Deck 2: Theories of Personality

Question 1

Psychology uses the concept of personality to explain all of the following except

A) stability in a person's behavior over time.
B) stability in a person's behavior across situations.
C) behavioral differences between people in the same situation.
D) a single, dominant personality based on culture.

Answer 1

a single, dominant personality based on culture.

Question 2

Which of the following is not one of the three levels of awareness proposed by Freud?

A) conscious
B) unconscious
C) preconscious
D) collective unconscious

Answer 2

collective unconscious

Question 3

Which of the following ideas is not central to the concept of personality?

A) consistency across situations
B) traits that are shared with others
C) distinctiveness of an individual
D) a unique collection of traits possessed by an individual

Answer 3

traits that are shared with others

Question 4

"Impulsive," "moody," and "friendly" are all adjectives that can be used to represent

A) personality theories.
B) personality traits.
C) personality tests.
D) social situations.

Question 5

The moral component of personality, according to Freud, is represented by the

A) id.
B) ego.
C) superego.
D) superid.

Question 6

In psychoanalytic theory, the personality component that operates according to the pleasure principle is the

A) id.
B) ego.
C) superego.
D) superid.

Question 7

You're feeling guilty after your third bowl of ice cream. You tell yourself it's alright because yesterday you skipped lunch. This is an example of

A) conceptualization.
B) rationalization.
C) displacement.
D) identification.

Question 8

Eric studies three hours per day, five days a week. He only misses school when he is sick and is almost never late for class. On which of the following "Big Five" traits would he likely receive a high score?

A) neuroticism
B) extraversion
C) agreeableness
D) conscientiousness

Question 9

According to Freud, internal conflict among the id, ego, and superego

A) is routine.
B) is relatively rare.
C) occurs only in individuals with extreme anxiety.
D) can be managed only through psychotherapy.

Question 10

Central to the Freudian conceptualization of personality is

A) the effect of reward and punishment.
B) striving for superiority.
C) how people cope with their own sexual and aggressive urges.
D) the need to self-actualize.

Question 11

According to Freud, the ____ contains thoughts and feelings that are just below the surface of awareness.

A) id
B) libido
C) preconscious
D) collective unconscious

Question 12

Which of the following is not considered to be a psychodynamic theory of personality?

A) Adler's individual psychology
B) Jung's analytical psychology
C) Freud's theory of psychoanalysis
D) Rogers' client-centered psychology

Question 13

Which of the following is not listed as one of the controversial issues related to Freud's theory?

A) Freud asserted that people are not masters of their own mind.
B) Freud asserted that people are not masters of their own destiny.
C) Freud asserted that personalities are shaped by how people cope with sexual urges.
D) Freud asserted that children require complete, unconditional positive regard from parents to grow up mentally healthy.

Question 14

Psychodynamic theories of personality tend to focus on

A) a set of basic personality traits.
B) unconscious mental processes.
C) the unique qualities of human beings.
D) reward and punishment as primary forces in personality.

Question 15

____ refers to an individual's unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits.

A) Cognition
B) Personality
C) Consistency
D) Distinctiveness

Question 16

According to Freud, conflicts centering on ____ and ____ impulses are especially likely to have far-reaching consequences.

A) sexual; death
B) power; death
C) sexual; aggressive
D) aggressive; achievement

Question 17

Sue's friends say that she is sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, and straightforward. Which of the following "Big Five" traits would best describe her?

A) neuroticism
B) extraversion
C) agreeableness
D) conscientiousness

Question 18

Which of the following ideas lies at the core of the concept of personality?

A) being true to oneself
B) traits shared with others
C) consistency across situations
D) being able to adjust to different situations

Question 19

All psychodynamic theories stem from the work of

A) Jung.
B) Adler.
C) Freud.
D) Rogers.

Question 20

Which of the following is/are "Big Five" traits?

A) neuroticism but not fortitude
B) openness to experience
C) neuroticism and openness to experience
D) neuroticism, openness to experience, and fortitude

Question 21

According to Jung, the collective unconscious is a storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from people's ancestral past, which is

A) unique to each individual.
B) shared with the entire human race.
C) shared with one's blood relatives.
D) accessible only through free association.

Question 22

Which of the following theoretical orientations asserts that scientific psychology should focus on the study of observable behavior?

A) humanism
B) behaviorism
C) psychoanalysis
D) structuralism

Question 23

John is always putting himself down and expressing doubts in his own abilities. According to Adler, John may have a(n)

A) inferiority complex.
B) Oedipal complex.
C) fixation at the oral stage of development.
D) underdeveloped social interest.

Question 24

One idea from Jung's personality theory that has been incorporated into mainstream modern psychology is the notion of

A) archetypes.
B) mnemonics.
C) collective unconscious.
D) introversion/extraversion.

Question 25

A witness to a brutal murder has trouble remembering any details of the crime. According to Freud, which defense mechanism is at work in this example?

A) projection
B) reaction formation
C) regression
D) repression

Question 26

Which of the following notions is not considered one of the major contributions of psychoanalytic theory?

A) role of childhood experiences in influencing adult personality
B) role of internal conflict in generating psychological distress
C) influence of reinforcement in maintaining specific behaviors
D) importance of unconscious motivation in influencing behavior

Question 27

Critics have described the psychodynamic perspective as:

A) biased against females, empirically testable, and overemphasizing unconscious desires
B) empirically untestable, but not biased against females
C) biased against females and empirically untestable
D) biased against females, empirically untestable, and overemphasizing unconscious desires

Question 28

Two months ago, your best friend did not win a major scholarship that she had been counting on to help pay for graduate school. Now she is always fighting with you, her boyfriend, and her roommates. She is most likely using the defense mechanism called

A) regression.
B) displacement.
C) projection.
D) identification.

Question 29

Jan is a very dependent and clingy individual who relies on obsessive eating and smoking to cope with her problems. According to Freud, Jan is suffering from fixation in the

A) phallic stage.
B) oral stage.
C) anal stage.
D) genital stage.

Question 30

Which of the following is the correct order of Freud's psychosexual stages?

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

Question 31

Alfred Adler emphasized the ____ context of personality development.

A) cognitive
B) emotional
C) sexual
D) social

Question 32

Carl Jung proposed that the unconscious consists of two layers, the ____ and the ____.

A) preconscious; subconscious
B) personal unconscious; collective unconscious
C) personal unconscious; universal preconscious
D) individual archetype; collective archetype

Question 33

Attributing your own thoughts, feelings, or motives to others to ward off anxiety or guilt is called

A) regression.
B) displacement.
C) projection.
D) reaction formation.

Question 34

Adler's theory stimulated hundreds of studies on the effect of ____. Although these studies generally failed to find support for their hypotheses, more recent family environment studies focusing on the Big Five traits have found some support.

A) birth order
B) reinforcement histories
C) primary processes
D) self-actualization

Question 35

In psychoanalytic theory, failure to move forward from one developmental stage to another is called

A) extinction.
B) regression.
C) inertia.
D) fixation.

Question 36

Which of the following is a behaviorist definition of personality?

A) a collection of response tendencies that arise in various stimulus situations
B) an individual's striving for superiority
C) a person's durable dispositions that arise in a variety of situations
D) the nature of a person's mental processes

Question 37

According to Freud, a newborn baby is in the ____ stage of psychosexual development.

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

Question 38

According to Adler, ____ involves efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiorities by developing one's abilities.

A) introversion
B) compensation
C) reaction formation
D) individual psychology

Question 39

According to Freud, in order to achieve healthy development, a child in the phallic stage must resolve the Oedipal complex and learn to ____ the same sex parent.

A) annoy
B) be fearful of
C) deceive
D) identify with

Question 40

Which of the following individuals is generally recognized for initiating the development of behaviorism?

A) John
B) Alfred Adler
C) Albert Bandura
D) Hans Eysenck

Question 41

Humanistic psychologists' major charge against the behaviorist and psychodynamic theories was that these models were

A) based on personal growth.
B) unscientific.
C) dehumanizing.
D) too optimistic.

Question 42

Which of the following individuals is credited with discovering classical conditioning?

A) Carl Rogers
B) Ivan Pavlov
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Abraham Maslow

Question 43

According to the principles of classical conditioning, the consistent presentation of the CS alone, without the UCS, is likely to lead to which of the following?

A) extinction
B) recovery
C) transference
D) negative reinforcement

Question 44

Behaviorists have provided the most thorough account of why people

A) are only moderately consistent in their behavior.
B) become fixated at particular stages of development.
C) are not influenced by the consequences of their behavior.
D) tend to react with aggression when they are frustrated.

Question 45

The strengthening of a response leading to the removal of an unpleasant stimulus is

A) positive reinforcement.
B) negative reinforcement.
C) punishment.
D) extinction.

Question 46

Getting hungry upon hearing the advertising tune for a fast-food chain is an example of ____ conditioning.

A) operant
B) social
C) classical
D) emotional

Question 47

If you clean your room to put an end to your father's incessant nagging on the subject, your room-cleaning response has been

A) extinguished.
B) discriminated.
C) positively reinforced.
D) negatively reinforced.

Question 48

In classical conditioning, unconditioned responses are said to be

A) emitted.
B) evoked.
C) spontaneous.
D) extinguished.

Question 49

One's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes is called

A) self-concept.
B) self-actualization.
C) self-confidence.
D) self-efficacy.

Question 50

An originally neutral stimulus that acquires the capacity to elicit a conditioned response is called a(n)

A) unconditioned stimulus.
B) conditioned stimulus.
C) response-bound stimulus.
D) association-positive stimulus.

Question 51

Albert Bandura differed from other behaviorists in that he gave an important role to ____ in influencing human behavior.

A) reflexes
B) cognition
C) consequences
D) punishments

Question 52

Which of the following is not an assumption underlying the humanistic approach to personality?

A) Human nature includes an innate drive toward personal growth.
B) Humans are largely conscious and rational beings.
C) Individuals have the freedom to chart their courses of action.
D) People tend to engage in behaviors that have been rewarded in the past.

Question 53

Which one of the following types of human responses is most likely to be governed by classical conditioning?

A) cognitive
B) emotional
C) psychomotor
D) physiological

Question 54

Humanistic theory emerged in the 1950s as a(n) ____ behavioral and psychodynamic theories.

A) complement to
B) elaboration on
C) backlash against
D) supplement to

Question 55

Attempting to weaken a response by presenting a noxious or aversive stimulus after that response is called

A) punishment.
B) classical conditioning.
C) extinction.
D) negative reinforcement.

Question 56

____ refers to the process of learning as one experiences the consequences of voluntary actions.

A) Operant conditioning
B) Classical conditioning
C) Social learning
D) Extinction

Question 57

Working hard to sell the most widgets for your employer in order to earn a bonus and paid vacation is behavior that is shaped by the prospect of

A) primary reinforcement.
B) negative reinforcement.
C) positive reinforcement.
D) secondary reinforcement.

Question 58

The idea that people are active participants in their learning is the core of

A) learning reinforcement.
B) respondent learning.
C) social learning.
D) accidental learning.

Question 59

Which of the following individuals based his theory on the importance of the self-concept?

A) Abraham Maslow
B) Carl Rogers
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Hans Eysenck

Question 60

Humanism is a theoretical orientation that

A) regards human personality as a collection of response tendencies.
B) views self-efficacy as the ultimate goal of personality development.
C) sees personality as resulting mainly from observation of others.
D) emphasizes unique human qualities such as free will and growth potential.

Question 61

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is based on the idea that

A) many drives are learned through observation.
B) perceived needs are a function of self-concept.
C) some needs are more basic than others.
D) most needs are a reaction to unconscious anxiety.

Question 62

Which of the following psychologists said "personality is determined to a large extent by a person's genes"?

A) Hans Eysenck
B) Raymond Cattell
C) Abraham Maslow
D) Albert Bandura

Question 63

Rogers emphasized a person's subjective point of view he called

A) person-centered.
B) incongruence.
C) self-concept.
D) self-actualization.

Question 64

Humanistic theory has been criticized for

A) poor testability of hypotheses.
B) inadequate evidence.
C) an unrealistic view of human nature.
D) all of these.

Question 65

____ is an estimate of the proportion of trait variability within a population that is determined by differences in genetic inheritance.

A) The inheritance ratio
B) The heritability ratio
C) The behaviorally genetic percentage
D) The genetic coefficient

Question 66

The area of psychological research that attempts to trace the hereditary influences on personality is called ____.

A) social learning
B) psychoanalysis
C) behaviorism
D) behavioral genetics

Question 67

The humanistic theorist who emphasized the need for self-actualization and the hierarchical organization of needs was

A) J.B. Watson.
B)F. Skinner.
C) Alfred Adler.
D) Abraham Maslow.

Question 68

Daniel feels that he is not living up to his own best image of the person he would like to be. He experiences upset due to a sense of

A) conditional love.
B) observational distress.
C) incongruence.
D) self-efficacy.

Question 69

According to Maslow, the self-actualizing person is characterized by

A) spontaneity.
B) freshness of appreciation.
C) peak experiences.
D) all of these.

Question 70

According to Maslow, our need to fulfill our potential is called ____.

A) aesthetic need
B) primary need
C) self-actualization
D) self-esteem

Question 71

According to Rogers, one's self-concept

A) is unchangeable.
B) may be inaccurate.
C) tends to be congruent with reality.
D) is a product of classical conditioning.

Question 72

Which of the following is one of the significant contributions of humanistic theory?

A) importance of one's subjective views
B) more attention to psychological health
C) more attention to self-concept
D) All of these are important contributions.

Question 73

Which of the following traits has been of particular interest to Eysenck?

A) intelligence
B) autonomic reactivity
C) conscientiousness
D) extraversion-introversion

Question 74

According to Maslow, which of the following categories of needs must be met first?

A) esteem
B) love
C) physiological
D) safety

Question 75

According to Maslow, self-actualized people

A) always depend on other people and feel a sense of kinship with the human race
B) always depend on other people and maintain a balance between polarities
C) maintain a balance between polarities and feel a sense of kinship with the human race
D) depend on others, maintain a balance, and feel a sense of kinship with the human race

Question 76

Which of the following is least closely associated with Maslow's theory of personality?

A) notion of self-actualization
B) hierarchy of needs
C) humans' innate need for personal growth
D) distinction between introversion and extraversion

Question 77

Results of twin studies have supported Eysenck's theory that personality is largely inherited by showing that

A) environment has less effect on personality than heredity.
B) identical twins are more similar in personality than fraternal twins.
C) fraternal twins reared together are as similar as identical twins reared apart.
D) parent and offspring are more similar than parent and spouse.

Question 78

In contrast to the Freudian model, Maslow believed that psychology should take a greater interest in the ____ personality.

A) conscious
B) unconscious
C) healthy
D) unhealthy

Question 79

Which of the following was not described by Maslow as one of the characteristics of a self-actualizing person?

A) autonomous
B) problem-centering
C) self-centered
D) spontaneous

Question 80

Twin studies allow researchers to assess hereditary influences, in part, because

A) genetic overlap for fraternal twins is greater than for non-twin siblings.
B) twins are usually motivated to act similarly.
C) genetic overlap is 100% for identical twins, 50% for fraternal twins.
D) environmental influences are eliminated in twin studies.