Chapter 16 Self-Test

Complete the following self-test to check your understanding of the key terminology and concepts of this chapter.

1. Which is the best definition of personality traits?

Categories that describe different types of people.
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Why siblings aren’t exactly the same.
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Basic dimensions on which people differ.
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The personality-situation debate.
.

2. Why do personality researchers describe traits on a continuum rather than as categories?

Different people are completely and qualitatively different from one another.
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Having a range of levels of a trait best fits actual human differences.
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Because it better represents the person-situation debate.
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People can be sorted into distinct categories of people.
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3. Individuals low on which Big Five trait tend to prefer narrow interests and dislike being opposed to alternative opinions?

Neuroticism
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Agreeableness
.
Openness
.
Extraversion
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4. Individuals low on which Big Five trait tend to be mellow in the face of small irritations, secure with themselves, and generally calm?

Agreeableness
.
Introversion
.
Extraversion
.
Neuroticism
.

5. Individuals high on which Big Five trait tend to be active, optimistic, and fun-loving?

Conscientiousness
.
Neuroticism
.
Extraversion
.
Agreeableness
.

6. Individuals high on which Big Five trait tend to be good-natured, forgiving, and helpful?

Conscientiousness
.
Agreeableness
.
Extraversion
.
Neuroticism
.

7. Individuals low on which Big Five trait tend to prefer spontaneity, and can be unreliable and careless?

Extraversion
.
Neuroticism
.
Agreeableness
.
Conscientiousness
.

8. What is the main advantage of breaking personality traits down further into facets?

It takes into account the person-situation debate.
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All personality researchers can get their views validated.
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It’s easier to write online personality quizzes.
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It can be hard to summarize a wide variety of people on only 5 personality traits.
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9. According to Walter Mischel’s views on personality, our behaviour is not that consistent across situations and trait theories might not be the best model to explain personality. This sparked the:

Objective assessment of personality movement
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Discontinuation of personality research
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Person-situation debate
.
Book tour for first book, Personality and Assessment
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10. Which type of personality assessment capitalizes on the wealth of knowledge we have about ourselves?

Informant reports
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Projective measures
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Self-report measures
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Behavioural observation
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11. How are objective measures of personality, including self-report and informant report, meant to maintain this objectivity?

Anyone can project themselves on to it.
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We don’t fill them out about ourselves.
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Our friends can provide the best source of information about us.
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The psychologist administering the test does not need to reply on judgement to interpret the test-taker’s response.
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12. What is the major limitation of information reports, as compared to self-report measures of personality?

Informants can know us better than we know ourselves.
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Informant reports take longer to fill out.
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Informants lack full access to the thoughts, feelings, and motives of the person they are rating.
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Psychologists must interpret informant reports and this is expensive.
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13. What is the sibling contrast effect?

When children exaggerate the differences between themselves in order to stand out to their parents.
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When parents exaggerate the true magnitude of differences between their children.
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A type of sibling personality measure.
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A model to explain how children with genetic overlap can be so different.
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14. Which type of personality assessment believes that if asked to interpret ambiguous stimuli, individuals will respond in ways that reveal who they really are?

Self-report measures
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Informant reports
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Behavioural measures
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Projective tests
.

15. Researchers conducted a study of personality, where participants viewed photos of students’ dorm rooms and were asked to guess their personalities. The researchers found that:

Participants were unable to determine students’ personalities.
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Participants’ and students’ self-ratings were negatively correlated.
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Participants’ ratings correlated significantly with the students’ self-ratings of their personality.
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Students were offended at the idea so much information could be determined from their dorm rooms and refused to participate.
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