In the ancient theory of the four temperaments, which temperament was linked to an excess of black bile?
Melancholic
✓
Choleric
Sanguine
Phlegmatic
Correct Answer
Melancholic
Hippocrates tied each temperament to a bodily fluid, and an excess of black bile was thought to produce a gloomy, melancholic temperament. Choleric was linked to yellow bile. Sanguine was linked to blood. Phlegmatic was linked to phlegm.
Category: Early Theories
Question 2
Franz Gall claimed that bumps on the skull reveal a person's traits and mental abilities. What is this discredited approach called?
Humorism
Phrenology
✓
Physiognomy
Psychoanalysis
Correct Answer
Phrenology
Phrenology held that the shape of the skull reflects the size of underlying brain areas and therefore a person's character. It was popular for a time but lacks empirical support and is now considered pseudoscience. Humorism explained temperament through bodily fluids. Physiognomy judged character from facial features rather than skull bumps. Psychoanalysis is Freud's theory and therapy built around the unconscious.
Category: Early Theories
Question 3
A hungry toddler snatches a cookie from another child's hand without a moment's hesitation. In Freud's model, which part of the personality is driving this behavior?
Ego
Superego
Id
✓
Persona
Correct Answer
Id
The id is the unconscious source of primitive drives such as hunger, present from birth, and it demands immediate gratification under the pleasure principle. Ego is the rational part that would weigh the consequences of grabbing. Superego is the moral conscience that would produce guilt about taking the cookie. Persona is Carl Jung's term for a social mask, not one of Freud's structures.
Category: Freud's Psychodynamic Theory
Question 4
After being criticized by her boss all day, Dana comes home and yells at her dog for barking. Which defense mechanism best describes Dana's behavior?
Projection
Sublimation
Regression
Displacement
✓
Correct Answer
Displacement
Displacement redirects an impulse from a threatening target, here the boss, to a safer one, the dog. Projection would mean attributing her own feelings to someone else. Sublimation would channel the anger into a socially valued activity. Regression would mean reverting to childlike behavior from an earlier stage.
Category: Freud's Psychodynamic Theory
Question 5
Lena feels strong resentment toward a new coworker, yet she goes out of her way to shower that coworker with exaggerated praise. Freud would most likely interpret this as which defense mechanism?
Reaction formation
✓
Rationalization
Denial
Repression
Correct Answer
Reaction formation
Reaction formation is expressing the opposite of a feeling that causes anxiety, such as showing exaggerated warmth toward someone one resents. Rationalization is offering an acceptable reason in place of the real one. Denial is refusing to accept an unpleasant fact. Repression is pushing a painful memory or urge out of awareness entirely.
Category: Freud's Psychodynamic Theory
Question 6
In Freud's theory, during which psychosexual stage does the Oedipus complex arise?
Oral
Phallic
✓
Anal
Latency
Correct Answer
Phallic
Freud placed the Oedipus complex in the phallic stage, roughly ages 3 to 6, when a boy desires his mother, sees his father as a rival, and resolves the conflict by identifying with the father. Oral is the first stage, centered on the mouth and weaning. Anal centers on toilet training. Latency is a later period when sexual feelings are dormant.
Category: Freud's Psychodynamic Theory
Question 7
Which neo-Freudian theorist proposed that childhood feelings of inferiority drive a lifelong striving for superiority?
Carl Jung
Karen Horney
Alfred Adler
✓
Erik Erikson
Correct Answer
Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler described the inferiority complex, a sense of not measuring up, and argued that striving to overcome it motivates much of human behavior. Carl Jung focused on the collective unconscious and archetypes. Karen Horney focused on basic anxiety and styles of coping with it. Erik Erikson described eight psychosocial stages across the lifespan.
Category: Neo-Freudian Theories
Question 8
Carl Jung proposed that universal themes such as the hero, the sage and the trickster appear in myths, art and dreams across cultures. What did he call these themes?
Complexes
Schemas
Personas
Archetypes
✓
Correct Answer
Archetypes
Jung called these recurring images archetypes and said they are part of the collective unconscious shared by all people. Complexes are clusters of emotionally charged ideas within one person. Schemas are mental frameworks for organizing knowledge, a cognitive concept rather than a Jungian one. Personas are the social masks people present to fit social roles, not the recurring mythic figures described here.
Category: Neo-Freudian Theories
Question 9
Which theorist rejected Freud's idea of penis envy, argued that gender differences in personality are cultural, and suggested that men may experience womb envy?
Karen Horney
✓
Alfred Adler
Carl Jung
Erik Erikson
Correct Answer
Karen Horney
Karen Horney argued that any envy women felt reflected men's greater social privileges, not biology, and proposed womb envy as a counterpart. Alfred Adler is known for the inferiority complex. Carl Jung is known for the collective unconscious. Erik Erikson is known for psychosocial stages of development.
Category: Neo-Freudian Theories
Question 10
Albert Bandura proposed that a person's thoughts, behavior and environment all influence one another at the same time. What is this idea called?
Observational learning
Reciprocal determinism
✓
Locus of control
Self-efficacy
Correct Answer
Reciprocal determinism
Reciprocal determinism describes cognition, behavior and context as each influencing and being influenced by the others. Observational learning is learning by watching models and the consequences they receive. Locus of control is Julian Rotter's concept of beliefs about who controls outcomes. Self-efficacy is a person's confidence in their own abilities.
Category: Learning Approaches
Question 11
Marcus believes his grades depend mostly on luck and on which professors he happens to get, not on how hard he studies. Which concept describes his belief?
Internal locus of control
High self-efficacy
External locus of control
✓
An inferiority complex
Correct Answer
External locus of control
Julian Rotter described people with an external locus of control as believing that outcomes are determined by luck, fate or other people. Internal locus of control is the opposite belief, that one's own effort determines outcomes. High self-efficacy would mean confidence in his own abilities, which his view lacks. An inferiority complex is Adler's term for a pervasive sense of not measuring up, not a belief about what causes outcomes.
Category: Learning Approaches
Question 12
What did Walter Mischel conclude from his influential review of research on personality traits?
Traits were set for life by early childhood
Traits were almost entirely inherited
Traits clustered into five broad factors
Traits predicted behavior poorly across situations
✓
Correct Answer
Traits predicted behavior poorly across situations
Mischel found that people's behavior was not very consistent from one kind of situation to another, which launched the long person-situation debate in personality psychology. Traits were set for life by early childhood resembles Freud's view, not Mischel's. Traits were almost entirely inherited was not his conclusion, since he stressed situations. Traits clustered into five broad factors describes the later Five Factor Model.
Category: Learning Approaches
Question 13
To learn how people reach their full potential, Abraham Maslow studied which group of people?
Healthy, creative and productive people
✓
Patients with severe mental disorders
Children in laboratory experiments
Animals in conditioning studies
Correct Answer
Healthy, creative and productive people
Maslow studied people he considered healthy and fulfilled, such as Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, to learn how people reach their potential. Patients with severe mental disorders were not his focus; psychoanalytic theory grew out of work with troubled patients in therapy, and humanism reacted against that emphasis. Children in laboratory experiments were not his method. Animals in conditioning studies are associated with behaviorists such as Skinner.
Category: Humanistic Approaches
Question 14
According to Carl Rogers, what should parents offer children to help them develop an accurate, healthy self-concept?
Conditional approval
Unconditional positive regard
✓
Strict discipline
Consistent punishment
Correct Answer
Unconditional positive regard
Rogers held that children who are accepted and valued no matter what they do develop a more caring and accurate view of themselves. Conditional approval, love that depends on meeting standards, is what Rogers saw as harmful. Strict discipline and consistent punishment are behavior-control strategies, not the acceptance Rogers emphasized.
Category: Humanistic Approaches
Question 15
In Thomas and Chess's system, an infant who is wary of new situations at first but gradually adjusts to them would be classified as which type?
Easy
Difficult
Slow-to-warm-up
✓
Avoidant
Correct Answer
Slow-to-warm-up
Thomas and Chess sorted infants into easy, difficult and slow-to-warm-up temperaments, and the slow-to-warm-up infant is cautious with novelty but adapts over time. Easy infants adapt readily and are generally cheerful. Difficult infants react intensely and negatively to change. Avoidant is an attachment style, not one of the Thomas and Chess temperament types.
Category: Biological and Trait Approaches
Question 16
Hans and Sybil Eysenck described personality using which two dimensions?
Openness and conscientiousness
Warmth and reasoning
Dominance and submissiveness
Extroversion-introversion and neuroticism-stability
✓
Correct Answer
Extroversion-introversion and neuroticism-stability
The Eysencks proposed two biologically based dimensions, extroversion versus introversion and neuroticism versus stability, and later added psychoticism. Openness and conscientiousness are factors from the Big Five model. Warmth and reasoning are among Raymond Cattell's 16 factors. Dominance and submissiveness are not the Eysencks' dimensions.
Category: Biological and Trait Approaches
Question 17
Gordon Allport described a rare trait so dominant that it shapes nearly everything a person does. What did he call it?
Cardinal trait
✓
Central trait
Secondary trait
Source trait
Correct Answer
Cardinal trait
Allport's cardinal traits dominate a whole personality and are uncommon. Central traits, such as loyalty or friendliness, make up most of a typical personality. Secondary traits are less consistent preferences that appear only in certain situations. Source trait is Raymond Cattell's term, not one of Allport's three types.
Category: Biological and Trait Approaches
Question 18
A coworker who is organized, dependable and hardworking would score high on which Big Five trait?
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
✓
Openness to experience
Extroversion
Correct Answer
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness reflects being organized, reliable and hardworking, and it is linked with academic success. Agreeableness reflects being cooperative, trusting and helpful. Openness to experience reflects curiosity and wide interests. Extroversion reflects being sociable, assertive and outgoing.
Category: Biological and Trait Approaches
Question 19
Which personality test is a true/false self-report inventory that was originally designed to help diagnose psychological disorders?
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Thematic Apperception Test
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
✓
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank
Correct Answer
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
The MMPI is a widely used self-report inventory of true/false items with clinical scales, such as depression, and validity scales that detect faking. It was first used for diagnosis and is now also used in job screening and counseling. Rorschach Inkblot Test asks people to describe ambiguous inkblots. Thematic Apperception Test asks for stories about ambiguous pictures. Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank asks people to finish sentence stems.
Category: Personality Assessment
Question 20
In which projective test does a person tell a story about each of a series of ambiguous pictures of people?
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank
Thematic Apperception Test
✓
Correct Answer
Thematic Apperception Test
The Thematic Apperception Test, created by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan, assumes that people project their own hopes, fears and goals into the stories they tell. Rorschach Inkblot Test uses symmetrical inkblots rather than pictures of people. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is a true/false self-report inventory, not a projective test. Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank asks people to complete sentence beginnings.
Category: Personality Assessment