) they are idiographic approaches, which supplement the nomothetic approach taken in the Five Factor Model.
d) these three theories account for states and situational factors, whereas the Big Five does not.

Answer 16

b)

Question 17

Your friend, who is normally introverted, is outraged at the taxi driver who is trying to overcharge you. He is cursing at the driver in a verbal altercation. This event is most likely due to his ________.

a) subjective state
b) Big Five personality traits
c) temperament
d) idealized self

Answer 17

a)

Question 18

Alternative approaches to personality such as the behaviourist and cognitive approaches complement trait theories of personality because

a) trait theories focus only on the positive aspects of personality.
b) it is easier to observe behaviour than to ask someone to fill out a personality inventory.
c) trait theories focus on the negatives of personality.
d) these alternative approaches help to account for how traits interact with behaviour and personal experience.

Answer 18

d)

Question 19

Psychologists have primarily relied on ________ to measure personality traits in other cultures.

a) interviews
b) behavioural observations
c) the Big Five trait theory
d) the Cannon-Bard theory

Answer 19

c)

Question 20

Which of the following statements best describes what psychologists now know about the genetic basis of personality?

a) Some genes have been identified that are related to certain aspects of personality function.
b) Hundreds of genes have been identified that are directly linked to specific personality traits.
c) Technology is not sophisticated enough to link genes and personality characteristics.
d) Genes do not contribute to personality characteristics.

Answer 20

a)

Question 21

Which of the following statements best summarizes personality differences between men and women?

a) Males are generally agreeable, whereas women are generally conscientious.
b) Averages of some traits such as extraversion and neuroticism tend to differ between men and women, but these differences are very small.
c) Research shows that men and women really do not differ in personality.
d) Males and females inherit separate sets of genes that cause their differences in personality.

Answer 21

b)

Question 22

You are looking at an fMRI brain scan of a subject in a research study. The scan shows that the person generally has greater activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and less activation in the amygdala. Based on this information, what guess would you make about this person’s personality profile?

a) low in neuroticism, high on extraversion
b) low in neuroticism, high on conscientiousness
c) low on extraversion, high on conscientiousness
d) high on extraversion, high on openness to experience

Answer 22

d)

Question 23

According to Freud, in which order do the stages of psychosexual development occur?

a) oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
b) anal, oral, phallic, latency, genital
c) latency, oral, anal, genital, phallic
d) oral, anal, genital, phallic, latency

Answer 23

a)

Question 24

Dan lied to avoid getting in trouble with his parents, but now he is experiencing anxiety caused by extreme guilt. According to Freud, these negative feelings would arise due to the activity of the_______.

a) Oedipus complex
b) superego
c) ego
d) libido

Answer 24

b)

Question 25

Why have some psychologists questioned the reliability of projective tests?

a) The tests may not measure what they claim to measure.
b) Judges very often agree on how to interpret an individual test.
c) These tests often provide disturbing details about a person’s unconscious.
d) Individuals often score quite differently if tested at two different times.

Answer 25

d)

Question 26

Dr. Mukherjee is a psychologist who is interested in describing personality in terms that are applicable to any member of the population. Her current work is on selfishness and fits with the __________________ approach.

a) nomothetic
b) idiographic
c) idiosyncratic
d) homothetic

Answer 26

a)

Question 27

A technique called _____________ reveals statistical similarities among a wide variety of items.

a) path analysis
b) factor analysis
c) correlation coefficient analysis
d) cluster analysis

Answer 27

b)

Question 28

Which of the major personality perspectives suggests that personality is learned, just like any other set of behaviours?

a) behaviourist
b) social-cognitive
c) humanistic
d) psychodynamic

Answer 28

a)

Question 29

Which of the Big Five has been found to be correlated with greater social skills and success among college and university students, but at the same time is correlated with greater risk of drug use?

a) extraversion
b) introversion
c) conscientiousness
d) neuroticism

Answer 29

a)

Question 30

As a teenager, William frequently got in trouble at school and had more than a couple of visits from the police because of his explosive temper. Now, as an adult, William has trouble maintaining a job because of his tendency to lose his temper with supervisors and customers. Which of the following would be consistent with William’s behaviour as an adult?

a) As an infant, William was difficult to soothe and had difficulty making transitions.
b) When he was three years old, he had incredible ability to delay gratification.
c) There was a significant change in William when his parents divorced while he was in grade 3, and he never seemed to recover.
d) When taking a personality test, one of William’s highest scores was for the domain of extraversion.

Answer 30

a)

Question 31

According to Bandura’s theory of reciprocal determinism, our personalities are based on the interactions among what three factors?

a) genetic traits, external factors, internal factors
b) genetics, parental relationships, external factors
c) reciprocal behaviour, external factors, behaviour
d) behaviour, internal factors, external factors

Answer 31

d)

Question 32

Which of the following is not listed in your text as one of the four general aspects of situations that can influence our behaviour?

a) associations
b) activities
c) objective states
d) locations

Answer 32

c)

Question 33

One of the earlier theories regarding personality was ________, which proposed that personality characteristics could be assessed by measuring the size and shape of the skull.

a) humourism
b) the psychodynamic approach
c) behaviourism
d) phrenology

Answer 33

d)

Question 34

Which of the following would be considered a WEIRD country regarding the study of personality traits across cultures?

a) Saudi Arabia
b) Nigeria
c) Indonesia
d) Canada

Answer 34

d)

Question 35

Research into the cultural universality of the Big Five personality traits has revealed which of the following conclusions?

a) Only individuals from Western cultures share the same Big Five personality factors.
b) While most cultures share the same Big Five personality factors, the prevalence of each trait often differs.
c) There is no relationship between culture and personality.
d) Most cultures do not have the same Big Five personality factors.

Answer 35

b)

Question 36

Research suggests that activation of the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) is more associated with ________________, while activation of the behavioural activation system (BAS) is more associated with ________________.

a) conscientiousness; openness
b) extraversion; neuroticism
c) neuroticism; extraversion
d) introversion; agreeableness

Answer 36

c)

Question 37

You are preparing to visit Japan for the first time. You are very excited to learn about Japanese culture, traditions, and history. You should be aware that in Japan, they put greater emphasis on defining the self in terms of group membership and goals, and thus they are considered _________________ culture.

a) a collectivistic
b) an introverted
c) an individualistic
d) an extraverted

Answer 37

a)

Question 38

Researchers examining the Big Five between men and women find men only score higher than women on __________.

a) neuroticism
b) extraversion
c) conscientiousness
d) openness

Answer 38

d)

Question 39

If two identical twins are separated at birth and raised in very different environments, they are likely to have

a) completely unpredictable levels of similarity or differences.
b) similar personalities.
c) no more in common than same-sex fraternal twins reared apart.
d) dissimilar personalities.

Answer 39

b)

Question 40

An emphasis on ___________ was the main difference between the theories of Sigmund Freud and those of Alfred Adler and Carl Jung.

a) childhood
b) sexuality
c) the unconscious
d) anxiety

Answer 40

b)

Question 41

Which of the following accurately distinguishes between the Freudian defence mechanisms of denial and reaction formation?

a) Reaction formation occurs when we show resistance to perceiving what actually occurs, while denial involves altering an unacceptable impulse into its opposite.
b) Denial involves actively drowning out thoughts, memories, or wishes, while reaction formation involves creating a mental gap between threatening thoughts and other feelings or thoughts.
c) Denial occurs when we show resistance to perceiving what actually occurs, while reaction formation involves altering an unacceptable impulse into its opposite.
d) Reaction formation involves actively drowning out thoughts, memories, or wishes, while denial involves creating a mental gap between threatening thoughts and other feelings or thoughts.

Answer 41

c)

Question 42

According to Freud, adolescence is a time when sexual concerns re-emerge from a person’s psyche, and adult sexuality develops over a period of many years. Which of the following psychosexual stages marks these events?

a) phallic
b) oral
c) anal
d) genital

Answer 42

d)

Question 43

Ryan tends to spend more of his time focusing on what he wishes he were good at rather than thinking about his actual abilities. For example, Ryan is very good at math, but he spends much more time thinking about how he wishes he could write like his favourite author. Carl Rogers would have likely described Ryan as having

a) a psychosis.
b) an absence of superego.
c) a negative self-concept.
d) an inferiority complex.

Answer 43

c)

Question 44

When Anna looks at some abstract artwork at the museum, she often thinks she sees human figures or faces and likes to make up stories about them. When she tells the stories to her friend, her friend says that the stories reflect Anna’s unconscious thoughts. In psychological terms, what Anna does is most similar to a(n) _____________ test.

a) Rorschach
b) MMPI
c) behavioural assessment
d) TAT

Answer 44

a)

Question 45

Which of the following is a limitation of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory stemming from the fact that Freud based much of his thinking on a handful of patients?

a) His theories are considered too simplistic to be of any real value.
b) His theories can only be applied to men, not to women.
c) His observations may not apply to the wider population of healthy, ordinary people from a variety of backgrounds.
d) His theories apply only to children, not to adults.

Answer 45

c)