Key Concept Quiz

Question 12.1

From a psychological perspective, personality refers to

  1. a person’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling.
  2. physiological predispositions that manifest themselves psychologically.
  3. past events that have shaped a person’s current behavior.
  4. choices people make in response to cultural norms.

a

Question 12.2

Projective techniques to assess personality involve

  1. personal inventories.
  2. self-reporting.
  3. responses to ambiguous stimuli.
  4. actuarial methodology.

c

Question 12.3

A relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way is a

  1. motive.
  2. goal.
  3. trait.
  4. reflex.

c

Question 12.4

Which of the following is NOT one of the Big Five personality factors?

  1. conscientiousness
  2. agreeableness
  3. neuroticism
  4. orderliness

d

Question 12.5

Compelling evidence for the importance of biological factors in personality is best seen in studies of

  1. parenting styles.
  2. identical twins reared apart.
  3. brain damage.
  4. factor analysis.

b

Question 12.6

Which of Freud’s systems of the mind would impel you to, if hungry, start grabbing food off people’s plates upon entering a restaurant?

  1. the id
  2. the reality principle
  3. the ego
  4. the pleasure principle

a

Question 12.7

After performing poorly on an exam, you drop a class, saying that you and the professor are just a poor match. According to Freud, what defense mechanism are you employing?

  1. regression
  2. rationalization
  3. projection
  4. reaction formation

b

Question 12.8

According to Freud, a person who is preoccupied with his or her possessions, money, issues of submission and rebellion, and concerns about cleanliness versus messiness is fixated at which psychosexual stage?

  1. the oral stage
  2. the anal stage
  3. the latency stage
  4. the genital stage

b

Question 12.9

Humanists see personality as directed toward the goal of

  1. existentialism.
  2. self-actualization.
  3. healthy adult sexuality.
  4. sublimation.

b

Question 12.10

According to the existential perspective, the difficulties we face in finding meaning in life and in accepting the responsibility for making free choices provoke a type of anxiety called

  1. angst.
  2. flow.
  3. the self-actualizing tendency.
  4. mortality salience.

a

Question 12.11

Which of the following is NOT an emphasis of the social-cognitive approach?

  1. how personality and situation interact to cause behavior
  2. how personality contributes to the way people construct situations in their own minds
  3. how people’s goals and expectancies influence their responses to situations
  4. how people confront realities rather than embrace comforting illusions

d

Question 12.12

According to social-cognitive theorists, ____________ are the dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences.

  1. personal constructs
  2. outcome expectancies
  3. loci of control
  4. personal goals

a

Question 12.13

What we think about ourselves is referred to as our ______________ and how we feel about ourselves is referred to as our ______________.

  1. self-narrative; self-verification
  2. self-concept; self-esteem
  3. self-concept; self-verification
  4. self-esteem; self-concept

b

Question 12.14

On what do the key theories on the benefits of self-esteem focus?

  1. status
  2. belonging
  3. security
  4. all of the above

d

Question 12.15

When people take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures, they are exhibiting

  1. narcissism.
  2. implicit egotism.
  3. the self-serving bias.
  4. the name-letter effect.

c

505