Psyc 10004 sample practice-exam-2015 mcqs personality-psychology

   Sample Personality Exam Questions (answers at bottom of document)1. How many trait dimensions did Cattell propose?a. 2b. 3c. 5d. 162. Which statement best describes how Allport and Odbert attempted to define the trait universe?a. correlational analysis of trait adjectivesb. factor analysis of trait adjectivesc. selection of trait adjectives that describe psychological differences between peopled. selection of trait adjectives that people use to evaluate each other3. Which is of the following statements about factor analysis is correct?a. finds groups of variables that have similar meaningsb. finds groups of variables that correlate with one anotherc. finds groups of variables that can be factoredd. finds groups of variables that have similar means4. Which of the following is not an established alternative label for the relevant Big Five factor?a. Extraversion & “Surgency”b. Conscientiousness & “Morality”c. Neuroticism & “Emotional instability”d. Openness to Experience & “Culture”5. Which of the following statements correctly describes the relationships between Big Five traits and emotion dimensions?a. Extraversion is related to more positive affect and Neuroticism to more negative affectb. Extraversion is related to more positive affect and Neuroticism to less positive affectc. Extraversion is related to less negative affect and Neuroticism to less positive affectd. Extraversion is related to less negative affect and Neuroticism to more negative affect6. Which of the following statements about Eysenck’s and Gray’s theories is incorrect?a. For Eysenck, Neuroticism is related to limbic system reactivity.b. For Gray, the “behavioural activation system” is linked to sensitivity to reward and pleasure.c. For Gray, Impulsivity involves having a weak “behavioural inhibition system”.d. Gray’s Anxiety dimension corresponds to a mixture of Neuroticism and Introversion in Eysenck’s system.7. Which of the following statements about traits and values is incorrect?a. the structure of values appears to differ across cultures more than the structure of traitsb. values are cognitions, traits are notc. traits appear to have more dimensions than valuesd. unlike traits, values are inherently desirable to the person who has them8. Which of the following is NOT one of the six virtue classes in the VIA classification of strengths?a. Justiceb. Transcendencec. Humanityd. Creativity9. Which two vocational interest types are next to one another in Holland’s model?a. Realistic & Enterprisingb. Conventional & Socialc. Artistic & Investigatived. Realistic & Artistic10. Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding biological research and theoryon personality?a. extraverts’ brains are typically over-stimulatedb. shared environmental factors are more important than nonshared factorsc. the heritability of personality traits is sometimes calculated from twin studiesd. 2D:4D digit ratio research shows the importance of circulating levels of neurotransmitters in the brain11. Which of the following statements about Eysenck’s work on personality is correct?a. Introverts have highly arousable autonomic nervous systemsb. Neuroticism is associated with stimulus hungerc. Extraverts tend to like stimulant drugs more than Introvertsd. High levels of Psychoticism put people at risk of depression12. Roughly what proportion of the variability in most personality traits tends to be heritable?a. 20%b. 40%c. 60%d. 80%13. Which Freudian defence mechanism does this statement illustrate: “I’m not jealous, you are”?a. projectionb. repressionc. sublimationd. denial14. Which of the following is CORRECT about Freud’s genetic model of personality?a. the anal stage takes place in the first two years of life.b. it recognises that personality has a large heritable component.c. fixations in the oral stage can lead to passivity and dependency.d. it has received extensive empirical support from developmental psychologists.15. One of these four lists contains concepts from Freud’s topographic, structural and genetic models, in that order. Which is it?a. Unconscious, ego, repressionb. Unconscious, id, reaction formationc. Preconscious, superego, regressiond. Preconscious, superfly, fixation16. Psychoanalytic theory is NOT often criticized for which of the following?a. being unfalsifiableb. being unscientificc. being deterministicd. being simplistic17. Which of the following statements about cognitive approaches to personality is correct?a. the repertory grid assesses people on a standard set of personal constructsb. pessimistic explanatory style involves explaining negative events using internal, stable and global causesc. self-complexity has repeatedly been shown to protect against depressiond. emotional intelligence is a component of verbal intelligence18. Which of the following is an external, unstable attribution for why something happened to a person?a. fateb. the weatherc. hard workd. bad mood19. Which of the following statements about research on the self is incorrect?a. High self-complexity buffers people against stressful life eventsb. High self-complexity is associated with having more self-aspects with less overlapc. Self-esteem is more a side-effect of achievement than a cause of itd. Average self-esteem levels may be rising in Western societies20. Which of the following does NOT accurately reflect research on self-esteem?a. it is more likely to be a byproduct of academic achievement than a cause of itb. it makes people secure so that they are less likely to act aggressively when they are insulted.c. having stable self-esteem may be more important than having high self esteem.d. defensive self-esteem involves having high explicit self-esteem but low implicit self-esteem.21. Which of the following forms of coping illustrates the indicated kind of copingstrategy?a. Emotion-focused: attacking a person who is making you unhappyb. Problem-focused: recognizing that an issue is causing you difficultiesc. Emotion-focused: imagining that a problem will just go awayd. Problem-focused: actively trying to change how you feel about a stressor22. Which of the following statements about personality change is NOT correct?a. mean levels of internal attribution have increased in recent decadesb. there is much evidence of mean level change in adulthoodc. rank order stability is measured by correlation coefficientsd. rank order stability increases with age23. Which of the following statements about rank-order stability of personality is NOT correct?a. it may be partially due to environmental selection (i.e., people selecting environments that support their traits).b. it increases with age.c. it is incompatible with evidence that the mean levels of Big Five traits change with increasing age.d. it is measured by re-test correlations in longitudinal studies.24. According to Erikson, what contrasts with Industry in one of his eight stages?a. Shame & doubtb. Isolationc. Guiltd. Inferiority25. Which statement about “lay theories” of personality is false?a. entity theorists believe personality is not malleableb. entity theorists stereotype people more than incremental theoristsc. incremental theorists hold a ‘dynamic’ view of personalityd. incremental theorists attribute differences between social groups to innate factors26 . The items in a personality test correlate strongly with one another. What kind of reliability or validity does this imply?a. convergent validityb. content validityc. internal consistencyd. retest reliability27. Which kind of validity or reliability does NOT match the description that follows it?a. re-test reliability: people get similar scores when they do a test on different occasions.b. discriminant validity: a test of one personality characteristic does not correlate with tests that measure different characteristics.c. convergent validity: people get similar scores on a test when different people administer it to them.d. internal consistency: the items in the test all correlate with one another.28. Which kind of validity scale is designed to detect random patterns of responding on a personality inventory?a. infrequency scaleb. incompatibility scalec. lie scaled. defensiveness scale29. Which of the following is NOT a weakness of many projective personality tests?a. poor predictive validityb. poor inter-rater reliabilityc. susceptible to faking good biasd. susceptible to poor incremental validity relative to inventories30. Which of these potential flaws of psychobiographies is correctly defined?a. originology: over-emphasis on early life events in explaining the personb. pathography: insufficiently empathic interpretation of the personc. determinism: focussing too much on a single factor in explaining the persond. hagiography: portrayal of the person as extremely ugly