Introduction to personality psychology

Psychologists have found it is difficult to define personality because

• psychologists are not smart enough to determine the boundaries of human personality

• personality has a common sense definition that psychologist find almost impossible to falsify

• the idea of studying human personality is a new concept in psychology

• any definition of personality needs to be sufficiently comprehensive to include a multitude of concepts

Answer explanation

Personality involves many cognitive and emotive aspects and there are so many different theories on personality which emphasize different aspects of personality. Thus, it is difficult to find a single definition is elusive, comprehensive and acceptable by personality theorists.

To assume that someone will tend to display a trait with regularity is to assume that the person has a(n)

• average tendency

• obsessive-compulsive disorder

• adaptation

• social-cognitive appraisal

Answer explanation

On average, individuals have a regular set of behavioral traits. This set of traits is the one that researchers are interested to study.

Intrapsychic environment is

• not as objectively verifiable as the physical or social environment

• often easy to verify through the analysis of dream

• relatively consistent across social but not physical environment

• based on how others in the environment react to a person

Answer explanation

Intrapsychic environment is not as observable as compared to social environment which can be observed through behavioral expression.

Studying how people vary in levels of anxiety, self-esteem or appraisal represents a(n) ............................ approach to study personality psychology.

• individual differences

• human nature

• ideographic

• environmental

Answer explanation

Individual differences approach focus on how one individual varies from another individual.

Which of the following does NOT fall within the biological domain of knowledge?

• Subjective experience

• Genetics

• Psychophysiology

• Evolution

Answer explanation

Genetic, psychophysiological and evolution are all related to biological domain.

Adam is interested in investigating unconscious conflict in a sample of college students. Adam will most likely use the methods and theories associated with the .................. domain of personality.

• dispositional

• intrapsychic

• biological

• social and cultural

Answer explanation

Unconscious conflict is a term used by Freud (1915) to describe a situation that happens in the unconscious mind which is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences, and stored in the unconscious.

Which of the following is NOT an example of a theory that provides a guide for researchers in personality psychology field?

• A Freudian psychoanalyst predicting stinginess from the ideas about the development through a particular stage of psychological development.

• A biological psychologist predicting a decrease in social behaviour when the frontal love of the brain is damaged.

• A personality psychologist analysing a large pool of responses to questionnaire items to find the underlying structure of the data.

• A cognitive psychologist predicting that how an individual's self-evaluation will determine his or her reaction to a specific stimuli.

Answer explanation

Analysing a large pool of responses to questionnaire items to find the underlying structure of the data is not the way personality psychologists to come out with a theory.

The most important criterion for generating a testable theory is

• the generalisability of its predictions.

• its compatibility with other theories.

• its precision of prediction.

• its comprehensiveness.

Which trait theory best exemplifies the principle of parsimony?

• A theory that proposes two personality dispositions.

• A theory that proposes three personality dispositions.

• A theory that proposes five personality dispositions.

• A theory that proposes 16 personality dispositions.

Melissa conducts a study of environmental awareness at a university and collects data from a sample of 1000 students and 500 academic staff over a two-month period. Samples are given a set of questionnaire. This study is using

• life-report data.

• observer-report data.

• test-report data.

• self-report data.