Deck 7: Gordon Allport: Motivation and Personality

Question 1

To Allport,_____ are measured on a continuum and are subject to social,environmental,and cultural influences.

A) metaneeds
B) unconscious motivations
C) personality traits
D) sentiments

Answer 1

C

Question 2

As a child,Allport was:

A) plagued by feelings of inferiority.
B) highly disturbed and unhealthy.
C) popular outside his family.
D) interested in sports and outdoor games.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The personality theorist who helped bring personality into the mainstream and made it an academically respectable topic is:

A) Alfred Adler.
B) Raymond Cattell.
C) Gordon Allport.
D) Erich Fromm.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Allport believed that the best way to study personality was through:

A) the life histories of disturbed people.
B) comparisons of normal and neurotic adults.
C) the analysis of data from normal and healthy adults.
D) laboratory experiments on animals and humans.

Question 5

Identify a true statement about the characteristics of traits as summarized by Allport.

A) Traits can be demonstrated empirically.
B) Changes in situations do not cause changes in traits.
C) Traits are independent of each other.
D) Traits are theoretical constructs to account for behavior.

Question 6

What did Allport believe was the biggest difference between normal and abnormal people?

A) The abnormal personality functioned at an infantile level.
B) The study of the abnormal person is more important.
C) The unconscious is important only in the behavior of normal people.
D) None of these are correct.

Question 7

With regard to historical determinism,Allport believed a person is:

A) motivated by the power of the id.
B) not in conscious control of the forces that motivate him or her.
C) pathological by nature and genetics.
D) not a prisoner of childhood conflicts and past experiences.

Question 8

Allport viewed personality as:

A) purely a mental process.
B) randomly changing and growing.
C) an interaction of mind and body.
D) controlled entirely by instincts.

Question 9

On which of the following points did Allport disagree with Freud?

A) The dominance of unconscious forces over personality
B) The role of the past in controlling the present
C) The continuum between normal and abnormal behavior
D) All of these are correct.

Question 10

Allport's own childhood was characterized by:

A) a doting mother.
B) feelings of isolation.
C) a punitive and demanding father.
D) many playmates and friends.

Question 11

When compared to childhood,Allport believed adulthood is:

A) controlled by the life and death instincts.
B) ruled by primitive biological urges and reflexes.
C) characterized by a stronger ego.
D) unconstrained by past experiences.

Question 12

According to Allport,our uniqueness is determined by:

A) our childhood experiences.
B) the organismic valuing process.
C) the conflict between the id and the superego.
D) our genetics and learning.

Question 13

Allport emphasized the importance of:

A) the present and the future.
B) the unconscious in normal mature adults.
C) data collected from neurotics.
D) past childhood conflicts.

Question 14

Allport's approach to personality is characterized by the:

A) conscious rather than the unconscious.
B) past rather than the present and future.
C) abnormal rather than the normal.
D) generalities in people rather than their unique qualities.

Question 15

Allport considered _____ to be predispositions to respond,in the same or a similar manner,to different kinds of stimuli.

A) reinforcements
B) complexes
C) sublimations
D) traits

Question 16

Which of the following was Allport's argument against Freud's psychoanalysis?

A) People are generally unaware of the forces that motivate them.
B) There exists a continuum between the normal and the abnormal.
C) Functional similarities in personality exist between child and adult or animal and human.
D) Neurotics,children,and animals,should not be compared with normal adults.

Question 17

Allport believed his famous meeting with Freud illustrated:

A) how childhood feelings of inferiority persist into adulthood.
B) the error of placing too much importance on the unconscious.
C) the power of Freud's psychoanalytic method.
D) how a guilty conscience inevitably will reveal itself.

Question 18

Allport considered personality to be _____.

A) continuous
B) discrete
C) invariant
D) random

Question 19

As Allport grew into adulthood,he attempted to identify with:

A) Sigmund Freud,whom he met in Vienna.
B) Karen Horney,with whom he studied in New York.
C) his oldest brother Floyd,a social psychologist.
D) his uncle Steven,a famous artist.

Question 20

According to Allport,personality traits are:

A) useful fictions we create to understand ourselves.
B) real and exist within each of us.
C) essentially just a theoretical concept.
D) inborn instincts.

Question 21

According to Allport,propriate motives relate to our lifestyle and are:

A) repetitive physical actions.
B) genetically determined.
C) general for all individuals.
D) necessary to our self-image.

Question 22

In Allport's view,central traits are:

A) 5 to 10 themes that best describe our behavior.
B) exhibited only by mature adults.
C) more pervasive than cardinal traits.
D) possessed by only a few superior persons.

Question 23

According to Allport,the level of functional autonomy that relates to low-level and routine behaviors is:

A) propriate functional autonomy.
B) perseverative striving.
C) propriate striving.
D) perseverative functional autonomy.

Question 24

According to Allport,which of the following is true about the characteristics of traits?

A) Traits are generated only in response to certain set of stimuli.
B) Traits are the same as ego dispositions.
C) Traits are frequently observed to overlap.
D) Traits are known to remain the same irrespective of the situation.

Question 25

Which of the following is an example of the functional autonomy of motives?

A) The seed of a tree is not required for its nourishment when the tree is fully grown.
B) The erratic toilet training of a child causes erratic behavior when the child grows older.
C) A rat does not respond to reinforcement when it understands the reinforcer's intention.
D) A therapist is motivated to not judge a client based on his or her choices.

Question 26

Allport offered sadism and chauvinism as examples of a:

A) common trait.
B) cardinal trait.
C) central trait.
D) secondary trait.

Question 27

Addictions and repetitive physical actions are examples of what Allport called:

A) propriate functional autonomy.
B) perseverative functional autonomy.
C) perseverative striving.
D) propriate patterning.

Question 28

According to Allport,_____ describes a striving for consistency and integration of the personality.

A) propriate patterning
B) observational learning
C) primary-process thought
D) operant conditioning

Question 29

Allport believed that present and future behavior can best be explained in terms of the disconnect between past experiences and present motives through the concept of:

A) functional autonomy.
B) psychosexual conflicts.
C) the epigenetic principle of maturation.
D) instinctual drives.

Question 30

The motives included in the proprium are:

A) developed gradually over four stages.
B) maintained or discarded by the ego.
C) determined by instinctual forces.
D) restricted to unconscious factors.

Question 31

Allport's concept of functional autonomy proposes that:

A) forces that motivated us early in life become unrelated to their original circumstances.
B) we are independent of psychological forces.
C) the goal of adulthood is to replace cardinal traits with secondary traits.
D) individuals will link their past to their present and the future.

Question 32

All of the following are principles of propriate functional autonomy except:

A) organizing the energy level.
B) mastery and competence.
C) expressive behavior.
D) propriate patterning.

Question 33

Identity a true statement about secondary traits as described by Allport.

A) Secondary traits are minor preferences,such as the preference for a particular type of food.
B) Secondary traits are highly inconspicuous and weak.
C) Secondary traits appear much less consistent than other traits.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 34

Allport chose the term "proprium" for the:

A) master trait that guides life.
B) unconscious forces that motivate behavior.
C) ego or self.
D) superego or conscience.

Question 35

According to Allport,we acquire new motives through:

A) organizing the energy level.
B) resolving an underlying conflict.
C) controlling the id.
D) examining our undesirable motives.

Question 36

Allport believed that in order to understand adult motives,we must study:

A) how genetics affects people.
B) parent-child relationships.
C) why people behave as they do at present.
D) childhood needs and frustrations.

Question 37

In Allport's theory,past events are:

A) important,because they continue to dominate behavior.
B) unimportant,because they are no longer active.
C) at the core of motivation.
D) second in importance to instincts.

Question 38

According to Allport,the central problem for any personality theory is:

A) how it deals with the conflicts of childhood.
B) how it successfully resolves the identity crisis.
C) how it compensates for the complexes in humans.
D) how it treats the concept of motivation.

Question 39

To avoid confusion in terminology,Allport relabeled individual traits as:

A) instincts.
B) constructs.
C) learned responses.
D) personal dispositions.

Question 40

According to Allport,a(n)_____ trait influences every aspect of life.

A) independent
B) cardinal
C) primary
D) dominant

Question 41

Allport suggested all of the following as criteria for a mature,emotionally healthy personality except:

A) a resilient id.
B) the extension of the sense of self.
C) self-objectification.
D) a unifying philosophy of life.

Question 42

When is the final stage in the development of the proprium accomplished?

A) When children begin to apply logic to the solution of everyday problems
B) When young people begin to formulate long-range goals and plans
C) When children recognize the difference between their bodies and objects in their environment
D) When young people become aware of satisfying parental expectations

Question 43

At the extension-of-self stage of the development of the proprium,children:

A) distinguish their bodies from objects in their environment.
B) recognize the objects and people that are part of their world.
C) realize their identity remains the same despite rapid growth.
D) learn to take pride in their accomplishments.

Question 44

Allport believed that emotionally healthy adults were:

A) no longer victimized by what happened to them in their early years.
B) guided primarily by unconscious forces of the superego.
C) those in whom the personality is undifferentiated from childhood experiences.
D) those who avoid self-objectification.

Question 45

Allport believed that infants:

A) experience a separation of themselves from everything else.
B) identify objects as belonging to them.
C) have little of what could be called a "personality."
D) have functionally autonomous motives.

Question 46

Allport believed the best way to obtain reliable information on adult personality is through:

A) correlational approaches.
B) laboratory experiments.
C) self-descriptions.
D) dream analyses.

Question 47

Allport's personal-document technique involves the use of:

A) dreams.
B) written or spoken records.
C) video transcriptions of interviews.
D) questionnaires.

Question 48

Which of the following is an example of functionally autonomous behavior?

A) Reflexes
B) Fixations
C) Neurological dysfunction
D) Skill mastery

Question 49

Ideally,the development of the proprium is accomplished during:

A) infancy.
B) adolescence.
C) middle age.
D) old age.

Question 50

In an infant,before the proprium begins to emerge,_____.

A) the infant possesses the consciousness of its self
B) the infant reacts to sensory impressions in a deliberate manner
C) the ego mediates between stimuli and responses
D) there is no separation of "me" from everything else

Question 51

Allport's idiographic approach was the study of:

A) genetics and heredity.
B) the unconscious forces shaping personality.
C) childhood activities and experiences.
D) the individual case.

Question 52

At the _____ stage of the development of the proprium,children realize their identity remains intact despite the many changes that are taking place.

A) self-esteem
B) extension-of-self
C) self-identity
D) self-image

Question 53

Allport and two colleagues developed an objective self-report assessment test called the _____.

A) Study of Values
B) Study of Traits
C) Thematic Apperception Test
D) 16PF Questionnaire

Question 54

Allport's image of human nature is:

A) highly pessimistic,as it is related to childhood experiences.
B) that the ultimate goal of life is to increase tension.
C) deterministic,allowing little free will in deliberations about the future.
D) one that denies a relationship between heredity and personality.

Question 55

Allport's concept of adulthood differs from the views of other personality theorists in describing people as:

A) doomed to struggle endlessly with unconscious conflicts.
B) no longer dominated by childhood drives.
C) locked into the traits developed during childhood.
D) not being rational in most of their behavior.

Question 56

Which of the following occurs when the needs for affection and security are met in infancy?

A) The proprium develops steadily.
B) Motives become functionally autonomous.
C) Positive psychological growth is achieved.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 57

Allport took a(n)_____ stance on the question of free will versus determinism.

A) extreme
B) fatalistic
C) moderate
D) radical

Question 58

In the context of the personal-document technique used by Allport,computer analysis of the letters from the middle-aged woman identified as Jenny:

A) failed to verify his subjective assessment of traits.
B) yielded results comparable to his eight prominent categories of traits.
C) expanded his eight trait categories to more than 200 traits.
D) proved irrelevant to his initial assessment of the eight categories of traits.

Question 59

One of the assessment methods Allport extensively relied on was:

A) the multivariate approach.
B) participant and risk sampling.
C) the personal-document technique.
D) dream analysis.

Question 60

Identify a true statement based on Allport's view on the ultimate and necessary goal of life.

A) Catharsis is reached by reducing tension while seeking new challenges.
B) Unique traits and common traits are combined into personal dispositions.
C) The reward is in the process of achieving a goal rather than reaching it.
D) Our environment supplies the temperament required to achieve the goal.

Question 61

Perseverative functional autonomy is concerned with behaviors that continue or persevere on their own without any external reward.

Question 62

Allport is often considered to be one of the first psychologists to:

A) reflect on childhood trauma.
B) emphasize the importance of human needs.
C) bring humanistic values to the field.
D) study the behavioral characteristics of animals.

Question 63

Unlike coping behavior,expressive behavior is:

A) more oriented toward a specific purpose.
B) easier to change and has a specific purpose.
C) reflective of the basic aspects of personality.
D) directed toward bringing a change in the environment.

Question 64

To Allport,infants receive sensory impressions from the external environment and react to them automatically and reflexively,with no ego to mediate between stimulus and response.

Question 65

Secondary traits,as described by Allport,include behaviors such as aggression,self-pity,and cynicism.

Question 66

According to Allport,some behaviors such as reflexes,fixations,neuroses,and behaviors arising from biological drives can be explained by the principles of functional autonomy.

Question 67

Allport's term for the ego or self is "per severa," from which the word "perseverative" is derived.

Question 68

Consciously planned behavior determined by the needs of a given situation and designed for a specific purpose,usually to bring about a change in one's environment,is called _____.

A) expressive behavior
B) coping behavior
C) spontaneous behavior
D) non-directional behavior

Question 69

In Allport's example of public speaking,which illustrates expressive and coping behaviors,the level of coping behavior includes the speaker's _____.

A) movements
B) gestures
C) tone
D) content

Question 70

Central traits are so pervasive and influential that they touch almost every aspect of a person's life.

Question 71

Not everyone has a cardinal trait,or the trait Allport referred to as a "ruling passion."

Question 72

Of the two types of traits proposed by Allport,common traits are shared by a number of people,such as the members of a culture.

Question 73

Allport believed that personality traits are often revealed spontaneously through:

A) introspection.
B) Freudian slips.
C) coping behavior.
D) expressive behavior.

Question 74

Allport's major work on the _____ has been of vital importance in the development of the field of cognitive neuroscience.

A) expression of emotions
B) role of genetics
C) concept of inferiority
D) pleasure principle

Question 75

In Allport's view,our conditions of worth include those aspects of our personality that are distinctive and which unite our attitudes,perceptions,and intentions.

Question 76

According to Allport,traits are inconsistent and transient ways of reacting to our genetic heritage.

Question 77

Allport believed that psychoanalysis probed too deeply into the unconscious and that more attention needed to be focused on conscious or visible motivations.

Question 78

Allport's approach to personality development is reflected in the work of the humanistic psychologists:

A) Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
B) Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
C) John B.Watson and B.F.Skinner.
D) Karen Horney and Erik Erikson.

Question 79

Allport's conception of functional autonomy and independence holds that emotionally healthy adults are not tied to or driven by childhood motives or conflicts.

Question 80

In Allport's view,the healthy personality changes from being a biologically dominated organism in infancy to a mature psychological organism in adulthood.