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Test Bank For Personality Psychology Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature 6th Edition Randy Larsen David Buss
Test Bank For Personality Psychology Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature 6th Edition Randy Larsen David Buss
Chapter 06
Genetics and Personality
2. The term _____ refers to the complete set of genes an organism possesses.
A. genome
B. eugenics
C. phenotypic variance
D. genotypic variance
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
7. The idea that one can design the future of the human species by fostering the reproduction
of persons with certain traits and by discouraging the reproduction of persons without those
traits is called:
A. eugenics.
B. molecular genetics.
C. selective placement.
D. heritability.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
8. Behavioral geneticists typically are NOT content simply with figuring out the:
A. percentage of variance due to environment.
B. percentage of variance due to genes.
C. percentage of variance due to genetic and environmental causes.
D. ways in which genes and environment interact to form personality.
10. According to Plomin et al. (2001), _____ is a statistic that refers to the proportion of
variance in a group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance.
A. heritability
B. phenotypic variance
C. genome
D. eugenics
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
12. _____ refers to individual differences in the total collection of genes possessed by each
person.
A. Heritability
B. Phenotypic variance
C. Genotypic variance
D. Environmentality
13. A heritability of .30 means that _____ of the observed phenotypic variation is attributable
to _____.
A. 70 percent; an environmental difference
B. 70 percent; genotypic variation
C. 30 percent; an environmental difference
D. 30 percent; genotypic variation
14. The percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to
nongenetic differences is called:
A. heritability.
B. phenotypic variance.
C. genotypic variance.
D. environmentality.
15. Usually, when the heritability of a trait is very large, the _____ of the trait is small.
A. phenotypic variance
B. genotypic variance
C. environmentality
D. genomic variance
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
17. The arguments about whether environments or genes are more important determinants of
personality are referred to as:
A. the eugenics debate.
B. the nature-nurture debate.
C. the heritability argument.
D. the equal environments assumption.
18. In the context of the nature-nurture debate, which of the following statements is true about
physical differences among people?
A. Genetic or environmental differences have no significant effect on occupational
preferences.
B. Genetic differences are more important than environmental differences in terms of mate
preferences.
C. Genetic and environmental factors are roughly equal when it comes to individual
differences in weight.
D. Environmental differences are overwhelmingly important for individual differences in
height.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
20. Ethically, which of the following methods in NOT used with humans?
A. Selective breeding studies
B. Twin studies
C. Adoption studies
D. Family studies
21. _____ occurs when dogs that possess a desired characteristic are identified and mated only
with other dogs that also possess the characteristic.
A. A shared environment
B. Selective breeding
C. Genotype-environment correlation
D. The equal environments assumption
22. The fact that selective breeding has been so successful with dogs suggests that:
A. heredity must be a factor in personality traits.
B. human personality is heritable.
C. the equal environments assumption is not violated.
D. the assumption of representativeness is not violated.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
24. Parents are usually not related to each other genetically; however, each parent shares
_____ percent of his or her genes with each child.
A. 25
B. 50
C. 75
D. 100
25. Aunts and uncles share _____ percent of their genes with their nieces and nephews, on
average.
A. 0
B. 12.5
C. 25
D. 50
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
27. Which of the following behavioral genetic methods provides the LEAST conclusive
evidence that a trait is heritable?
A. Family studies
B. Twin studies
C. Adoption studies
D. Selective breeding
29. _____ come from a single fertilized egg, which divides into two at some point during
gestation.
A. All siblings
B. Fraternal twins
C. Identical twins
D. Zygotic twins
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
33. If _____ are substantially more similar to each other than are _____ on a given
characteristic, then this provides evidence that is compatible with a heritability interpretation.
A. dizygotic twins; monozygotic twins
B. monozygotic twins; dizygotic twins
C. ordinary siblings; dizygotic twins
D. dizygotic twins; ordinary siblings
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
34. Which of the following methods is mostly used for calculating heritability from twin
data?
A. Finding the difference between monozygotic (MZ) correlation and dizygotic (DZ)
correlation
B. Doubling the difference between monozygotic (MZ) correlation and dizygotic (DZ)
correlation
C. Equally dividing the difference between monozygotic (MZ) correlation and dizygotic (DZ)
correlation into two parts
D. Multiplying monozygotic (MZ) correlation and dizygotic (DZ) correlation
35. One of the most common formulas for calculating heritability is:
A. heritability = (rdz - rmz).
B. heritability2 = (rmz - rdz).
C. heritability2 = 2(rmz - rdz).
D. heritability = 2(rmz - rdz).
37. Which of the following is most likely to invalidate the equal environments assumption?
A. Dressing identical twins in identical clothing
B. Dressing fraternal twins in identical clothing
C. Treating twins differently than other children
D. Treating fraternal twins as ordinary siblings
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
38. Behavioral geneticists can examine twins who have been misdiagnosed as identical or
fraternal to test:
A. shared environments.
B. selective breeding.
C. genotype-environment correlation.
D. the validity of the equal environments assumption.
39. If adopted children differ in important ways from the general population, then the _____
assumption is violated.
A. representativeness
B. equal environments
C. eugenics
D. shared family environment
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
41. In the context of the assumption of representativeness, adoption studies assume that:
A. placing adopted children with adoptive parents who are similar to their birth parents helps
in a better understanding of heritable traits.
B. adopted children, their birth parents, and their adoptive parents are typical of the general
population.
C. the environments experienced by adopted identical twins are more similar to each other
than are the environments experienced by adopted fraternal twins.
D. a positive correlation between adopted children and their adoptive parents provides
evidence for heritability for a personality trait.
44. According to Loehlin (2012), the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism have
been found to be _____ in twin samples.
A. highly heritable
B. moderately heritable
C. slightly heritable
D. not at all heritable
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
45. _____ tend to be around zero, suggesting little direct environmental influence on the traits
of extraversion and neuroticism.
A. Correlations between identical twins
B. Correlations between fraternal twins
C. Correlations between adoptive parents and their adopted children
D. Correlations between adopted children and their biological parents
48. According to Weiss, King, and Enns (2002), chimpanzees show moderate heritability for
dominance and:
A. extraversion.
B. well-being.
C. aggressiveness.
D. sociability.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
49. Which of the following attitudes has been found to be somewhat heritable?
A. Traditionalism
B. Belief in God
C. Involvement in religious activities
D. Attitudes about racial integration
50. In the context of attitudes and preferences, a study of adopted and nonadopted children
conducted by Abrahamson et al. (2002) confirmed that there is no evidence of a heritable
influence on _____.
A. conservative attitudes
B. occupational preferences
C. marriage partner preferences
D. religious attitudes
52. Recent findings from behavioral genetics and brain research point to the possibility that
sexual orientation may:
A. be heritable only in men.
B. be heritable only in women.
C. be heritable in both women and men.
D. not be at all heritable.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
53. The Bailey, Dunne, et al. (2000) study provides some support for Bem's (1996) theory
that:
A. sexual orientation is extremely heritable.
B. childhood gender nonconformity may be an inherited component of adult sexual
orientation.
C. gender nonconformity is not heritable.
D. the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals are identical.
54. In the context of sexual orientation, brain researcher Simon LeVay found that homosexual
men have:
A. substantially larger brains like women and unlike heterosexual males.
B. substantially larger ascending reticular activating systems than heterosexual men.
C. substantially smaller medial preoptic regions of the hypothalamus than heterosexual men.
D. substantially smaller occipital lobes of the brain than heterosexual men.
55. According to Spotts et al. (2005), which of the following statements is true about
marriage?
A. The personality characteristics of husbands account for their own marital satisfaction.
B. The personality characteristics of wives account for their own marital satisfaction.
C. When selecting marriage partners, women do not give much importance to upward
mobility and financial success.
D. Wives' personality does not explain their husbands' marital satisfaction.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
57. The different experiences that siblings have even though they are in the same family best
illustrate _____.
A. phenotypic variance
B. genotypic variance
C. shared environments
D. nonshared environments
58. Nonshared family environment is best expressed as those aspects of a family environment
that:
A. are uniquely experienced by a family.
B. are uniquely experienced by an individual family member.
C. are hoarded by family members.
D. represent differential genetic dimorphism.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
61. Adoption studies show that the average correlation for personality variables between
adopted siblings who share much of their environment, but who share no genes, is _____.
A. only .05
B. only .25
C. .50
D. .65
62. According to Willerman (1979), a problem with attempting to study the effects of
nonshared environments is that:
A. there are so many environmental variables that exert an impact on personality that each
variable alone might account only for a tiny fraction of the variance.
B. the nonshared environmental effects on each child in a family are too subtle to analyze
using current methods.
C. the effects of shared family environments interfere with the effects of nonshared family
environments.
D. the equal environments assumption is violated by variables attributable to nonshared
family environment.
63. Behavioral genetic studies have revealed tremendously important shared environmental
influences in all of these areas EXCEPT:
A. religious beliefs.
B. gender nonconformity.
C. verbal intelligence.
D. health behaviors.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
64. In the context of shared versus nonshared environmental influences, Loehlin, Neiderhiser,
and Reiss (2003) found that shared environments accounted for:
A. "niche picking" by individuals based on a particular genotype.
B. different peer influences on alcohol consumption.
C. personality clusters likely to seek risky environments.
D. several personality clusters in the "adjustment" domain.
65. _____ refers to the differential response of individuals with different genotypes to the
same environments.
A. Passive genotype-environment interaction
B. Genotype-environment interaction
C. Active genotype-environment correlation
D. Genotype-environment correlation
66. David, an extravert, and Tom, an introvert, are studying in a room with blaring music.
Based on genotype-environment interactions, _____.
A. Tom will most likely study better then David due to the background music
B. David will find the blaring music much more distracting than Tom
C. Tom will find the blaring music much more distracting than David
D. both David and Tom will start listening to the music and scheme to postpone the test by a
week
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
68. Juanita is a fantastic basketball player. She is tall, agile, and good at the game. Her parents
send her to basketball camps, and they make sure that she gets excellent coaching. Joshua is
not good at sports, and his parents are not motivated to provide him the same facilities as
Juanita. This scenario exemplifies genotype-environment:
A. interaction.
B. correlation.
C. variance.
D. concordance.
69. Shimeath has a genotype for high musical ability, which leads to her parents buying a
piano for her. Keith's parents are less inclined to provide any stimulation because he is not
inclined musically. This scenario demonstrates the idea of genotype-environment:
A. interaction.
B. correlation.
C. variance.
D. concordance.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
71. Winston's father is a professional musician, and there are many musical instruments in
their home. Winston has a genotype for high musical ability, which he inherited from his
father, and is encouraged by the environment in which he is raised. This scenario exemplifies
_____ genotype-environment correlation.
A. interclass
B. active
C. passive
D. reactive
72. Barbara is a renowned naturalist. Her parents worked as park rangers, and she primarily
grew up in national parks. Barbara's inclination to become a naturalist is most likely due to
_____ genotype-environment correlation.
A. active
B. positive
C. negative
D. passive
73. Johnathon's parents are literary scholars. He has attended a number of literary festivals
and interacted with many award-winning scholars. His house is stocked with books on
literature, and he naturally seems to share his parents' literary inclination. This scenario best
exemplifies _____.
A. reactive genotype-environment correlation
B. passive genotype-environment correlation
C. the assumption of representativeness
D. the equal environments assumption
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
74. When individuals respond to a person based on that person's genotype, _____ genotype-
environment correlation occurs.
A. reactive
B. interpersonal
C. active
D. evocative
75. Alex scores high on the neuroticism scale. Usually, he is extremely anxious, which causes
other people to constantly try to calm him. The responses Alex elicits from others are an
example of _____ genotype-environment correlation.
A. active
B. reactive
C. allocative
D. evocative
76. When a mother holds a child more often because the child loves it, we observe _____
genotype-environment correlation.
A. direct
B. active
C. passive
D. reactive
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
77. Rochelle's son loves camping. However, her daughter prefers painting. During summer
break, Rochelle sends her son for a four-day camp. During the same time, she takes her
daughter to various painting exhibitions in the city. This scenario best exemplifies _____.
A. the equal environments assumption
B. the assumption of representativeness
C. reactive genotype-environment correlation
D. passive genotype-environment correlation
79. Sharon scores high on the sensation seeking scale. She likes skydiving and bungee
jumping. Sharon exposes herself to risky environments because of _____ genotype-
environment correlation.
A. reactive
B. aggressive
C. active
D. evocative
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
81. Reba, a fitness enthusiast, tries to work out either at the gym or at home every day. She
has a personal trainer and tries never to miss her training sessions. She also engages in fitness
discussions with her colleagues and friends. This scenario best exemplifies _____.
A. passive genotype-environment correlation
B. manipulation
C. active genotype-environment correlation
D. evocation
82. Which of the following statements is true about active genotype-environment correlation?
A. Parents provide the same environment to all their children.
B. Individuals are passive recipients of their environments.
C. Parents respond to each of their children differently, depending on the child's genotype.
D. Individuals with a particular genotype seek out a particular environment.
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
83. According to Krueger et al. (2008), which of the following scenarios illustrates a positive
genotype-environment correlation?
A. Parents of children who prefer to stay indoors try to involve the children in outdoors games
to help the children become more physically active.
B. Children showing antisocial behavior tend to elicit harsh discipline from parents who
attempt to curb their behavior.
C. Adolescents who have personalities marked by an upbeat, optimistic stance tend to evoke
high levels of helpful and affirmative regard from their parents.
D. Parents of adolescents who prefer to stay at home take the adolescents to social gatherings
and cultural events to help the adolescents make a lot of friends.
84. According to Buss (1981), which of the following scenarios best exemplifies a negative
genotype-environment correlation?
A. Kiara and her daughter do not prefer sitting still, and they often participate in various
activities.
B. Sheila regularly plays baseball with her son who dislikes the game.
C. Keith and his twins dislike crowded stores and usually shop online.
D. Joshua's twins love to read and do not enjoy dancing, so he keeps their home well stocked
with books.
85. Which of the following aims to identify specific genes associated with personality traits?
A. Adoption study
B. Molecular genetics
C. Twin study
D. Behavioral genetics
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Chapter 06 - Genetics and Personality
86. According to Zuckerman and Kuhlman (2000), the most frequently examined association
between the DRD4 gene and a personality trait has involved:
A. neuroticism.
B. novelty seeking.
C. sexual orientation.
D. traditionalism.
87. Compared with individuals with so-called short repeat versions of the DRD4 gene,
individuals with so-called long repeat versions of this gene were found to:
A. be higher on novelty seeking.
B. be more passive recipients of their environment.
C. have a more significant heritable influence on their religious attitudes.
D. be less affected by the role of genes in their own marital satisfaction.
88. It seems unlikely that any single gene will ever be found to explain more than a _____
percentage of variation in personality.
A. small
B. marginal
C. moderate
D. large
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Test Bank for Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature, 6th Edition,
90. _____ was that personality was determined by socialization practices, such as parenting
style.
A. The assumption of representativeness
B. The nature-nurture debate
C. The equal environments assumption
D. The environmentalist view
6-26
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