Question 1

Alex is a 10-year-old boy who is much more concerned with developing friendships with other males of his age than with girls. He is in which of Freud's psychosexual stages?

Accepted Answer

A)  anal 
B)  phallic 
C)  latency 
D)  genital

Question 2

Martha knows she can succeed at getting into medical school. She says, "All I have to do is figure out how other people got in, decide whether I can successfully use those strategies, and then implement my plan." Martha is showing high levels of:

Accepted Answer

A)  self-efficacy 
B)  locus of control 
C)  self-efficacy and locus of control 
D)  locus of control and agreeableness

Question 3

Fowsia and Ahmed live in Somalia, and Anna and Frank live in Canada. Based on what you've learned about personality, you can safely assume that ____________ will show more gender-based differences in personality.

Accepted Answer

A)  neither couple 
B)  Fowsia and Ahmed 
C)  Anna and Frank 
D)  This question cannot be answered, because no research in personality has been conducted in Africa.

Question 4

In predicting the behaviour of those we know, research has shown that we:

Accepted Answer

A)  are more accurate than in predicting our own behaviour 
B)  tend to predict that their behaviour will be more negative than it actually is 
C)  are less accurate than is the person in predicting his own behaviour 
D)  are unable to perform above chance in our predictions

Question 5

One response to Mischel's situationism critique of trait theory is to argue that:

Accepted Answer

A)  traits are more predictive of behaviour if they are central rather than peripheral or secondary 
B)  some people may be more consistent than are others 
C)  when behaviours are averaged across many situations traits are better predictors of behaviour 
D)  all of the above

Question 6

The cognitive knowledge structure that guides attention and affects behaviour is referred to as:

Accepted Answer

A)  self-awareness 
B)  self-concept 
C)  self-esteem 
D)  self-evaluative mechanism

Question 7

Factor analysis is useful to psychologists because it allows them to:

Accepted Answer

A)  separate real traits from imaginary traits 
B)  group many similar traits together into a more basic trait 
C)  identify the causal factor behind each trait 
D)  test psychodynamic ideas scientifically

Question 8

The five-factor theory has ____________ factors and is ____________ widely accepted than Eysenck's theory.

Accepted Answer

A)  more; more 
B)  fewer; less 
C)  more; less 
D)  fewer; more

Question 9

Jayda and LeMario had a disagreement and began to attack each other's character. Jayda told LeMario that he is "impulsive and disagreeable" while LeMario told Jayda she is "neurotic and thrill-seeking." If Jayda is a "typical" female and LeMario is a "typical" male, which one has made an accurate personality assessment?

Accepted Answer

A)  Jayda 
B)  LeMario 
C)  neither 
D)  both

Question 10

Bandura's concept of self-efficacy:

Accepted Answer

A)  relates expectancies to behaviour 
B)  denies the role of observational learning on human behaviour 
C)  has not been supported by empirical research 
D)  implies that the environment has little impact on behaviour

Question 11

What is the difference between the concepts of "trait" and "temperament"?

Accepted Answer

A)  traits are more broad than temperaments 
B)  temperaments are more broad than traits 
C)  both are at an equal level of broadness or abstractness 
D)  it depends on the personalities of the people one is investigating

Question 12

The structure Freud called ego operates in accordance with the:

Accepted Answer

A)  pleasure principle 
B)  parents' wishes 
C)  reality principle 
D)  unconscious part of the mind

Question 13

Imagine that you have just met the person who is going to be your roommate next year. On the basis of what psychologists know about judgments of personality, to whom would you address questions about what the new roommate is like, and why?

Accepted Answer

A)  the future roommate, because self-descriptions have been found to be the best predictors of behaviour 
B)  his or her current close acquaintances, because research has found that people are not always objective about their own behaviour 
C)  other people in your dorm who do not know but can observe the new roommate's behaviour, because they will be the most objective 
D)  no one, because research has found that such descriptions usually cannot predict future behaviour

Question 14

Which of the following have Buss and Plomin identified as basic traits or temperaments in infants?

Accepted Answer

A)  novelty seeking, shyness, and activation 
B)  inhibition, extroversion, and sociability 
C)  activity level, emotionality, and sociability 
D)  shyness, sensation seeking, and agreeableness

Question 15

The cocktail party phenomenon provides evidence that:

Accepted Answer

A)  most people prefer being around others to being alone 
B)  when people gossip about others, they tend to do so in small groups rather than in large groups 
C)  people pay attention to and deeply process information relevant to the self 
D)  the behavioural inhibition system of extroverts is inactive during social situations

Question 16

After failing a test, Troy explained his poor performance by saying, "I planned to study really hard for this exam, but I was feeling sick, so I did poorly." During a previous exam, when Troy did well, he said that he studied for many hours and that all his hard work had paid off. Troy is showing evidence of:

Accepted Answer

A)  self-schema rearrangement 
B)  a self-serving bias 
C)  a positive illusion 
D)  self-deprecation

Question 17

Cognitive-social theories of personality give great emphasis to:

Accepted Answer

A)  the patterns of reinforcement people have experienced in the past 
B)  biological factors as determinants of personality 
C)  the role of expectancies in guiding our behaviour 
D)  unconscious processes in social situations

Question 18

What is the current status of Freud's psychodynamic theory in psychological science?

Accepted Answer

A)  It has been largely abandoned because most of Freud's ideas cannot be tested empirically. 
B)  It has been modified by the neo-Freudians and is now viewed as a scientifically valid theory of personality. 
C)  It is now more widely endorsed by personality psychologists than when it was first proposed. 
D)  It has been abandoned by therapists but not research psychologists.

Question 19

Research evidence across cultures shows that there is ____________ support for the five-factor theory and that ____________.

Accepted Answer

A)  little; researchers are trying to come up with new ways to measure personality 
B)  much; some cultural differences also emerge 
C)  little; only three factors are needed to fully explain personality across cultures 
D)  much; researchers are developing new ways to use projective tests to measure the five factors

Question 20

Marta has a successful job, is married to a handsome and kind person, and has three intelligent children. What would you predict about Marta's self-esteem based on this information?

Accepted Answer

A)  She will have high self-esteem but only in specific situations. 
B)  She will have high self-esteem in general because she is successful in many areas of her life. 
C)  She will experience moderate self-esteem compared to her peers, but much higher self-esteem than people in general. 
D)  She may have low, moderate, or high self-esteem.

Exam 13: Personality