Deck 3: Traits and Trait Taxonomies

Question 1

Which of the following is an example of the view that traits are descriptive summaries?

A)Eysenck's theory
B)Theoretical scale construction
C)The act frequency approach
D)The sociosexual orientation scale

Answer 1

The act frequency approach

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a fundamental question of people who study traits?

A)How can traits be changed?
B)How should "trait" be defined?
C)How can we identify which traits are most important?
D)How can we develop a comprehensive taxonomy of traits?

Answer 2

How can traits be changed?

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT one of the criticisms of the act frequency approach to studying personality?

A)The amount of context for the performance of acts is not specified by the act frequency approach.
B)The act frequency approach does not assess acts that are covert or directly observable.
C)The act frequency approach assesses explicit behavioral phenomenon.
D)The act frequency approach may not assess complex traits easily or accurately.

Answer 3

The act frequency approach assesses explicit behavioral phenomenon.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT typically a step in the act frequency approach?

A)Act nominations
B)Assessing synonym frequency
C)Recording of act performance
D)Prototypicality judgments

Question 5

The dispositional domain focuses on traits that

A)are enduring over time.
B)change over time.
C)change when situations change.
D)are similar in all people.

Question 6

_____ used by the act frequency approach to figure out which acts are most central to a trait category.

A)Act nominations are
B)Assessing synonym frequency is
C)Recording of act performance is
D)Prototypicality judgments are

Question 7

Ellen works into the night studying for chemistry and biology examinations to reach her goal of entering medical school.She studies so hard that she often appears bored and uninterested in class.Which of the following trait formulations best explains Ellen's personality characteristics?

A)Traits as internal causes.
B)Traits as purely descriptive summary.
C)Traits as biological structure.
D)Traits as genetic predisposition.

Question 8

From the "traits as descriptive summaries" point of view, which of the following would be the most convincing evidence that a person has a given trait?

A)The person behaves in ways consistent with that trait.
B)The person says that they have the trait.
C)The person's behavior is caused by situations.
D)The person's traits are caused by biology and heredity.

Question 9

The dispositional domain deals with personality problems

A)through psychoanalysis.
B)through cognitive therapy.
C)by examining important similarities and differences between people.
D)by altering reward and punishment contingencies.

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a major question addressed by the dispositional domain?

A)How many traits exist?
B)How do traits interact with situations to produce behavior?
C)How can we best measure traits?
D)Which traits are unconscious?

Question 11

The "frequency" part of the "act frequency approach" represents how often an individual performs a behavior in a period of time.This element of the act frequency approach is assessed by act _____ ratings.

A)nomination
B)performance
C)occurrence
D)repetition

Question 12

The approach that uses natural language to identify important traits is the _____ approach.

A)lexical
B)theoretical
C)statistical
D)act frequency

Question 13

What procedure do researchers use to identify the potential hundreds of acts that belong to a trait category?

A)Act nominations
B)Act effectiveness
C)Act performance
D)Act likelihood

Question 14

If the trait of stinginess is viewed as a purely descriptive summary of behavior, it can be represented best by

A)Mary's constant thoughts about spending too much money.
B)Andrew always leaving a very small tip at restaurants.
C)Beth living with several roommates.
D)George not contributing for a gift for a stranger.

Question 15

If you collect the central behaviors for a category and assess how frequently people perform those behaviors you would be using the act _____ approach to studying personality.

A)manipulation
B)selection
C)frequency
D)analysis

Question 16

Roberto is interested in studying the trait of empathy using the act frequency approach.He asks each of the participants in this phase of his study to write down several behaviors highly empathetic people might perform.Roberto collects a pool of 251 empathetic acts.This is called the act _____ procedure of the act frequency approach.

A)nominalization
B)nomenclature
C)nomination
D)nomonthetic

Question 17

If the act "she made direct eye contact and smiled" is central to the category of flirting, it would be considered a(n) _____ act for that category of behavior.

A)effective
B)likely
C)prototypical
D)centrifugal

Question 18

The "traits as causes" perspective on personality characteristics is useful in all of the following areas EXCEPT

A)ruling out alternative explanations for behavior.
B)explaining why a person's behavior seems inconsistent with a trait at times.
C)viewing traits as internal structures.
D)counting how often a behavior is performed.

Question 19

A robin is a more _____ example of bird than is a penguin.

A)prototypical
B)aerodynamic
C)orthodontic
D)elemental

Question 20

The _____ identifies how much of a trait a person has by counting relevant behaviors.

A)circumplex model
B)act frequency approach
C)rational approach to scale construction
D)theoretical approach to scale construction

Question 21

_____ is a statistical approach that identifies groups of items that are similar to each other.

A)Orthogonality
B)Factor analysis
C)The act frequency approach
D)Rational scale construction

Question 22

If a trait-descriptive word is found in only one or two languages the word

A)will probably be imported by other languages.
B)will probably be important to a universal personality taxonomy.
C)will probably not be included in a universal personality taxonomy.
D)is probably known only to personality psychologists.

Question 23

The idea that Eskimo language has many words for snow is most consistent with the _____ approach.

A)lexical
B)theoretical
C)statistical
D)act frequency

Question 24

The fact that there are trait-descriptive adjectives that few people know (e.g., clavering) is a problem for the _____ approach.

A)lexical
B)theoretical
C)statistical
D)act frequency

Question 25

Dr.Larsen is interested in researching the personalities of dweebs.He collects all the terms in the Dweeb Talk Dictionary that can differentiate one dweeb from another dweeb.Dr.Larsen is the using the _____ approach to identifying important traits.

A)maniacal
B)statistical
C)prototypical
D)lexical

Question 26

If a trait is sufficiently important that it appears in the lexicon of most human languages, then that trait demonstrates the concept of _____ universality.

A)act
B)cross-cultural
C)trait
D)synonym

Question 27

Which approach would most likely be used to undertake cross-cultural comparisons of language?

A)Lexical approach
B)Theoretical approach
C)Statistical approach
D)Act frequency approach

Question 28

Factor loadings indicate the _____ between an item and a factor.

A)correlation
B)deviation
C)analysis
D)kurtosis

Question 29

When Cattell used factor analysis to reduce the number of trait descriptive adjectives in his pool, he was combining the _____ approaches.

A)lexical and statistical
B)theoretical and statistical
C)act frequency and statistical
D)theoretical and act frequency

Question 30

The idea that all important individual differences have been encoded within the natural language is know as

A)the lexical hypothesis.
B)the projective hypothesis.
C)factor analysis.
D)a personality taxonomy.

Question 31

Factor analysis can be applied to

A)adjective ratings.
B)a true/false questionnaire.
C)self-ratings on personality relevant statements.
D)all of these choices.

Question 32

Which of the following approaches would utilize the technique of factor analysis?

A)Lexical approach
B)Theoretical approach
C)Statistical approach
D)Act frequency approach

Question 33

A researcher who defines a specific set of traits as a part of a model of personality before conducting any empirical investigation of that model of personality is taking the _____ approach to theory development.

A)lexical
B)theoretical
C)statistical
D)empirical

Question 34

The lexical approach assumes that

A)the lexicon is an unchanging catalog of human traits.
B)humans invented words to describe all of the important personality traits.
C)statistical techniques, like factor analysis, are poor ways of discovering important personality traits.
D)new words in the lexicon are better at describing personality traits than old words.

Question 35

Psychologists Simpson and Gangestad developed the concept of sociosexuality based on evolutionary theory.Then they developed the sociosexual orientation inventory.They employed the _____ approach to developing a model of personality.

A)lexical
B)theoretical
C)statistical
D)act frequency

Question 36

Fred believes that the having a large big toe is related to how extraverted a person may be and having a large small toe is an indicator of how conscientious a person may be.He then starts measuring toe size and personality traits.Fred's research represents the _____ approach to studying personality.

A)act frequency
B)lexical
C)statistical
D)theoretical

Question 37

Which of the following is useful in reducing the number of personality traits to a more manageable number?

A)Synonym frequency
B)The act frequency approach
C)Factor analysis
D)Cross-cultural universality

Question 38

A Freudian scholar develops personality measures to assess oral, anal, and phallic fixations.The scholar is using the _____ approach to identifying important individual differences.

A)psychoanalytic
B)theoretical
C)regressive
D)clinical

Question 39

Which of the following would be one way that you might determine the importance of a trait using the lexical strategy?

A)Find the number of synonyms for that characteristic in the lexicon.
B)Determine if that trait is represented in all parts of the lexicon (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
C)Examine the lexicon for biological words that represent that trait.
D)Determine if there are words representing each pole (end) of that trait in the language.

Question 40

A problem with factor analysis is that

A)it leads to an unmanageable number of traits.
B)you can only identify traits that you include in your analysis.
C)factor loadings are like correlations.
D)it reduces the number of traits being studied.

Question 41

A person who is antisocial and lacks empathy would score high on the trait of

A)extraversion.
B)neuroticism.
C)psychoticism.
D)introversion

Question 42

Whose model of personality includes three main traits?

A)Cattell
B)Wiggins
C)Eysenck
D)Leary

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT an attribute of Eysenck's taxonomy?

A)Hierarchical structure.
B)Traits are heritable.
C)Traits have many synonyms.
D)Traits have physiological substrates.

Question 44

Who of the following was the first to propose a circumplex model of personality?

A)Cattell
B)Wiggins
C)Eysenck
D)Leary

Question 45

Eysenck put the most important traits at

A)the top of his hierarchy.
B)the bottom of his hierarchy.
C)an intermediate level in his hierarchy.
D)the third level of his hierarchy.

Question 46

Which taxonomy includes a four-level hierarchy of specific acts, habitual acts, traits, and super traits?

A)The PEN model
B)Cattell's taxonomy of 16 traits
C)The Leary circumplex
D)The five-factor model

Question 47

A worrier would likely score high on the trait of

A)extraversion.
B)neuroticism.
C)psychoticism.
D)quarrelsomeness.

Question 48

Cattell's taxonomy included _____ traits.

A)two
B)three
C)five
D)16

Question 49

Cattell believed that the true factors of personality were

A)based primarily in human biology.
B)found across different sources of data.
C)arranged in a circumplex.
D)found only in the natural language.

Question 50

Which personality researcher named his traits with letters (similar to the way vitamins are named)?

A)Cattell
B)Wiggins
C)Eysenck
D)Leary

Question 51

Which of the following psychologists was born in England, moved to America, and used factor analysis to identify major traits?

A)Cattell
B)Wiggins
C)Eysenck
D)Leary

Question 52

Cattell's model of personality has been criticized on the grounds that

A)he published over a thousand pages a year during his most productive years.
B)his empirical strategies were weak and ill-defined.
C)his model of personality has failed to be replicated by other researchers.
D)his views on personality traits were biased and, therefore, were ignored by most researchers.

Question 53

Which of the following is a criticism of the theoretical approach?

A)The approach can only be as good as the theory.
B)It is theoretically based.
C)It depends on the lexical hypothesis.
D)It has restricted investigations to adjectives.

Question 54

Juanita is observed as being somewhat aloof and distant.She tends to lead a predictable and well organized life.Juanita is demonstrating behaviors related to Eysenck's dimension of

A)introversion.
B)conscientiousness.
C)agency.
D)psychoticism.

Question 55

According to Eysenck, which of the following traits is related to central nervous system arousal and reactivity?

A)Extraversion
B)Neuroticism
C)Psychoticism
D)Dominance

Question 56

Eysenck's taxonomy has been criticized on which one of these issues?

A)The traits in Eysenck's model are not heritable in the population.
B)Eysenck failed to include some important personality traits in his model.
C)Eysenck did not take the physiological substrates of traits into consideration in his model.
D)There is a dispute about whether or not personality traits are arranged hierarchically.

Question 57

Which of the following researchers was born in Germany and wanted to study physics before studying psychology?

A)Cattell
B)Wiggins
C)Eysenck
D)Leary

Question 58

Which taxonomy was developed by identifying traits that were thought to be heritable and thought to have biological substrates?

A)PEN model
B)Cattell's taxonomy of 16 traits
C)The Leary circumplex
D)The five factor model

Question 59

Jerry is a loner who likes to catch flies and pull their wings off.He is also addicted to violent movies.Jerry most likely scores high on the personality trait of

A)introversion.
B)psychoticism.
C)sensation seeking.
D)neuroticism.

Question 60

Fu is an excessive worrier, who always seems tense and has trouble sleeping.His friends report that Fu has very low self-esteem and is moody much of the time.Fu is demonstrating behaviors related to Eysenck's dimension of

A)introversion.
B)quarrelsomeness.
C)psychoticism.
D)neuroticism.

Question 61

Circumplex models are composed of _____ primary dimensions of personality.

A)two
B)three
C)five
D)eight

Question 62

The primary dimensions in Wiggins's circumplex model are love and

A)hate.
B)dominance.
C)interpersonal behavior.
D)neuroticism.

Question 63

In Wiggins' model of personality, bipolar traits are

A)related to clinical disorders.
B)uncorrelated with other.
C)on opposite sides of the circle.
D)orthogonal with each other.

Question 64

_____ are traits that describe how people act with other people.

A)Factor loadings
B)Adjacent traits
C)Bipolar traits
D)Interpersonal traits

Question 65

Who took the Allport and Odbert list of trait terms and grouped them logically into 171 clusters of terms by grouping them together and eliminating some terms?

A)Cattell
B)Fiske
C)Norman
D)Christal

Question 66

Which of the following is NOT a strength of the Wiggins interpersonal circumplex?

A)It identifies new areas of research by mapping the interpersonal domain.
B)It includes all the traits needed to understand interpersonal behavior.
C)It specifies the relationships between items in the circumplex.
D)It explicitly defines what interpersonal behavior is.

Question 67

More research in the last 20 years has focused on this taxonomy than other taxonomies.

A)PEN model
B)Cattell's taxonomy of 16 traits
C)The Leary circumplex
D)The five factor model

Question 68

A problem with the five factor model is that

A)the five factors are only found in males.
B)the structure does not replicate across item formats.
C)researchers disagree about what to call the fifth factor.
D)most factors do not replicate across cultures.

Question 69

In Wiggins' circumplex, the traits of dominance and warmth-agreeableness are

A)adjacent.
B)bipolar.
C)orthogonal.
D)polar opposites.

Question 70

_____ describes the relationship between traits that are perpendicular to one another in a circumplex.

A)"Adjacency"
B)"Bipolarity"
C)"Orthogonality"
D)"Polarity"

Question 71

Wiggins' circumplex model of personality is limited to traits that

A)have a biological basis in the nervous system.
B)pertain to what people do to and with each other.
C)show how people interact with the environment.
D)were found in the LSD experiences of subjects.

Question 72

Which of the following is NOT a clear advantage of Wiggins's circumplex model of personality?

A)The relationship of each and every other trait is specified in the model.
B)There is an explicit definition of the nature of interpersonal behavior.
C)It alerts researchers to gaps in knowledge about some interpersonal behaviors.
D)The relationships between traits can be traced to biological-based traits.

Question 73

The first researcher to discover the five factor model of personality by analyzing the structure of trait descriptive adjective was

A)Cattell.
B)Allport.
C)Fiske.
D)Tupes.

Question 74

Which one of the following is NOT one of the four categories into which Allport and Odbert divided the 17,953 trait terms?

A)Stable traits
B)Instable traits
C)Temporary states
D)Social evaluations

Question 75

Where did Allport and Odbert locate 17,953 trait terms?

A)Act nominations
B)Self reports
C)Dictionary
D)Peer ratings

Question 76

Researchers have found empirical evidence for the five factor in all of these ways EXCEPT

A)similar factor structures for men and women.
B)different factor analytic techniques.
C)extensively in English-speaking samples.
D)in five robust biological structures.

Question 77

Traits that are orthogonal _____ with each other.

A)are not correlated
B)have a strong positive correlation
C)have a negative correlation
D)are causally linked

Question 78

The five factor model of personality consists of these five traits:

A)surgency, sensation seeking, conscientious, psychoticism, and culture.
B)extraversion, surgency, agreeableness, intellect, and dominance.
C)psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and culture.
D)surgency, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and culture.

Question 79

The five factor model is a combination of _____ and _____ approaches to studying personality taxonomies.

A)lexical and statistical
B)lexical and biological
C)theoretical and statistical
D)statistical and causal

Question 80

The concept of _____ holds that items near one another in a circumplex are positively correlated.

A)adjacency
B)bipolarity
C)orthogonality
D)factor loadings