Question 1

What term refers to the idea that the concepts recently activated in the mind influence one's perceptions of the world?

Accepted Answer

Priming refers to the concept that the activation of certain concepts or information in the mind can influence one's perception of the world. This can occur even if the individual is not consciously aware of the priming effect.

Question 2

Sally is very concerned with abandonment and her partner's lack of commitment to their relationship.She is high on which personality dimension?

Accepted Answer

Sally's concern with abandonment and her partner's lack of commitment to their relationship suggests that she is high on rejection sensitivity, which refers to the tendency to perceive rejection and abandonment in ambiguous situations and to be overly vigilant and reactive to signs of rejection. Rejection priming refers to the effect of prior experiences of rejection on subsequent behavior and cognition. Rejection accessibility refers to the ease with which rejection-related information comes to mind. Rejection detection refers to the ability to accurately perceive and respond to signs of rejection in social situations.

Question 3

When an individual who has a good relationship with his or her mother is exposed to the subliminal message "Mommy and I are one," he or she will likely feel ________ without knowing why.

Accepted Answer

The subliminal message "Mommy and I are one" is likely to trigger positive emotions and feelings of connectedness for an individual with a good relationship with their mother. Therefore, they would feel better without necessarily knowing why.

Question 4

According to the text,what is a key difference between conscious and unconscious thought?

Accepted Answer

Conscious thought is often limited by the capacity of working memory, which can typically hold about seven chunks of information, whereas unconscious thought is not bound by this limitation and can process a larger amount of information.

Question 5

Concepts that are readily available in the mind on such a frequent basis that they become part of one's personality are said to be ________.

Accepted Answer

Concepts that are readily available in the mind on a frequent basis are considered chronically accessible, which means they become a part of a person's personality. This can include beliefs, attitudes, and experiences that are constantly reinforced and easily retrieved from memory. Option B) hypoactivated refers to a decreased level of activation, and options C) praxes and D) individuated are not related to the concept described in the question.

Question 6

An Asian American who has just been primed with the image of a dragon is more likely to interpret ambiguous symbols according to ________.

Accepted Answer

Priming with an image of a dragon would activate cultural associations with Asian culture, leading the individual to be more likely to interpret ambiguous symbols according to typical Asian interpretations.

Question 7

What theorist is most closely identified with cognitive-experiential self-theory?

Accepted Answer

Seymour Epstein is the theorist most closely identified with cognitive-experiential self-theory.

Question 8

The phrase "seven,plus or minus two" refers to the ________.

Accepted Answer

"Seven, plus or minus two" refers to the capacity of short-term memory, which is typically thought to be able to hold 5-9 pieces of information at a time.

Question 9

Which theorist developed the concept of personal constructs?

Accepted Answer

George Kelly developed the concept of personal constructs as a part of his personal construct theory in psychology, which emphasizes how people's unique perceptions of their world shape their behavior and experiences.

Question 10

Someone who frequently attributes hostility to other people might be able to change this aspect of his or her personality.According to the material on priming,what should such a person try to do?

Accepted Answer

Priming involves activating certain associations in memory. By slowing down and thinking more deliberately, the person can become more aware of their automatic responses and work to change them.

Question 11

An individual who likes to watch emotional movies and has extreme reactions to the tragic deaths of celebrities would likely score high on what personality dimension?

Accepted Answer

The need for affect refers to an individual's motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations, and someone who seeks out emotional movies and reacts strongly to celebrity deaths likely has a high need for affect.

Question 12

According to most current theories,patterns of priming typically originate in ________.

Accepted Answer

Patterns of priming are believed to originate in life experiences, such as learning and memory, rather than innate factors like temperament or genetic material. Evolutionary history may also play a role, but it is not the primary source of priming patterns.

Question 13

According to the text,which of the following is NOT a personality process?

Accepted Answer

Trait development is not considered a personality process; it refers to the formation and evolution of personality traits over time, whereas perception, motivation, and emotion are processes that influence how personality is expressed and experienced.

Question 14

According to the text,inherent in the limited capacity of consciousness is the danger of ________.

Accepted Answer

The text mentions that the limited capacity of consciousness can lead to the danger of "focusing too much on negative, stress-inducing details."

Question 15

All of the following traditions strongly contributed to the understanding of personality processes EXCEPT ________.

Accepted Answer

Empirically based test construction methods do not necessarily focus on understanding personality processes, but rather on creating valid and reliable measures of personality traits and constructs. The other options all have a strong focus on understanding personality processes.

Question 16

Perceptual ________ refers to the process whereby the perceptual system filters out information that might make the individual uncomfortable or distressed.

Accepted Answer

Perceptual defense is a defense mechanism that occurs when the perceptual system filters out information that might make the individual uncomfortable or distressed. This mechanism helps individuals avoid anxiety, guilt, and shame.

Question 17

What measurement instrument assesses the extent to which people are relatively defensive in their perception of potentially threatening information?

Accepted Answer

The repression-sensitization scale measures how individuals cope with anxiety-provoking information, with repression indicating defensiveness and sensitization indicating openness to such information.

Question 18

Non-psychoanalytic researchers sometimes use the term ________ to refer to the unconscious.

Accepted Answer

Non-psychoanalytic researchers often refer to the unconscious as the cognitive unconscious, as it refers to mental processes that are not accessible to conscious awareness but can still influence behavior and cognition. Option A, short-term memory, does not completely capture the concept of the unconscious, which involves more than just memory processes. Option B, consciously inaccessible memory, is not widely used and also does not capture the breadth of the unconscious. Option D, unconscious memory, suggests that the unconscious is limited to memory processes, which is not entirely accurate.

Question 19

As a person becomes an expert in an area,he or she will begin to ________ to help organize the information.

Accepted Answer

Experts use larger chunks of information to organize and process data more efficiently, allowing them to recognize patterns and make decisions quickly.

Question 20

Amy is a generally aggressive and hostile child.Imagine that Suzanne accidentally bumped into Amy in a crowded room.Based on theories related to priming and chronic accessibility,Amy would perceive Suzanne's bump as an ________ and likely respond with ________.

Accepted Answer

Based on the description, Amy has a chronic accessibility to aggression and hostility, which primes her to interpret actions as intentionally hostile. Therefore, she would perceive Suzanne's bump as an intentionally hostile act and respond with aggression.

Quiz 15: Personality Processes: Perception, Thought, Motivation, and Emotion