Question 1

Kara is placing a personal ad in the local paper.According to evolutionary predictions about mate selection,she will most likely mention her ________ when describing herself.

Accepted Answer

A)  physical attractiveness 
B)  future goals 
C)  financial resources 
D)  personality traits

Question 2

The presence of schizophrenia was measured in both monozygotic (MZ)and dizygotic (DZ)twins.The correlation between the MZ twins was .50 and the correlation between the DZ twins was .30.What is the heritability coefficient for schizophrenia?

Accepted Answer

A)  .80 
B)  .20 
C)  .40 
D)  .65

Question 3

Match each rebuttal with its associated stress test of evolutionary psychology.
-Conservative bias

Accepted Answer

A) Evolution of a cerebral cortex enables humans to have the ability to overcome innate urges. 
B) It is not necessary for people to be consciously aware of what evolutionary theory says is required for reproductive success. 
C) For any theoretical proposal in science, alternative explanations are always possible. 
D) The differences between men and women in mate selection and other behaviors are built-in through biological evolution. 
E) Evolutionary psychologists are not concerned with the moral justification or condemnation of any one aspect of the human psyche.

Question 4

What term describes the willingness to engage in sexual activities in the absence of a committed relationship?

Accepted Answer

A)  openness to experience 
B)  sensation seeking 
C)  sociosexuality 
D)  sociometry

Question 5

How might a behavior geneticist explain the statistically significant finding that television watching is heritable?

Accepted Answer

A)  There is an active gene that causes individuals to watch TV. 
B)  There are related heritable propensities, such as sensation seeking or lethargy that might lead one to watch TV more often. 
C)  Individuals form TV watching habits if they grow up with parents who often watch TV. 
D)  Parents encourage their children to watch TV because of its inherit tendency to keep them well-informed about the world around them, which helps secure their reproductive success.

Question 6

Much of the world is changing toward a setting where physical strength matters less and alternative child-care arrangements are possible.The view that men's and women's behavioral tendencies are determined by social structure implies that ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  their behavioral tendencies will change over thousands of years 
B)  their behavioral tendencies will change relatively quickly (over hundreds of years) 
C)  their behavioral tendencies will probably never change 
D)  men will primarily adopt child-rearing duties and women will primarily adopt the duties of rulers and warriors

Question 7

What explanation might an evolutionary psychologist give for an individual giving a large amount of money to charity?

Accepted Answer

A)  In our current social environment, people who give money to charity are regarded as noble and are therefore attractive. 
B)  People are basically selfless people who give for the sake of giving. 
C)  Giving to charity increases our self-esteem, which is an indicator of our social acceptance. 
D)  Giving to charity satisfies our basic instinct to balance the social scales.

Question 8

Which factor below would be part of the so-called nonshared environment?

Accepted Answer

A)  family SES 
B)  genetic attributes 
C)  different friendships for siblings 
D)  general parenting styles

Question 9

All of the following are objections to evolutionary theorizing EXCEPT ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  evolutionary theorizing consists of after-the-fact speculations that cannot be put to empirical test 
B)  evolutionary theorists assume that everybody wants many children when, in fact, many people limit their own reproduction 
C)  evolutionary theorists assume that behavior patterns present today are essentially inevitable and unchangeable because they are rooted in our biology 
D)  evolutionary theory is unnecessarily complicated because it involves too many basic principles

Question 10

As a result of Timothy's genes,he went through puberty later than his peers.Because he was much smaller than other boys,they tended to pick on him,and he fought back to protect himself.As a young adult,Timothy is more aggressive than his peers.This scenario illustrates that his aggression is ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  completely the result of his genetic inheritance 
B)  completely the result of his early social environment 
C)  the result of an interaction between the genetic expression and the resulting social environment 
D)  the result of his social environment in adulthood because genes cannot affect behavior in adulthood

Question 11

According to the Eagly and Wood's social-structure theory,why are women more likely to value wealth and power in a mate over their physical appearance?

Accepted Answer

A)  Due to their superior strength, men typically hold positions of power and dominance in today's society. 
B)  Women have evolved to value how well her mate will be able to provide for her and her offspring. 
C)  Women are attracted to men who will buy them expensive objects. 
D)  Women are attracted to men who are careful and responsible.

Question 12

What term refers to different forms of the same gene?

Accepted Answer

A)  chromosome 
B)  genotype 
C)  allele 
D)  nucleotide

Question 13

For both men and women,those who score high on ________ are especially concerned with finding attractive mating partners,whereas women and men who score low on ________ are concerned with traits related to parenting behaviors.

Accepted Answer

A)  neuroticism; sociosexuality 
B)  sociosexuality; neuroticism 
C)  narcissism; agreeableness 
D)  sociosexuality; sociosexuality

Question 14

How can the study of gene-environment interactions explain some enduring puzzles in psychology? Provide specific examples of gene-environment interactions described in the book and explain why these findings are potentially important.

Accepted Answer

The answer of How can the study of gene-environment interactions...

Question 15

What might explain the difference in heritability coefficients between twin and non-twin studies?

Accepted Answer

A)  increased measurement error in non-twin studies 
B)  the presence of interactive genetic effects 
C)  the greater statistical power of twin studies 
D)  the rarity of non-twin studies

Question 16

In the past,some psychologists have concluded that shared family environments have little or no effect on personality development.Recent research has cast doubt on such conclusions by finding that ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  molecular geneticists identified the specific alleles associated with each of the Big Five personality traits 
B)  the shared family environment actually has a larger effect on personality than does the shared nonfamily environment (i.e., school) 
C)  the shared environment was related to certain aspects of personality when personality was measured through direct behavioral observation 
D)  the shared environment was related to personality when personality was measured through self-report data

Question 17

A scientist who studies how patterns of behavior characteristic of the entire human species originated because of the survival value they had for our ancestors is called ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  evolutionary psychologists 
B)  behavioral geneticist 
C)  heritability scientist 
D)  behavioral Darwinist

Question 18

So far,evolutionary psychology has been much more concerned with the origins of ________ than with ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  unconscious processes; conscious processes 
B)  extraversion and agreeableness; neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness 
C)  neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness; extraversion and agreeableness 
D)  general human nature; individual differences

Question 19

A recent study indicates that a serotonin-related genetic allele seems to influence the development of depression in conjunction with ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  stressful life events 
B)  high neuroticism 
C)  low extraversion 
D)  childhood maltreatment

Question 20

The evolutionary explanation of sex differences in mate selection is that ________.

Accepted Answer

A)  men and women seek very different things; men seek just sex and women seek commitment 
B)  the differences are the result of a biological fluke and will disappear completely in the next hundred years 
C)  men and women seek essentially the same thing; both are trying to increase the likelihood that they will produce viable offspring who will survive 
D)  the differences are the result of socialization practices

Exam 9: The Inheritance of Personality: Behavioral Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology