Deck 4: Personality Traits: Fundamental Concepts and Issues

Question 1

All of the following are true about personality traits except that traits

A) Refer to internal dispositions
B) Are linear and usually) bipolar
C) Are assumed to be stable over time
D) Usually emphasize cognitive dimensions

Answer 1

Usually emphasize cognitive dimensions

Question 2

In terms of extreme scores on dimensional traits, which of the following trait profiles best characterizes the schizotypal personality disorder?

A) High neuroticism, low extraversion, high openness
B) High neuroticism, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness
C) High neuroticism and relatively average scores on other traits
D) Low neuroticism and high agreeableness

Answer 2

High neuroticism, low extraversion, high openness

Question 3

If a scale assessing the trait of friendliness shows very high correlations with a well-established measure of intelligence, then the psychologist may conclude that the friendliness scale lacks

A) Reliability
B) Convergent validity
C) Discriminant validity
D) Face validity

Answer 3

Discriminant validity

Question 4

An index of a test's internal consistency is

A) Test-retest reliability
B) Split-half reliability
C) Content validity
D) Convergent validity

Question 5

Which of the following statements best characterizes everyday "trait talk"?

A) People make trait attributions to describe their own behavior more often than to describe the behavior of others
B) Trait statements refer to behaviors that will be expressed in nearly every situation in which the person who has the trait appears
C) Trait statements are made only when people feel insecure in their knowledge of others
D) People realize that behavior is not perfectly consistent from one situation to the next, but they make trait attributions anyway to identify general differences

Question 6

Most contemporary personality psychologists view traits as

A) Convenient descriptors that have no meaning beyond shared social construction
B) Biologically based neuropsychic structures
C) Learned behaviors that may change dramatically over time
D) Dispositions that influence behavior along with situational factors

Question 7

Which of the following is not a criterion of a good trait measure?

A) High utility
B) High economy
C) High social desirability
D) High communicability

Question 8

A key factor-analytic finding regarding traits by Cattell was that

A) Surface traits can be based on a smaller number of underlying source traits
B) There are more source traits than surface traits
C) Dynamic traits are surface traits, while ability traits and temperament traits are source traits
D) Surface traits and source traits are interchangeable trait descriptors

Question 9

In the construct or substantive) approach in personality trait measurement, the first step in designing a scale is to

A) Write test items
B) Sample responses from a large group
C) Define the trait theoretically
D) Perform a factor analysis

Question 10

A pupil of Aristotle in ancient Greece, Theophrastus, provided an early trait taxonomy that

A) Relied on mathematical models to delineate the basic traits in human life
B) Provided humorous character sketches of people with particular traits
C) Connected basic traits to fluids in the body
D) Derived many variations in personality from one basic ideal type

Question 11

When two different measures of the same trait are highly correlated with each other there is evidence for

A) Content validity
B) Convergent validity
C) Discriminant validity
D) Internal consistency

Question 12

If a factor analysis of a trait scale shows that the items load on two independent factors, then the psychologist may conclude that

A) The scale measures two different traits
B) The scale measures two separate aspects of the same trait
C) Either a or b
D) Neither a nor b

Question 13

Eysenck and Cattell used different statistical approaches to trait research. A key result of this was

A) Eysenck's trait model resulted in one superordinate trait while Cattell's model produced many smaller traits
B) Cattell's trait model contained fewer traits than Eysenck's trait model
C) Cattell's trait model yielded primary motives while Eysenck's model focused solely on behavioral traits
D) Cattell's model contained 16 source traits while Eysenck's model contained three traits

Question 14

Compared to those scoring lower, people scoring high on the trait of narcissism tend to

A) Use more first-person, singular pronouns "I," "me") in speech
B) Show lower levels of self-esteem
C) To score lower on traits of intelligence
D) Have more successful romantic relationships

Question 15

In Sheldon's constitutional psychology, which of the following personality types was supposedly associated with a thin, ectomorphic body build in men?

A) Self-conscious introvert
B) Easygoing and affable
C) Dominant and courageous
D) Thoughtful intellectual

Question 16

In designing a trait measure, the initial item pool should include items that cover

A) Only the content domain of the trait
B) The content domain of the trait as well as other content
C) Only a portion of the content domain of the trait
D) All content domains of all traits

Question 17

Which of the following is the main criterion for assessing the construct validity of a measure?

A) Consistency over time
B) Richness of the nomological network
C) The measure's ability to predict criterion behavior
D) Logic and coherence of test items

Question 18

The borderline personality disorder is best characterized by which of the following?

A) Extreme isolation, inability to enjoy social relationships
B) Emotional instability, emptiness, fear of abandonment
C) Grandiosity, lack of empathy, need for admiration
D) Rigid adherence to rules, desire for perfection

Question 19

Which of the following features is not part of the definition of a personality disorder?

A) Linked to medical conditions and/or substance abuse
B) Long-term patterns of behavior rather than short-term reactions
C) Behavior pattern markedly deviates from cultural norms
D) Tend to be less debilitating than psychoses such as schizophrenia

Question 20

The method of choice in trait assessment is

A) Interviews
B) Self-report questionnaires
C) Projective tests
D) Behavioral observation

Question 21

Mischel's critique of personality psychology was initially viewed as support for which of the following positions in the person-situation debate?

A) Trait
B) Situationist
C) Interactionist
D) Psychodynamic

Question 22

On the California Psychological Inventory CPI), low scores on which of the following scales are associated with criminal behavior and delinquency?

A) Socialization
B) Achievement via independence
C) Well-being
D) Dominance

Question 23

Observations of behavior in controlled laboratory settings constitute

A) L data
B) Q data
C) T data
D) Z data

Question 24

The original purpose for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI was to

A) Predict behavioral trends in college students
B) Differentiate between different types of psychopathology
C) Spell out the key "folk concepts" in personality predictive of adjustment
D) Detect social desirability and other response sets

Question 25

Which of the following results illustrates the kind of behavioral consistency displayed in studies employing Mischel's conditional approach to personality?

A) Students high in verbal aggression in one situation tend to show high levels of verbal aggression in the second situation
B) Students who are impulsive in the morning tend also to be impulsive in the evening
C) A student who is aggressive with friends but cooperative with authorities on Monday tends to be aggressive with friends but cooperative with authorities on Tuesday
D) A student who smiles when people are friendly to him or her tends not to smile when people are less friendly

Question 26

According to advocates for aggregation in personality studies, Mischel's failure to find impressive cross-situational consistency in behavior was due to

A) Selective review of the literature
B) Unreliable behavioral assessments
C) Faulty observational patterns in experimenters
D) Poorly designed trait measures

Question 27

The affect-congruence model of reciprocal interactionism suggests that:

A) Persons experience greater levels of positive affect in situations consistent with their traits
B) Persons choose situations that are consistent with their traits
C) Persons choose situations that are consistent with their current affective state
D) Traits and affective states are in mutual interaction

Question 28

In Mischel's "if . . . then" approach to personality, conditional statements help to convey behavioral consistency in terms of

A) Consistency in behavioral variance
B) Conceptual differences between two or more traits
C) Cross-situational similarity in behavior
D) The biological underpinnings of behavior

Question 29

Studies, which see behavior as accounted for by trait, situation, and the interaction of the two, are based on a model of

A) Mechanistic interactionism
B) Reciprocal interactionism
C) Situationism
D) Transactional analysis

Question 30

What social psychologists call the fundamental attribution error is the tendency to

A) Explain one's own behavior in terms of traits and other people's behavior in terms of situations
B) Explain one's own behavior in terms of situations and other people's behavior in terms of traits
C) Attribute cause to error and luck for one's own behavior and to traits and situations for the behavior of other people
D) Attribute cause to traits and situations for one's own behavior and to error and luck for the behavior of other people

Question 31

In which of the following studies should the researcher not aggregate behavioral observations across situations?

A) A study investigating the relation between extraversion and impulsive behavior among adolescents
B) A study aimed at obtaining overall scores in general trends for altruistic behavior sampled over time
C) A study seeking to determine under which conditions people will behave in a friendly manner
D) A study testing the hypothesis that intelligent people prefer reading to watching television

Question 32

Mischel's critique of personality psychology maintained that personality traits are

A) Mere summary categories for behavioral acts
B) Hypothetical constructs
C) Illogical and inconsistent
D) Categories in the minds of the observer

Question 33

In Gough's taxonomy of folk concepts and vectors on the CPI, which of the following life styles would be characterized as highly interpersonally oriented and highly norm-accepting?

A) Alphas
B) Betas
C) Gammas
D) Deltas

Question 34

Shweder and other psychologists who adopt the concept of "implicit personality theory" argue that trait measures are invalid because they

A) Fail to predict behavior in specific situations
B) Fail to encompass subtle aspects of personality, such as life stories
C) Merely capture people's understanding of how trait-relevant words go together
D) Do not make explicit the theories of self that people hold dear

Question 35

Which of the following statements best characterizes scientific research on the Myers Briggs types?

A) Strong scientific support for all types except the thinking-feeling distinction
B) Low reliability but strong validity for the types
C) The test is comparable to the NEO-PI-R and other standard personality tests
D) Scientific evidence for the validity of the test is weak

Question 36

What the ancient Greeks described as the "sanguine" personality can be expressed in trait terms as

A) High extraversion, high neuroticism
B) High extraversion, low neuroticism
C) Low extraversion, high neuroticism
D) Low extraversion, low neuroticism

Question 37

When behaviors are aggregated across many different situations, trait measures

A) Show strong relationships to discrete behavioral events
B) Prove to be less reliable than behavior scores
C) Show strong relationships to corresponding behavioral trends
D) Are shown to be less valid than previously thought

Question 38

In the act-frequency approach to personality, traits are

A) Summary categories of behaviors
B) Internal dispositions
C) Causal factors in action
D) Situationally specific

Question 39

Which of the following is not one of the Big Five traits?

A) Agreeableness
B) Openness to experience
C) Social desirability
D) Neuroticism

Question 40

Mischel's critique of personality psychology maintained that

A) There was no such thing as personality
B) Personality trait measures were poor predictors of behavior
C) Psychological measurement was unreliable
D) Behavior was cross-situationally consistent