Deck 3: Personality Structure: Classifying Traits

Question 1

The following are five of the "facet" scales of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised: Achievement,Activity,Aesthetics,Altruism,Anxiety.Which of the following is the ordering of the Big Five (or Five-Factor Model)factors that matches the ordering of the above list of facets?

A)Neuroticism,Extraversion,Openness to Experience,Agreeableness,Conscientiousness
B)Conscientiousness,Extraversion,Openness to Experience,Agreeableness,Neuroticism
C)Extraversion,Agreeableness,Conscientiousness,Neuroticism,Openness to Experience
D)Conscientiousness,Agreeableness,Openness to Experience,Extraversion,Neuroticism
E)Extraversion,Conscientiousness,Openness to Experience,Neuroticism,Agreeableness

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In his early lexical studies of personality structure,Cattell (1947)used only about 35 adjectives,even though there were thousands of personality-descriptive adjectives in the English language.Why did Cattell use such a small set of adjectives?

A)He needed words that all of his personality raters would understand,so he chose only the 35 most well-known adjectives.
B)He wanted only those words that had direct translations into every known language.
C)He had to make sure that the factor analysis calculations would not become too complex and time-consuming.
D)He decided that he needed only about seven adjectives for each Big Five factor to obtain adequate reliability of measurement.
E)None of the above.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Suppose that a factor analysis of food preferences revealed four factors,representing preferences for (1)meats,(2)fruits and vegetables,(3)sugary foods,and (4)fried foods.Assuming that these results were accurate,which of the following would be an accurate interpretation?

A)With regard to food preferences,there are four distinct kinds of people.
B)People who like meat tend to dislike fruits and vegetables.
C)People who like one kind of fried food tend to like other kinds of fried food.
D)The most preferred kind of food is meat,followed by fruits and vegetables,then by sugary foods,and finally by fried foods.
E)None of the above.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following best summarizes the evidence about the proposal of personality "types",where each type is characterized by particular combinations of levels of personality traits.

A)Each Big Five or HEXACO factor corresponds to one type.
B)There are exactly 16 types of people.
C)Each type of people contains the same proportion of men and women.
D)Nearly all people closely fit the description of one of the personality types.
E)Most people do not closely fit the description of any one of the personality types.

Question 5

The following are six of the "facet" scales of the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised: Creativity,Perfectionism,Greed-avoidance,Flexibility,Dependence,Social boldness.Which of the following is the ordering of the HEXACO factors that matches the ordering of the above list of facets?

A)Honesty-Humility,Emotionality,Extraversion,Agreeableness,Conscientiousness,Openness to Experience
B)Openness to Experience,Conscientiousness,Agreeableness,Extraversion,Emotionality,Honesty-Humility
C)Openness to Experience,Conscientiousness,Honesty-Humility,Agreeableness,Emotionality,Extraversion
D)Openness to Experience,Conscientiousness,Agreeableness,Emotionality,Honesty-Humility,Extraversion
E)Openness to Experience,Agreeableness,Conscientiousness,Honesty-Humility,Extraversion,Emotionality

Question 6

Recall that there are some similarities and differences between,on the one hand,the Big Five Agreeableness and Emotional Stability (versus Neuroticism)factors,and on the other hand,the cross-language (HEXACO)Agreeableness and Emotionality factors.How is the location of personality traits such as "patience" (versus anger)similar or different between the Big Five and HEXACO frameworks?

A)Patience is part of Emotional Stability in the Big Five framework,but part of Agreeableness in the cross-language (HEXACO)framework.
B)Patience is part of Emotional Stability in the Big Five framework,and part of (low)Emotionality in the cross-language (HEXACO)framework.
C)Patience is part of Agreeableness the Big Five framework,and part of Agreeableness in the cross-language (HEXACO)framework also.
D)Patience is part of Agreeableness in the Big Five framework,but part of (low)Emotionality in the cross-language (HEXACO)framework.
E)None of the above;patience is part of the Conscientiousness factor of both frameworks.

Question 7

Lexical studies of personality structure in many languages have found a similar set of six major dimensions of personality.What does this mean?

A)In every country where these languages are spoken,there are six main types of people.
B)On average,every country's people have the same levels on all six personality dimensions,regardless of the language spoken.
C)For any given personality characteristic,it is possible to divide people into six groups according to their level of that characteristic.
D)People's personalities can be summarized in terms of their levels on each of six large groups of related characteristics.
E)All of the above.

Question 8

Suppose that a researcher wants to measure all of the major aspects of personality.The researcher proceeds by using his or her own judgment to choose a large set of traits that seem diverse,interesting,and important.Which of the following would be a likely shortcoming of this approach?
1)Despite being a large set of traits,it might completely miss some important aspects of personality
2)Some of the traits within this set might be rather similar to each other,and therefore somewhat redundant
3)Other researchers might measure different sets of traits,making it difficult to communicate,compare,or combine results.

A)3 only
B)1 and 2 only
C)1 and 3 only
D)2 and3 only
E)1,2,and 3

Question 9

Why might researchers sometimes want to measure the specific personality traits that make up each of the major dimensions (factors)of personality,instead of just measuring those few broad dimensions?

A)It is much more efficient to measure many specific personality traits than to measure only a few broad personality factors.
B)Only the specific personality traits can be measured with adequate reliability and content validity,which means that only the specific traits have any usefulness in practical settings.
C)Sometimes a specific personality trait is likely to be especially strongly related to the variables that one wants to predict (much more so than other traits within the same factor).
D)All of the above.
E)None of the above;the discovery of the major factors has made this practice completely unnecessary.