Psyc 2740 testbank

If I describe Juan as "possessive" or Anita as "friendly," I am employing the use of

trait descriptive adjectives

How many trait-descriptive adjectives are there in the English language?

more than 20,000

psychologists have found if difficult to define personality because

any definition of personality needs to be sufficiently comprehensive to include a multitude of concepts

research on personality traits ask all of these questions except

which cues cause behaviour in a situation

Immanuel walks the same path every day at the same time. To state that he will most likely take the same route at the same time next Wednesday is using the _____ nature of personality traits.

predictive

Mike makes several social errors at a party. He calls the host by the wrong name, spills his red wine on the carpet, and insults the guest of honor. We label Mike's behavior as "socially inept." This labeling of Mike's behavior utilizes the _____ research approach to personality traits.

descriptive

Features of personality that differentiate one person from another usually take the form of _______ in language

trait-descriptive adjectives

traits define the ____ tendencies of an individual person

average

a talkative person will

talk more, on average, than a quiet person

to say that someone will tend to display a trait with regularity is to say that the person has a(n)

average tendency

which of the following questions does research on personality traits NOT emphasize?

how are all persons similar?

psychological mechanisms differ from traits in that mechanisms

refer more to processes

which of the following is NOT part of the most personality mechanisms?

access codes

the trait of courageousness is an especially good example of

how traits are activated only under certain condtions

personality is

inside the person

to say that someone has the trait of happiness, you need to know that person

is frequently happy

which of the following is NOT defined as part of the person environment interaction?

serializations

responses to an ink-blot test can demonstrate which part of the person-environment interaction?

perceptions

mo looks at the ink blot and sees two birds nesting. Heidi looks at the ink blot and sees a tranquil forest. Joe looks at the ink blot and sees something sexual. These three responses are illustrating that _____ are important components of the person-environment interaction.

perceptions

Evocations are demonstrated when

our characteristics unintentionally cause other people to act a certain way

every time sid walks into the room everyone laughs. This demonstrates the person-environment interaction of

evocation

Bianca always picks out restaurants that have a very quiet, subdued atmosphere. She always tries to avoid loud restaurants. ______ is the person environment fit mechanism that may account for this behaviour.

selection

to say that a trait is adaptive means that the trait

serves a useful function

at the psychological level, the physical environment may lead to the development of

fear mechanism to help us avoid environmental threats

in the social environment, our "effective environment" represents the/a

subset of environmental features people attend to based on their psychological mechanisms

the intrapsychic environment is

not as objectively verifiable as the social or physical environment

The human nature level of personality analysis addresses how every human is

like all others

the group differences level of personality analysis addresses how every human is

like some others

The individual uniqueness level of personality analysis addresses how every human is

like no others

The ability to learn spoken language is an example of the

human nature level of analysis

Studying how people vary in levels of anxiety, self-esteem, or worry represents a/an _____ approach to studying personality psychology

individual differences

Which of the following is an example of "idiographic research"?

Writing a case study of Albert Einstein's personality.

Which of the following is an example of "nomothetic research"?

Comparing freshmen and seniors on a personality inventory.

The study of a single individual is an example of

idiographic research

Most current personality research is done at the _____ level of analysis.

group and individual differences

Most grand theories of personality focus on the _____ level of analysis

human nature

A problem with studying only the grand theories of personality is that only portions of the grand theories

have stood the test of time and inform modern personality research

Grand theories of personality are usually based on statements about the

universal core of human nature

In modern personality psychology, the grand theories

are seen as having primarily historical interest

The textbook presents the example of the three blind men and the elephant to suggest that

each of the different approaches to personality research is inadequate for studying the full range of human personality.

The fact that there are many differing views on personality suggests that

researchers study different domains of knowledge

A "domain of knowledge" is a

specialty area of science and scholarship

Researchers in a given domain of personality share all of these EXCEPT

common laboratory space

The domains of knowledge in personality differ mainly in

degree to which they emphasize internal or external factors

When different domains of knowledge contradict one another, we can conclude that

the contradictions may be more apparent than real

The dispositional domain focuses on

understanding the ways individuals differ from one another

Which of the following does NOT fall within the biological domain of knowledge?

Subjective experience

A researcher who compares identical twins to fraternal twins probably conducts most of her research within which domain?

Biological

The domain of knowledge most concerned with unconscious mechanisms is the

intrapsychic domain

Sigmund Freud's theory of personality falls within the _____ domain of knowledge

intrapsychic

Jay is interested in investigating unconscious conflict in a sample of college interns. Jay will most likely use the methods and theories associated with the ______ domain of personality.

intrapsychic

Which domain is most concerned with identifying the number of fundamental individual differences

dispositional

The lexical strategy (i.e., using natural language to identify fundamental traits) falls most squarely within the

dispositional domain

Which domain relies most on statistical methods to identify fundamental traits?

dispositional

Patti collects data on three personality tests from several hundred participants. She then examines the systematic statistical similarities and differences among the traits assessed by each test. Patti is using the logic and methods of the ______ domain of personality.

dispositional

Which domain of knowledge places the most emphasis on the external (to the person) dimensions of personality?

social and cultural

The fact that almost all humans live in groups suggests the importance of the _____ domain.

social and cultural

Sidney is interested in differences in the levels of extraversion of British men and Italian men. Sidney will most likely use the methods and theories used by researchers studying personality within the _____ domain.

social and cultural

Which domain focuses most on the relationships between personality and health behaviors?

adjustment

The study of personality disorders falls within the _____ domain.

adjustment

Lillian is interested in how borderline personality disorder affects everyday behaviors in a clinical population. She most likely will use the methods and the models of the _____ domain of personality in conducting her research.

adjustment

Which of the following is NOT a function of a theory?

eliminates domains of knowledge

Which of the following is NOT an example of a theory that provides a guide for researchers?

A personality psychologist analyzing a large pool of responses to questionnaire items to find the underlying structure of the data.

Which of the following is a scientific theory?

Einstein's ideas on relativity

_____ are based on systematic observation, whereas _____ are not.

Theories; beliefs

George's theory of personality leads to the discovery of new links between cognition and brain functioning that were previously believed to be impossible. George's theory has

heuristic value

The most important criterion for generating a testable theory is

its precision of prediction

Which trait theory best exemplifies the principle of parsimony? A theory that proposes

two personality dispositions

What a person tells you about his or her attitudes would be considered

S-data

What a person's friend tells you about that person would be considered

O-data

How a person performs on an intelligence test would be considered

T-data

A person's police record would be considered

L data

Which type of data is most commonly used to measure personality?

S-data

I conduct a study of safe drivers for a major insurance company and collect data from a sample of 1,000 drivers and examine their driving records over a 10-year period. This study is using

life-report data

Of the different ways to collect self-report data, which is most common?

questionnaires

Which of the following is the best reason for collecting self-report data?

individuals have access to a wealth of information about themselves

You are asked to describe Dr. Larsen's personality on a questionnaire. This is an example of

observer data

Which of the following is an example of an unstructured questionnaire?

open-ended

The Twenty Statements Test (i.e., the "Who am I?" test) is an example of a/an

unstructured questionnaire

In the Twenty Statements Test (i.e., the "Who am I?" test), which of the following is important to the scoring?

The order and content of the statements

Which of the following has been noted as a potential problem with the Twenty Statements Test, i.e., the "Who am I?" test?

It can be biased by intelligence differences in participants.

personality scales are usually made up of

the sum of a few individual ratings.

Which of the following is NOT a weakness of self-report data?

Self-report data is especially difficult to collect.

One strength of experience-sampling data is that

one is able to detect rhythms over time in behavior or feelings.

in order to collect experience sampling data, a researcher might

ask participants to fill out the same questionnaire many times

Dr. Larsen conducts a study in which participants are given beepers. Every time the participants are beeped they complete a short questionnaire. Participants are beeped three times for eight days. This type of research is called

experience sampling

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of observer-report data?

Observers can best capture the subjective experience of person being measured

Usually, combining the data from many observers is

more reliable and valid than using single measures of personality.

Which of the following is a good reason to use many intimate observers to collect O-data?

You are interested in studying multiple social personalities.

Which of the following statements about O-data is FALSE?

Intimate observers are useless if they do not understand personality psychology.

Naturalistic observation occurs

when we observe people in the normal course of their daily lives.

The "bridge-building test" is an example of

T-data.

Test-data differs from observer-report data in that

test data usually requires less inference about the behavior of the participants.

Which of the following is NOT a potential problem in collecting T-data?

Attempts to gather T-data often elicit behavior from the participants.

The Megargee study of sex roles and dominance found that

dominant women behave differently then equally dominant men.

The Megargee study highlights all of these features of T-data EXCEPT

the interpersonal style of the experimenter changed the results of the study.

Megargee found that dominant women tend to _____ leadership roles when placed in mixed gender dyads with _____.

delegate; submissive males

The "actometer" has been used to measure

activity level

A study discussed in the text showed that activity level measured by a mechanical device at age 3 correlated with all of the following EXCEPT

activity level in adulthood.

The best reason to use a mechanical device, such as an actometer, is that

it is free from biases associated with human raters.