The trait approach is based on empirical research that is mostly from ________.
correlational studies
experimental studies
case studies
archival studies
Personality trait measurements are typically made on a(n) ________ scale.
nominal
ordinal
ratio
quasi-nominal
The trait approach focuses exclusively on ________.
the measurement of absolute levels of traits
aspects of personality that are the same in all people
physical dimensions
individual differences
According to Kluckhohn and Murray, “Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man.” Which section of this quote most closely reflects what trait psychologists study?
“like all other men”
“like some other men”
“like no other man”
all of the above
Which of the following is NOT a reason that older people believe their personalities are more consistent than those of younger people?
Their social roles are more stable.
They are more mature.
They have more wealth accumulated.
They have more responsibilities.
According to the text, which of the following characteristics is positively associated with personality consistency?
openness to experience
neuroticism
general mental health
need for cognition
Which of the following terms describes the notion that people act differently in different situations?
inconsistency
consistency
emotional instability
stability
A fundamental problem for the trait approach is that ________.
individual differences cannot be measured reliably
situations do not affect behavior
people are inconsistent
correlational methods do not clearly indicate effect size
Individuals in which age group are likely to have the greatest amount of stability in their personality traits?
school-age children
adolescents
young adults between the ages of 20 and 30
adults between the ages of 50 and 70
In his book, Personality and Assessment, Mischel argues that ________.
traits are the only factors that influence human behavior
situations do not reliably predict consistent behavioral trends
behavior is too inconsistent to predict using broad personality traits
personality traits transcend the immediate situation and moment, and they provide the most consistent guide to a person’s actions
Which of the following psychologists is often credited with starting the person-situation debate?
Gordon Allport
Sigmund Freud
Walter Mischel
Henry Murray
Walter Mischel and his 1968 book Personality and Assessment are noteworthy because this work ________.
provides the most cogent argument for why trait theory and psychodynamic theory should be integrated
is credited with starting the person-situation debate by claiming that traits are not as important as situational factors in behavioral prediction
provides the first published defense of trait theory against the situationist critique
is the first modern research to begin to scientifically validate some of Freud’s claims about the unconscious
In his book, Personality and Assessment, Mischel argued that behavior can be most accurately predicted from ________.
situations
personality variables
motivations
goals
The situationist argument holds that ________.
a thorough review of the literature reveals that there is a limit to how well one can predict behavior from personality
situations are more important than personality traits for determining behavior
our everyday intuitions about people are fundamentally flawed
Situationism is the position that ________.
situations do not influence behavior
situations are less important than personality traits in determining behavior
the ability of personality traits to predict behavior is severely limited
trait words are more than mere descriptions of situations
Which of the following is NOT part of the situationist argument?
Personality trait measures do not predict behavior very well.
Situations are more important than traits for determining behavior.
Everyday intuitions that people have about personality are wrong.
Persons and situations interact to predict behavior.
Mischel originally argued that personality coefficients seldom exceed ________, whereas subsequent situationists raised that estimate to ________.
.30; .40
.20; .50
.10; .30
.10; .40
Which of the following was NOT one of the types of data that Mischel compared to one another?
S data and B data
S data and S data
I data and B data
B data and B data
According to situationists, the upper limit of personality coefficients is estimated as ________.
.10 to .20
.30 to .40
.50 to .60
.70 to .80
A correlation coefficient is a(n) ________ and mathematically ranges between ________.
effect size; .30 and .40
probability; 1 and 100
effect size; –1 and +1
significance test; zero and infinity
Someone who is ________ is likely to express his or her personality consistently from one situation to the next.
low in self-monitoring
high in self-monitoring
low in self-efficacy
high in self-efficacy
One difficulty in searching for variables that might predict consistency is that ________.
it is hard to think of variables that would predict differences in consistency
such research is too time-consuming to conduct
only one variable seems to predict consistency
the effects of such variables are subtle and are sometimes difficult to detect
How long was Mischel’s review of the personality literature in Personality and Assessment?
about half of the book
about three quarters of the book
about 16 pages
only about 2 pages
Which of the following is the best example of a situationist argument?
Melinda’s talkativeness is related to her optimism.
Knowing Robert’s extraversion doesn’t really let us predict his behavior.
Knowing Sanjay’s neuroticism means we know how anxious he usually is.
Suri’s conscientiousness changes depending on the time of day.
In order to improve personality research, researchers can ________.
check for factors that predict consistency
predict behavioral trends rather than single acts
measure behavior in real life
One response to Mischel’s critique asserts that a fair review of the research on the predictability of behavior from personality traits indicates that ________.
behavior can never be reliably predicted from personality variables
the predictability of behavior from personality traits is better than is sometimes acknowledged
the predictability of behavior from situations is worse than the predictability from personality
Mischel was right that personality traits are unpredictable from behavior
According to the text, the purpose of personality traits is to predict ________.
specific behavioral manifestations
behavior in the long term
I data but not B data
S data but not I data
Which of the following characteristics seems to predict increased consistency?
sociability
preference for consistency
none of these attributes
Which reason describes why averaged (aggregated) behaviors are more strongly related to personality traits than individual behaviors?
Random variations tend to cancel out when aggregated.
Random variations tend to multiply when aggregated.
Trait variation is mostly random when aggregated.
Trait variation is mostly specific when aggregated.
According to recent research, individuals high in ________ might actually be more consistent.
self-control
consistency seeking
extraversion
Which of the following behaviors would be the easiest to predict accurately?
Mary will smile at 10:00 A.M. tomorrow.
At a party on Friday, Susan will talk to at least 10 people.
David will generally be on time for work most days next week.
None of the above; each of these behaviors would be equally easy to predict.
When a researcher examines the association between behaviors at a party on Friday night and how many times someone volunteers to answer questions in class on Monday, she is looking at the association between ________ and ________.
I data; B data
S data; I data
B data; B data
B data; I data
Which of the following would be an example of trying to improve the predictability of behavior from personality traits by taking into account the possibility that some people are more consistent than others?
measuring how frequently you are late to work using a daily diary report of your everyday behavior
collecting information about your responses to stressful work situations
trying to predict how warm and friendly you will act when you meet your in-laws next Monday
determining if the behavior of high self-monitors is less predictable than that of low selfmonitors
Which of the following is NOT one of the responses to the situationist argument?
Personality researchers argued that Mischel’s literature review was selective.
Personality researchers searched for certain kinds of people who were more consistent than others.
Personality researchers started to think more carefully about the importance of a correlation of .40.
Personality researchers worked harder to find single traits that could strongly predict single responses at a particular point in time.
A situationist would interpret a correlation of around .30 ________.
as an example of a very small effect size
as an example of a medium effect size
as an example of a large effect size
by using a Binomial Effect Size Display
Which of the following is true about predicting future behaviors?
Specific behaviors are generally pretty easy to predict.
Specific behaviors are better predicted than aggregated behaviors.
Aggregated behaviors are better predicted than specific behaviors.
Aggregated behaviors aren’t usually very accurate when predicting future behaviors.
According to the analogy drawn in the text between situational effects on behavior and Scud missiles, situations ________.
can overshadow individual differences in all cases
never seem to affect behavior
seem to have inconsistent effects
seem to bring out individual differences in all people
Funder and Ozer (1983) examined the results of three classic social psychological studies. They converted the results to effect sizes and found that the effects were equivalent to correlations in the range of ________ (in absolute value).
.61 to .75
.70 to .97
Which of the following was NOT a study that Funder and Ozer reviewed in their work calculating the size of the situation coefficient?
the forced compliance task that illustrated cognitive dissonance
the bystander intervention effect that illustrated situational factors on helping behavior
the reduction in intrinsic motivation that occurs when children are given rewards
the position of the learner in Milgram’s experiments on obedience
A recent review of the entire literature on social psychology concluded that the situational effect was about ________.
.10
.20
.40
.50
The traditional practice in evaluating the degree to which behavior is affected by the situation has been to ________.
square the correlation coefficient for the relationship between behavior and some aspect of the situation
determine the percentage of variance accounted for by personality, subtract that from 100 percent, and then assign that value to the situation
multiply the variance in the behavioral measure by 2
add the variance in the behavioral measure to the variance for the situational variable
Funder and Ozer (1983) converted the results of three classic social psychological studies to effect sizes. After comparing those effect sizes with those typically obtained by personality psychologists, Funder and Ozer concluded that ________.
situational variables, like personality variables, cannot predict behavior
both situational and personality variables are important determinants of behavior
the upper limit for a situation coefficient is only .20
the three studies were so fundamentally flawed that they do not allow us to conclude anything about the predictability of behavior from situational variables
Which of the following is NOT one of Funder’s conclusions?
Most situational coefficients are actually between .30 and .40.
Situational coefficients are similar in size to personality coefficients.
Both situational variables and personality variables have an effect on behavior.
It is difficult to translate experimental results into effect sizes.
Historically, personality psychologists have concentrated on ________ to evaluate the effects of personality variables, whereas social psychologists have concentrated on ________ to evaluate the effects of situational variables.
variance; standard deviations
standard deviations; variance
effect size; statistical significance
statistical significance; effect size
A social psychologist focused on statistical significance is concerned with ________, whereas a personality researcher focused on effect sizes is concerned with ________.
documenting the existence of an effect; quantifying the size of an effect
quantifying the size of an effect; documenting the existence of an effect
squaring correlations; Binomial Effect Size Displays
process; outcome
In Leikas, Lönnqvist, and Verkasalo (2012), participants interacted with trained actors. The number of times a participant gazed into the eyes of his or her partner depended a lot on the behavior of the partner. Which of the following reflects the correct interpretation of this result?
The amount of variability explained by the person was small.
The amount of variability explained by the person was large.
The amount of variability explained by the situation was small.
The amount of variability explained by the situation was large.
In Leikas, Lönnqvist, and Verkasalo (2012), participants interacted with trained actors. The number of times a participant gestured depended mostly on his or her own characteristics. Which of the following reflects the correct interpretation of this result?
In Leikas, Lönnqvist, and Verkasalo (2012), participants interacted with trained actors. What was one of the major conclusions from this study?
Behaviors with more situation variance had less person variance.
Behaviors with less situation variance had less person variance.
Situations didn’t vary that much.
People didn’t vary that much.
Funder and Colvin (1991) brought participants to the lab for two interactions with different people. Which of the following results shows the power of the situation?
Participants who spoke loudly at session 1 also spoke loudly at session 2.
Participants who kept partners at a distance also behaved in a fearful manner.
Participants smiled frequently and spoke in a loud voice more than expected.
Participants were more relaxed at session 2 than session 1.
Funder notes that the person who is most talkative at a party is also likely to be the most talkative at the department of motor vehicles (DMV). Which of the following terms describes this principle?
absolute consistency
relative consistency
absolute change
relative change
Which definition best describes the meaning of a cross-situational consistency coefficient of r = .70?
Behaviors in one situation strongly predict behaviors in another situation.
Behaviors in one situation weakly predict behaviors in another situation.
Behaviors in one situation are the opposite of behaviors in a different situation.
Behavior is the mediator between personality and the situation.
Which of the following conclusions does Funder draw about the role of persons vs. situations in affecting behavior?
Situations matter more than persons, because people tend to be inconsistent.
Situations have an important influence on behavior, but people also tend to be consistent.
Situations matter, but only under particular conditions, because people tend to be inconsistent.
Situations have a minimal influence on behavior, because people tend to be consistent.
The large number of trait terms in the English language indicates that ________.
we need an abundance of trait terms to distinguish between different types of people
personality traits are an important part of our culture
when it comes to personality, one size does not fit all
Which conclusion follows from Funder’s analysis of the person-situation debate?
Personality doesn’t usually predict behavior.
Person perceptions are largely incorrect.
One behavioral response does not fit all people in every situation..
People don’t really act differently from each other.
The avoidance of drug abuse is associated with what trait?
conscientiousness
Political liberalism is associated with what trait?
Happiness is associated with what trait?
self-monitoring
Peer acceptance is associated with what trait?
Attractiveness is associated with what trait?
Good coping is positively associated with what trait?
emotional stability
agreeableness
A long life is associated with what trait?
Citizenship behavior at work is predicted by which trait?
Research regarding the person-situation debate indicates that ________ are relevant to how people will act under specific circumstances and that ________ are better for describing how people act in general.
S data; B data
personality traits; situational variables
situational variables; personality traits
Based on recent research, what activity might signal a major concern when selecting a stockbroker?
evidence that the broker loses big money at poker games
few pictures of loved ones in the office
modest earnings during the recession
a messy and sloppy appearance
Which of the following does NOT describe a type of person-situation interaction?
People generally prefer situations that are pleasant.
People choose the situations they occupy.
People change the situations they occupy.
People react differently to the same situation.
Which of the following is NOT an example of interactionism?
An extraverted person chooses to live in a bigger, faster paced city.
An agreeable person is generally a good team player.
A neurotic person expects to be socially excluded, which makes others stay away from him.
A conscientious person reacts differently to feedback from her boss.
Sally found that neither caffeine nor extraversion individually predicted problem solving; however, she found that they both worked together to predict problem solving. This is an example of what kind of an effect?
a true interaction
a suppressor
an evocation
a true mediation
Based on recent research, what is likely to happen when an aggressive person plays a competitive multiplayer video game?
The aggressive person will be less aggressive.
The aggressive person will evoke aggression from the other players.
The aggressive person will frequently win.
There is no ability to predict how the aggressive person will behave in this context.
Which of the following statements does NOT reflect the influence of values that contribute to a situationist vs. a pro-personality position?
People are both flexibly adaptive to situations and consistent in personal style.
Attributing behavior to the situation absolves people from blame.
Attributing actions to personality implies that people are responsible for their circumstances.
People are free to do what they want, so they are responsible for their actions.
Which of the following describes social psychologist Roger Brown’s views on the importance of personality?
He first believed situations were important but later changed his mind.
He first believed traits were important but later changed his mind.
He first believed traits were unimportant but later recognized their importance.
He first believed situations were unimportant but later recognized their importance.
