Personality

Multiple choice questions

1. Positive correlations (from 0.01 to 1.00) indicate that, as one factor goes ________, the
other factor goes __________.
a. down, up 
b. up, down 
c. up, up 
d. both a and b 

2. Eysenck originally developed ________________, a highly researched factor theory of

personality.
a. an interpersonal trait model 
b. a sixteen factor model 
c. a three factor model 
d. the Big Five 
3. William Sheldon suggested that body build was associated with personality traits. Which
one best describes a person who�s sensitive and intellectual?
a. ectomorph
b. neurotic 
c. endomorph 
d. mesomorph 

4. Delay of gratification is an example of self control.

True/ False
5. Endomorphic people are relaxed and sociable
True/ False
6. The sexual attachment of a boy to his mother and his desire to replace father................
7. The sexual attachment of a girl to his father and her desire to replace her mother is............
8. What is the trait approach to personality?
a. Assumes that people are motivated by unconscious emotional conflicts 
b. Assumes that each individual has stable personality characteristics 
c. Assumes that people�s thoughts and beliefs are central to personality 
d. Assumes that people have an innate tendency to become self-actualized 

9. The word “personality ” comes from latin word

a. theatrical mask
b. soul
c. the animal side of human nature
d. which one truly is
10. Psychologists are most likely to agree that
a. personality is best explained by a variety of theories.
b. personality refers mostly to surface appearance.
c. there is a single best definition of personality.
d. genetics account for nearly all differences among people.

11. A pattern of relatively permanent traits, dispositions, or characteristics that give some
consistency to a person's behavior is called
a. personality
b. a general trait.
c. a specific trait.
d. a genetic predisposition.
12. Which of the following would be a phenomenological approach to the study of
personality?
a. emphasize subject’s feelings 
b. emphasize subject’s thoughts 
c. emphasize the meaning that people ascribe to events, not simply the objective events
themselves 
d. All of the above 
13. What type of personality focuses on how people adapt to everyday life and intervenes to
improve the lives of individuals through therapy?
a. Academic psychology 
b. Clinical Psychology 
c. Practical Psychology 
d. Applied Psychology 

14. Devin’s personality is researched through 3 factors: extraversion, neuroticism and

psychoticism. This personality trait model is called:
a. Eysenck’s Trait Model 
b. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 
c. Smith Model 
d. Cattell’s Sixteen factor Model 

15. Trait theorists are interested in knowing how people differ and to what extent they differ
True/ False
16. Personality traits are discrete and personality types are continuous
True/ False
17. Personality refers to enduring dispositions that ensure consistency in behaviour
True/ False
18. The blocking of unacceptable impulses to keep them from awareness is................
19. the part of personality that incorporates parental and societal standards for morality
is...............
20. Psychologists seek to understand Joy’s personality through his thoughts, beliefs and their
impact on his behavior in certain situations. This is known as the
a. trait approach 
b. humanistic approach 
c. cognitive approach 
d. psychoanalytic approach 

21. From the Big Five personality dimensions, behaviors such as speaking fluently,
displaying ambition, and exhibiting a high degree of intelligence is
a. Agreeableness 
b. Openness 
c. Extraversion 
d. Conscientiousness 

22. If one is measuring the relationship between two things and the research he or she does
shows that there is absolutely no relation existing between the two, the correlation is said to
be
a. 0 
b. 0.3 
c. 0.8 
d. 1 
 
23. A more neutral term personality type categories or a typical or exemplary instance of a
category is
a. stereotype 
b. observation bias 
c. openness 
d. Prototype
24. If you say that a movie is really good and you like it you would also assume that your
best friend would like it. What implicit personality theory is this?
a. stereotype 
b. perceived similarity 
c. Halo effect 
d. observer bias 
e. All of the above
25. In analyzing data, measurements are sometimes categorical, for example "smiles" or
"frowns". This type of measurement is called
a. qualitative measurement 
b. quantitative measurement 
c. reliability 
d. validity 
26. If you had a correlation of positive one, the related items would be:
a. completely unrelated 
b. moderately correlated 
c. very highly correlated 
d. identical 

27. Which term should be most closely associated with the word theory?
a. idle speculation
b.taxonomy
c.science
d. philosophy
28. A theory can be defined as
a. an unverified hypothesis.

b. an educated guess.

c. a group of philosophical speculations concerning the nature of reality.

d. a set of related assumptions that generate testable hypotheses.

29. The conscious ego operates according to.............. principle.

30. The............... dream represents a wish fulfilment and is a censored version of the ..............
dream that lies underneath.
31. Positive behaviour shown to a person with no contingencies attached is.............
32. ................... is the inborn drive to develop one’s talents and capacities.

33. From the humanistic perspective people are.......................

34. Sheldon proposed three different types of traits. The traits that would best describe a
football player would be:
a. mesomorph 
b. endomorph 
c. ectomorph 
d. activomorph 

35. The Ancient Greeks hypothesized that there were 4 different personality characteristics.
The four characteristics are:
a. irritability, optimism, pessimism, calmness 
b. calmness, depression, pessimism, irritability 
c. depression, irritability, pessimism, optimism 
d. irritability, depression, optimism, calmness 

36. Which of the following would be an example of a correlational strategy of academic

research?
a. testing a hypothesis with an experimental group 
b. having a group fill out questionnaires 
c. using the scientific method 
d. a clinician diagnosing his/her patient 

37. Which range best targets the number of "Central Traits" that have been identified?
a. 5-8 
b. 5-200 
c. 17,000-18,000 
d. 19,000-20,000 

38. Which of the statements below are FALSE?

a. Since Personality psychology has competing viewpoints, it is considered a paradigm. 
b. Science judges the truth of statements based on the empirical method. 
c. Personality encompasses diverse qualities of individuals (e.g., biology, social influences,
childhood experiences, etc.) 
d. Science demands that hypotheses be discarded if they are not confirmed by observation. 

39. Which strategy IMPROVES the reliability of a research design?

a. make the test shorter 
b. standardize all circumstances under which the test is administered, including instructions. 
c. delete all items from the test that do not correlate with the other items. 
d. b and c only 
40. Which statement best reflects the relationship between theory and hypothesis?
a. Theories are narrower than hypotheses.

b. A single theory may generate several hypotheses

c. Theories flow logically from specific hypotheses.

d. Theories can be proven; hypotheses cannot.

41. During psychology you are falling asleep. You know last night you only got three hours
of sleep; therefore you have a valid reason. The person sitting in front of you is sleeping also.
You automatically think that they are lazy and really don’t care about the class. This is an
example of
a. Halo effect 
b. Implicit Personality Theory 
c. Observer bias 
d. stereotype 

42. Best known lexical research on terms relevant to personality was conducted by whom and
how many terms were compiled in this study?
a. Sheldon/3 
b. Ancient Greeks/4 
c. Allport/17,953 
d. Gordon/5 

43. When analyzing a past president to describe his personality by coding letters or speeches
he has written, you are using a process called
a. Big Five 
b. content analysis 
c. personality assumptions 
d. Implicit Personality Theory 

44. Who is the pioneer that proposed the 16 basic dimensions of normal personality and
devised a questionnaire (16PF) to measure them?
a. Carl Jung 
b. Raymond Cattell 
c. Julian Rotter 
d. Gordon Allport 

 45. Approximately how many trait words for personality are there in the English language?
a. 18,000 
b. 1,000 
c. 10,000 
d. 500 

46. One trait that dominates a personality so much that it influences nearly everything a
person does is a:
a. Global Trait 
b. Cardinal Trait 
c. Specific trait 
d. Central Trait 

47. A hypothesis is best defined as

a. a classification system.
b. armchair speculation.
c. an unproved theory.
d. an educated guess or prediction.
48. Role playing is an example of a............
49. The Rorschach scoring criterion include location, determinant, .........................
and ......................
50. Rosenzweig Picture frustration study presents a series of cartoons in which one
person .................another.

Answers
1. c

2. c

3.a

4 . True

5. True

6. Oedipus complex

7. electra complex

8. b

9. a

10. a

11. a

12. d

13. b

14. a

15. true

16. false

17. true

18. repression

19. super ego

20.c

21. d
22. a

23. d

24. b

25. a

26. d

27. c

28. d

29. reality

30. manifest, latent

31. positive self regard

32. self actualization

33. basically good

34. a

35.d

36. b

37.a

38.a

39.d

40.b

41.c

42.c

43.b

44.b

45. a

46. b

47. d

48. situational task

49. content, popular vs original

50. frustrates