If you could be described by only one of the assessment techniques explained in this chapter, which would you prefer and why? Which technique do you think would reveal the most about your own personality? [Analyze, Evaluate]
If you were to build your own theory of personality, what particular behaviors or aspects of personality would you most want to explain? What particular structures would be important for you to include and why? Are there structures you would exclude? If so, why? [Analyze, Evaluate]
Which of your own personality qualities is most puzzling to you? How would each of the theories discussed in this chapter explain it? Which seems to do the best job in explaining it? Pick a different quality (your most outstanding quality, perhaps) and address the same questions. Did the same theory do the best job this time around? What might this suggest about how to evaluate the various personality theories? [Apply, Analyze, Synthesize, Evaluate]
Which of your personality qualities do you think you could change if you really had to? Which of your qualities do you regard as unchangeable? How do your intuitions about what can and cannot change in your personality match up to the ideas and research findings associated with each of the four personality theories discussed in this chapter? [Analyze]
Imagine that, instead of being raised by your actual parents, there was a mix-
Einstein said, “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. … Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” Do you believe that the personality theories discussed in this chapter stated enough about morality, that is, about what constitutes “right” and “wrong” behavior and what constitutes a morally and ethically good life? Should theorists have told us more about how we should live our lives? Or is that the sort of question a psychological scientist should avoid even trying to answer? [Evaluate]