Question 1

Personality is __________.

Accepted Answer

Personality is considered to be relatively consistent over time and across situations, indicating that while people can change, they tend to maintain stable traits and behaviors that distinguish them from others.

Question 2

Personality psychologists are concerned with ______________ in a given situation.

Accepted Answer

Personality psychologists focus on how individuals differ in their behaviors and the processes that underlie these differences, rather than on average or crowd behaviors.

Question 3

George is always friendly to everyone at school, but when he is at work or at home he is mostly grumpy and irritable. "Friendly" may not be classified as one of George's personality traits, because it __________.

Accepted Answer

Personality traits are expected to be consistent across different situations, and George's friendliness only appearing in a school setting but not at work or home indicates a lack of consistency across situations.

Question 4

Statistically speaking, a trait such as "anxious" is __________.

Accepted Answer

Traits like "anxious" are typically normally distributed in a population, meaning most people will have an average level of anxiety, with fewer individuals showing extremely high or extremely low levels of anxiety. This distribution forms a bell curve when graphed.

Question 5

Justin has a high behavioral threshold for anger. What does this mean?

Accepted Answer

Having a high behavioral threshold for anger means that it requires a significant amount of provocation or stress to make Justin angry. This indicates that he is generally more patient or tolerant before reaching a state of anger.

Question 6

Evolutionary psychologists would most likely say that personality traits evolved to __________.

Accepted Answer

Evolutionary psychologists argue that personality traits evolved as adaptations to solve recurrent problems faced by our ancestors, enhancing survival and reproductive success.

Question 7

Research shows that highly creative people have __________.

Accepted Answer

Research indicates that highly creative people tend to have more sexual partners than the average individual. This is often attributed to traits like openness to experience and a non-conventional lifestyle, which are common among highly creative individuals.

Question 8

Which of the following researchers is using the quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach to studying personality?

Accepted Answer

Martin's research involves looking for genetic markers, which aligns with the QTL approach that focuses on identifying specific genetic contributions to complex traits such as personality characteristics.

Question 9

Research has shown that people who frequently exhibit thrill-seeking behaviors have__________________, and therefore they seek excitement to return this to an appropriate level.

Accepted Answer

People who frequently exhibit thrill-seeking behaviors often have less dopamine than others. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, and lower levels may drive individuals to seek out exciting and risky activities to stimulate dopamine production and achieve a sense of reward or pleasure.

Question 10

A longer form of the DRD4 gene is associated with __________.

Accepted Answer

The longer form of the DRD4 gene has been associated with higher risk-taking behaviors. This gene is involved in the dopamine system, which plays a significant role in reward and pleasure systems in the brain, influencing behaviors related to seeking novelty and taking risks.

Question 11

The heritability of most basic personality traits is approximately __________.

Accepted Answer

Research in psychology and genetics has found that the heritability of basic personality traits falls within the range of 40 to 60 percent, indicating that genetics accounts for a significant but not exclusive portion of personality development.

Question 12

Differences in personality traits that are not attributable to genes may be accounted for by which of the following?

Accepted Answer

Differences in personality traits that are not attributable to genes can be accounted for by a shared environment, an unshared environment, and measurement error. These factors can influence personality development and variation among individuals.

Question 13

As compared to fetuses who exhibit a normal heart rate, fetuses that have a high heart rate at 36 months (near term) have been shown to __________.

Accepted Answer

Fetuses with a high heart rate at 36 months (near term) have been shown to be more fussy at six months. This observation suggests a correlation between prenatal heart rate patterns and postnatal temperament or behavior.

Question 14

Children of mothers who experienced high stress while they were pregnant with them are more likely than controls to have __________.

Accepted Answer

Exposure to high levels of maternal stress during pregnancy is associated with alterations in the offspring's stress response system, leading to a more pronounced stress response. This is linked to changes in the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which plays a crucial role in regulating stress responses.

Question 15

Research shows that the Big Five personality traits are __________.

Accepted Answer

The Big Five personality traits, which include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, have been found to be prevalent across various cultures, indicating a universal aspect of human personality structure.

Question 16

Which of the following individuals is behaving in a manner consistent with collectivist thinking?

Accepted Answer

Ann's behavior is consistent with collectivist thinking because her concern about not being rude in front of guests reflects a focus on group harmony and social appropriateness, which are key aspects of collectivist cultures.

Question 17

________________ founded psychoanalysis.

Accepted Answer

Sigmund Freud is recognized as the founder of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory which explains human behavior.

Question 18

According to Sigmund Freud, what we are aware of at any given time is known as the __________.

Accepted Answer

Freud's theory posits that the conscious mind includes everything we are aware of at a given moment, such as thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

Question 19

Phil is not thinking about his girlfriend at this very moment, but if asked he can describe her eyes, hair, smile, and laugh. Thus, the information about Phil's girlfriend is currently in his __________.

Accepted Answer

The information about Phil's girlfriend is in his preconscious because it is not currently in his active thoughts (conscious) but can easily be brought to mind when needed or asked about.

Question 20

According to Sigmund Freud, the ______________ is the reservoir of drives, thoughts, and memories that are hidden below the surface of our awareness but still affect our behavior.

Accepted Answer

According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious is the part of the mind that contains desires, impulses, memories, and information that are not easily accessible to the conscious mind but still influence behavior and emotions.

Quiz 13: Personality and the Uniqueness of the Individual