Deck 1: Introduction

Question 1

Which of the following is a key psychological phrase generally referring to the observation that people differ in a variety of ways?

A) personality traits
B) behavioral dimension
C) personality profile
D) individual differences

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following refers to a continuum of behavior analogous to a yardstick?

A) personality traits
B) behavioral dimension
C) personality profile
D) individual differences

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the most basic assumption of the preliminary definition of personality?

A) All people are essentially alike.
B) A person behaves consistently from one situation to the next.
C) Each person's personality is entirely different from that of each other person.
D) Every personality psychologist has his/her own unique definition of personality.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following refers to internally based psychological characteristics that often correspond to adjectival labels such as shy, kind, mean, outgoing, dominant, and so forth?

A) personality traits
B) behavioral dimension
C) personality profile
D) individual differences

Question 5

The preliminary definition of personality is

A) all those psychological characteristics that encompass emotions, behavior, thought, and psychological problems
B) a set of degrees falling along many behavioral dimensions, each degree corresponding to a trait
C) consciousness and unconsciousness
D) all psychological factors, including those relating to intellectual functioning

Question 6

Which of the following is a serious short-coming of the preliminary definition of personality?

A) It is too short: it would have to be a page long to accommodate all the concerns of the many personologists.
B) It fails to rely on behavioral consistency.
C) It emphasizes physiological processes too much.
D) It focuses on developmental processes too little.

Question 7

According to Bjork, which of the following is underappreciated in our assessments of our abilities and characteristics?

A) genes
B) our family histories
C) effort
D) attitude

Question 8

Which of the following theorists has explicitly rejected the basic assumption of the preliminary definition?

A) Mischel
B) Eysenck
C) Cattell
D) Murray

Question 9

Where single behavioral dimensions corresponding to traits are concerned,

A) no two people would ever have the same trait
B) all people are likely to have the same trait
C) it is vary rare that two people would have the same trait
D) any two people could have the same trait

Question 10

Personologists share a belief in

A) individual differences
B) the sameness of personalities
C) the inconsistency of behavior
D) personality being secondary to intelligence

Question 11

Scientific is

A) unbiased observations that are quantified
B) any technique that involves the use of numbers
C) techniques that are used solely by people with Ph.D.s
D) methods that yield significant results

Question 12

People who use unscientific methods tend to select observations on the basis of

A) quantifiabillity
B) ability to manipulate variables
C) convenience
D) ability to systematize results

Question 13

The case study method involves

A) studying many cases
B) intensive observations on a single case
C) studying people with heavy case loads
D) hypothetical cases instead of real ones

Question 14

What sort of young heavy weight boxing champion was George Foreman?

A) a warm and friendly person
B) an angry and depressed individual
C) an outspoken, political person
D) a happy, joyful, gregarious, at peace person

Question 15

A variable is

A) anything that is static or unchanging
B) something for which changes cannot be quantified
C) a phenomenon subject to qualitative analysis only
D) a variation in quantity specified by numbers

Question 16

Two variables are said to be correlated if a

A) the two are unrelated
B) variations in one correspond closely to variations in the other
C) one varies and the other one does not
D) both are unchanging

Question 17

Which of the following is most clearly a variable?

A) a dead tree's height
B) a fossilized skeleton's size
C) your birth date
D) intelligence

Question 18

In the case of correlation, researchers are usually interested in

A) whether variation in one variable closely corresponds to variation in another
B) the curvature of the line relating two variables
C) positive relationships, only
D) negative relationships, only

Question 19

In the case of a positive correlation

A) high values on one variable correspond to low values on the other
B) high values on one variable correspond to high values on the other
C) values on one variable do not correspond to values on the other
D) values of the variables are obtusely related

Question 20

A correlation coefficient

A) is represented by the letter "c"
B) indicates the degree of curvature of the line representing the relationship between two variables
C) is represented by the letter "r"
D) indicates that the relationship between two variables departs from homogeneity

Question 21

If the correlation between two variables is nil

A) high values on one variable correspond to low values on the other
B) high values on one variable correspond to high values on the other
C) values on one variable do not correspond to values on the other
D) values of the variables are obtusely related

Question 22

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest relationship?

A) -.89
B) +.65
C) +.02
D) -.45

Question 23

In the "stress" and "upper respiratory congestion" example

A) "stress" is the independent variable
B) "upper respiratory congestion" is the independent variable
C) the two variables are positively correlated
D) the two variables are negatively correlated

Question 24

Among the limitations of the correlational method, one of the more serious is that

A) it cannot be scientific
B) even large correlation coefficients do not imply causation
C) negation correlations are not as meaningful as positive correlations
D) nil correlations are extremely rare

Question 25

Which of the following relationships may imply cause and effect?

A) the positive relationship between the height of husbands and the height of wives
B) the negative relationship between waist size and head size
C) no example is entirely appropriate: correlation does not mean causation
D) the nil relationship between wealth and religious conviction

Question 26

Despite the limitations of the correlational method

A) if two variables are highly correlated, one will predict the other
B) it is still more scientific than all other methods
C) it is not a source of problems, because it is rarely used
D) it is still better than the experimental method

Question 27

The independent variable

A) has variance that is arranged by the experimenter
B) has variance that occurs naturally
C) does not actually vary
D) is free to vary under the influence of the independent variable(s)

Question 28

The dependent variable

A) has variance that is arranged by the experimenter
B) has variance that occurs naturally
C) does not actually vary
D) is free to vary under the influence of the independent variable(s)

Question 29

In an experiment

A) only independent variables are involved
B) the experimenter sets values of independent variables and observes influences on dependent variables
C) the experimenter sets values on dependent variables and observes influences on independent variables
D) the experimental subjects control what happens to all variables in the experiment

Question 30

Use of the experimental method makes it reasonable to make statements about

A) the "truth-value" of results
B) cause and effect
C) linear relationships only
D) curvilinear relationships only

Question 31

What sort of test did Perry and colleagues (1995) use in their experiment on dextro-amphetamine?

A) the TAT: rather ambiguous pictures of people
B) the MMPI 2 (new Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory)
C) The PSA (Personality Specific Assessor)
D) The Rorschach inkblot test

Question 32

The procedure of the Perry and colleagues (1995) study of dextro-amphetamine involved

A) all subjects getting the same amount of the drug
B) all subjects getting some amount of the drug
C) some subjects not getting any of the drug
D) testing immediately after dextro-amphetamine ingestion

Question 33

In the Perry and colleagues (1995) study of dextro-amphetamine, the dependent variable was a measure of

A) anxiety
B) attention
C) drug-resistance
D) drug-tolerance

Question 34

When used to describe research results, "Statistically significant" means ________.

A) unlikely to occur by chance
B) highly meaningful and important
C) having a high probability of occurrence
D) representing a very crucial statistic

Question 35

Among the problems with the experimental method is that

A) personality psychologists, like Cattell and Murray, accept it uncritically
B) it allows no statements about cause and effect
C) it usually must be used in artificial settings
D) it is a weak form of science compared with the case study method

Question 36

"Reliability" of a test refers to

A) the degree to which the test measures what it was designed to measure
B) the degree to which the test constructor can be trusted
C) the importance of the test results
D) the degree to which test results are repeatable

Question 37

"Validity" of a test refers to

A) the degree to which the test measures what it was designed to measure
B) the degree to which the test constructor can be trusted
C) the importance of the test results
D) the degree to which test results are repeatable

Question 38

All of the following are types of validity, except one. Which one is not a type of validity?

A) convergent
B) predictive
C) test retest
D) construct validity

Question 39

Which of the following is a characteristic of a projective test?

A) Stimuli are almost always questions.
B) Scorers all typically agree on the scoring of responses.
C) Oral responses are atypically made.
D) Stimulus materials are often ambiguous pictures.

Question 40

Which of the following could reasonably be used as a projective test?

A) multiple choice questions in written form
B) pictures of people interacting in some way
C) oral questions with definite answers
D) requests for the identification of common objects

Question 41

Which of the tests is projective?

A) Thematic Apperception Test
B) the SAT or ACT college entrance exams
C) the Adjective Check List personality test
D) The Stanford-Binet intelligence test

Question 42

Which of the following is most clearly characteristic of objective tests?

A) Stimuli are almost always questions.
B) Scorers all typically agree on scoring of responses.
C) Oral responses are typically made.
D) Stimulus materials are often ambiguous pictures.

Question 43

Which of the following provides the best example of an objective test?

A) Rorschach Test
B) the SAT or ACT college entrance exams
C) the Sentence Completion Test
D) Thematic Apperception Test

Question 44

What did Lilienfeld, Wood and Garb find when they studied the reliability and validity of popular projective tests?

A) These tests are all equally strong.
B) The tests as a group were weak, some more than others.
C) The Rorschach was the strongest.
D) The draw a figure tests were the strongest.

Question 45

Research has shown that Anglos and Latinos

A) have nothing in common
B) score very differently on the MMPI-2
C) score differently on four MMPI-2 scales
D) are very similar, except for the language difference

Question 46

In the definition of personality, each behavioral dimension corresponds to

A) a profile
B) a trait
C) a social situation
D) an emotion

Question 47

Why is the assumption of behavioral consistency so important to the preliminary definition of personality?

A) Without it each person would have the same personality as each other person.
B) Without it the definition could not be scientific.
C) Without it one would be unable to infer a trait from observations of behaviors.
D) Without it personality would be infinitely variable.

Question 48

Why is it difficult to be unbiased in forming "case histories"?

A) Oneself is usually the "case" in question.
B) More biases come out when one rather than many people are considered.
C) Only one person ever examines a case history for possible biases.
D) The "case" may be a patient with whom one is personally involved.

Question 49

Which is correct about the Lilienfeld team's criticisms of projective tests?

A) They must be correct.
B) They were tentative in their conclusions.
C) They have been criticized by a defender of projective tests.
D) They reported no evidence to support their position.

Question 50

Which represents a cultural difference in personality?

A) Chinese show very large gender differences.
B) East Asians and Westerns think in the same way.
C) Americans scored lower than Chinese on social desirability.
D) Sexually harassed Hispanic women showed more denial that White Americans.

Question 51

All except one of the following were reported by Masling (1997) in his comparison of objective and subjective tests. Which did he NOT report?

A) Projective tests predict broader behavior better in the long term.
B) On objective tests, the genders differ on reports of dependency.
C) It is nearly impossible to fake objective test responses.
D) Objective tests predict behavior best in the short term.

Question 52

Which is a way that a personologist has described experimentation?

A) "brass instrument psychology"
B) "psychology for the unwashed"
C) "fantasy psychology"
D) "Pillsbury Dough Boy psychology"

Question 53

What did Hibbard et al. find when they compared Asians and whites on TAT scores?

A) There were no differences between the groups on any scales.
B) Asians scored lower on denial than whites.
C) Whites scored lower on total scores.
D) Whites scored higher on identification.

Question 54

A test is valid if it

A) yields the same score each time a person takes it
B) measures a variety of constructs
C) predicts behavior
D) has two halves that are highly correlated with each other

Question 55

In the context of psychology, diversity refers to

A) the same thing as individual differences
B) numerous cultures
C) change within a person on many different dimensions
D) the same thing as in the animal kingdom

Question 56

Which of the following statements about science is most reasonable?

A) Science offers the best approach.
B) Science is cold and hard, too much so for it to be applied to human emotions and thinking.
C) Clearly science is less meaningfully applied to everything than spirituality.
D) Science is neither good or bad, it just is.

Question 57

Which of the following is true of well-thought-out philosophical positions, as opposed to scientific theories?

A) They are never as good as scientific theories.
B) No matter how well thought out, they will be filled with contradictions.
C) Only in dealing with mystical problems will they be better than scientific theories.
D) Even if abstract, they can have as much or more merit than scientific theories.