Deck 8: Personality and Motivation

Question 1

What is the implication of personality traits for a psychology of motivation?

A) People differ in what motivates them.
B) Motives are people's major source of motivation.
C) What motivates a person is temporary.
D) People are motivated by a variety of psychological needs.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the implication of the statement that "personality traits are causes of behavior?"

A) A person's most frequent behaviors determine that person's personality traits.
B) Personality traits are brain processes that determine people's reactions and choices.
C) Identical social situations motivate people's behavior the same way regardless of their personality differences.
D) Personality traits are merely categories of behavior.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

How do personality traits affect motivation? Personality traits

A) determine the value or utility of different incentives.
B) determine whether people react positively or negatively to a situation.
C) answers a and b both apply
D) determine whether push or pull motivation occurs.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

High sensation seekers, compared to low sensation seekers, are characterized

A) as taking a long time to be bored while doing a repetitive activity.
B) as being poorly motivated.
C) as willing to take extreme risks in order to have intense sensations and experiences.
D) as being less likely than low sensation seekers to use tobacco.

Question 5

What is the opposite of impulsiveness?

A) self-control
B) grit
C) personality states
D) fatigue

Question 6

Some individuals are consistent in their goal interests and persevere in their efforts to achieve their goals. These individuals have lots of

A) impulsiveness
B) grit
C) personality traits
D) lots of opportunity costs

Question 7

What type of sensation seekers can easily shed their shyness or social reserve at a party? These sensations seekers are characterized as being high in the component of

A) thrill and adventure seeking
B) boredom susceptibility
C) disinhibition
D) experience seeking

Question 8

The operational definition of extraversion is

A) having an outgoing personality and enjoying large social gatherings.
B) being manipulative in order to get your way in social situations.
C) having an aroused cortex.
D) the process of filling out the Neo-Personality Inventory or the Mini-Marker Set.

Question 9

Which sets of individuals are most similar in their degree of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism?

A) identical twins
B) fraternal twins
C) parents and children
D) grandparents and grandchildren

Question 10

Interpret the phrase: "personality traits are inherited." The phrase means that

A) as children mature physically, their personality matures.
B) biological brain structures are inherited, which are the basis of personality traits.
C) by living in the same home personality traits become similar among the inhabitants.
D) children learn their personality traits from observing their parents.

Question 11

What has behavioral genetics discovered about personality traits? Greater genetic similarity between individuals is

A) associated with lesser similarity in their personality.
B) not at all related to similarity in their personality.
C) associated with greater similarity in their personality.
D) negatively associated, that is, they are opposites in personality.

Question 12

Ms. Psyche, an introvert, experienced social anxiety at the large party. So, she and her friend leave early and go to the local coffee house. Ms. Psyche's social anxiety at the party indicates ____________

A) openness-to-experience.
B) low sensation seeking.
C) trait-environment interaction.
D) trait-environment correlation.

Question 13

Which statement best illustrates trait-environment correlation?

A) Individuals who score high on the Sensation Seeking Scale choose to ride motorcycles.
B) Individuals who score high on the Sensation Seeking Scale enjoy a fast motorcycle ride.
C) People high in conscientiousness get angry when they see other people littering.
D) People low in conscientiousness do not get upset when they see litter on their campus.

Question 14

What is a personality state?

A) A person's reaction to an uncertain situation.
B) Actual behavior for a short period that represents a personality trait.
C) A set of psychological needs a person is motivated to satisfy.
D) How a person feels at the moment,e.g., tempted versus not tempted.

Question 15

What does the concept of an evocative correlation and an active correlation imply? These correlations imply that a person's

A) personality traits determine how others react to him or her.
B) personality traits determine the environment a person seeks or creates.
C) both answers a and b
D) personality traits determine his or her emotional reaction to a social situation.

Question 16

How do personality traits influence behavior according to cybernetic big five theory? Traits determine

A) how a person reacts to a social situation.
B) what social situations an individual approaches or avoids.
C) how people anticipate the demands made on them by others.
D) what types of goals an individual chooses to achieve.

Question 17

What personality trait would correlate with being motivated to view paintings in an art museum?

A) openness-to-experience
B) agreeableness
C) extraversion
D) neuroticism

Question 18

Compared to introverts, what activity are extraverts likely to do? Extraverts are

A) not likely to pursue activities that result in rewards.
B) more likely to mimic a co-worker's behavior in order to achieve a mutual goal
C) not likely to attend large parties
D) more likely to be quiet, reserved, and shy

Question 19

What behavior does reward sensitivity explain? It explains why people high in

A) neuroticism react with a bad mood to negative social situations.
B) openness to experience get excited listening to Non-western music.
C) extraversion react with energetic arousal to a positive stimulus.
D) conscientiousness are happy when they do the right thing.

Question 20

What is channeled according to the channeling hypothesis?

A) Personality traits determine what situations a person approaches or avoids.
B) Psychological needs direct what incentives will provide need satisfaction.
C) Psychological needs select those behaviors that will produce need satisfaction.
D) Personality traits select the activities that satisfy psychological motives/needs.

Question 21

An individual with a high level of neuroticism experienced several negative social encounters during the day. What are the most likely effects of these negative social encounters?

A) The person will have several alcoholic drinks in solitude that evening.
B) The individual will not be bothered by the negative social encounters.
C) The person will go with several friends to a very crowded bar that evening.
D) The person will watch a couple of comedy shows on TV that evening.

Question 22

In one experiment, introverts and extraverts were instructed to think about an unpleasant experience. Introverts and extraverts were also instructed to think about a pleasant experience (win lottery). How did these experiences affect the moods of introverts and extraverts?

A) The pleasant experience affected the moods of introverts and extraverts equally.
B) The pleasant experience put extraverts into a positive mood more than it did introverts.
C) The pleasant experience raised the positive mood of introverts but not that of extraverts.
D) The unpleasant experience put extraverts into a negative mood more than it did introverts.

Question 23

Who would be more likely to join the cross-country team (individual sport) instead of the volleyball team (team sport) and want to be captain of the team rather than just be a member?

A) introvert with a low need for power
B) extravert with a low need for power
C) introvert with a high need for power
D) extravert with a high need for power

Question 24

Assuming that intelligence is not a factor, which group of students are more motivated by school work and have higher GPAs? Students who are high in the personality trait of

A) openness-to-experience.
B) neuroticism.
C) agreeableness.
D) conscientiousness.

Question 25

What personality trait is associated with being motivated to do things that are good for one's health and avoid things that are bad for one's health?

A) conscientiousness
B) neuroticism
C) openness-to-experience
D) agreeableness

Question 26

What traits differentiate very happy university students from very unhappy university students?

A) extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness-to-experience
B) neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness
C) agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness-to-experience
D) neuroticism, extraversion, and sensation seeking

Question 27

What individuals are more motivated to help friends stranded on the side of the road because the friends ran out of gas? Individuals who are motivated to help are

A) high sensation seekers.
B) high in openness-to-experience.
C) high in agreeableness.
D) high in neuroticism.

Question 28

Stressors often result from an individual's reaction to interpersonal conflict. What type of individual experiences fewer stressors from interpersonal conflict? Individuals who are high in

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

Question 29

More weight is gained over the life span by individuals who are

A) low in neuroticism, introversion, and high in conscientiousness
B) high in neuroticism, high in extraversion, and low in conscientiousness
C) high in openness-to-experience
D) high in agreeableness

Question 30

What type of individual would be more likely to cope with a stressor by disengaging (escaping) from the stressors, wishful thinking, and wishing the stressor would vanish? Individuals who are high in

A) conscientiousness
B) extraversion
C) neuroticism
D) openness-to-experience

Question 31

Trait self-control implies that a person

A) has difficulty what goals to select and to achieve.
B) acts compulsively with little regard for the consequences of his/her actions.
C) weighs a large delayed reward less than a small immediate reward
D) weighs a large delayed reward more than a small immediate reward

Question 32

Individuals with high trait self-control have an advantage for achieving their goals. What is this advantage?

A) They are not sidetracked by temptations that interfere with progress toward their goals.
B) They incur more opportunity costs.
C) They easily abandon their original goals for alternative goals.
D) They choose easy goals that are easy to achieve

Question 33

People can be diverted from achieving their goals by temptations that provide immediate pleasure. According to the strength model of self-control, why are peopled diverted from their goal achievement behavior?

A) They run out of grit.
B) They run out of energy to maintain their self-control for goal achievement.
C) They realize that the temptations no longer make the goal useful or valuable.
D) They realize their goal takes too much effort to achieve.

Question 34

On a hot day, Group 1 is instructed to avoid thinking of frolicking in a swimming pool. Group 2 is not given any instructions. After 20 minutes both groups are given a set of anagrams to solve. Based on the strength model of self-control, which group will persist longer at trying to solve the set of anagrams?

A) Group 1 will persist longer but only for anagrams that involve swimming
B) Group 1 will persist longer
C) Group 2 will persist longer
D) Groups 1 and 2 will persist equally long

Question 35

What does mental fatigue mean or what does it imply?

A) The brain is depleted of all of its glucose making thinking is very difficult.
B) I am too mentally fatigued to even bother answering this question.
C) The brain is full for information; no more room to conduct thinking, planning, and problem solving.
D) The person has difficulty planning, focusing attention, and changing behavior.

Question 36

What are opportunity costs?

A) Activities individuals have foregone in favor of their current activity.
B) Rewards that individuals have earned once they have achieved their goal.
C) The time that is required to achieve a goal.
D) Personality traits that hinder motivated behavior.

Question 37

Some individuals prefer and choose small immediate rewards rather than large (more important) delayed rewards. What characterizes these individuals, who choose small immediate rewards?

A) They are less impulsive; low impulsiveness.
B) They place greater value on immediate rewards, rather than delayed rewards, and choose accordingly.
C) These individuals have a greater amount of self-control; high in self-control.
D) Answers a and c

Question 38

Some individuals achieve a higher level of education, attain higher GPAs, and reach advanced final rounds in the national spelling bee, plus succeed in demanding military training programs. These individuals

A) are better able to inhibit their self-control.
B) have a greater level of agreeableness.
C) have more grit
D) tend to be extraverted.

Question 39

Fatigue indicates that

A) individuals are relieved to have achieved their goals
B) one's efforts are high and benefits are low
C) one should consider alternative goals
D) both answers b and c

Question 40

How do psychological needs or motives motivate behavior versus how personality traits motivate behavior?

Question 41

a. Personality traits can be considered categories of behavior and causes of behavior. What is the difference?
b. What are the implications that personality traits can be considered causes of behavior?

Question 42

a. Distinguish between trait-environment interaction and trait-environment correlation?

Question 43

The big five personality traits are openness-to-experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Select two traits and describe how differences within those two traits are associated with differences in what motivates people. That is, how would individuals with a high amount of a trait differ from individuals with a low amount of that trait in what motivates them?

Question 44

What is the channeling hypothesis and how does it link to psychological needs with personality traits to explain motivation?

Question 45

In addition to the Big Five personality traits, other personality traits are sensation seeking, grit, and self-control. Describe how a low versus high amount of each these traits motivates individuals differently.

Question 46

Consider the following sequence: First, individuals participate in either an easy task or a very difficult task, such as solving 10 easy anagrams or 10 very difficult anagrams. Next, all of the individuals attempt to solve a very difficult Sudoku puzzle.
a. Based on the concept of self-control, who will persist longer at the Sudoku puzzle?
b. Apply the three views of self-control to explain the results.

Question 47

Personality traits are fairly stable throughout life. What are some ways that personality traits have had a cumulative effect on individuals throughout their lives? Describe one.