Psych 387 Exam 1 Study Guide with Accurate
solutions
You will have 60 minutes to complete the exam. Exams will take place in the Digital Learning
Commons and will mostly consis.t of multiple choice questions, but may also include
matching and true/false questions. Exams will cover material from lectures, class discussions,
videos shown in class, and clicker questions, as well as applications of this material.
Missed exam policy: If you miss an exam, I will replace the missing score with the percentage
score that you earn on the corresponding section of the final exam. If you miss an exam, you
may still take it (for practice and feedback) during office hours, but your score will not be
recorded. You can also choose to replace one exam with a second reaction paper.
There will be no individual exam make-ups or early-takes, regardless of the reason for
your absence.
Information to Review for the Exam
Exam 1 covers chapters 1-6 of The Personality Puzzle, lecture, the videos, and clicker questions.
The Chapter headings below serve merely to group relevant information together—the textbook
is not required reading.
Chapter 1
● What is the goal of personality psychology?
○ To account for the whole person and real-life concerns
● What kinds of questions does personality psychology seek to answer and how does the
focus of personality psychology differ compared to other fields in psychology?
○ To consider individual differences, and personality psychology considered that
we are not all the same
■ Advantage: It emphasizes individual differences (whereas other
areas treat all people as if they were the same)
■ Disadvantage: Pigeionholing– putting people into a bin (labeling people)
● What are the basic approaches to personality and their focal topics?
○ Trait approach: people lie on a continuum of personality characteristics
○ Biological approach: understand the mind in terms of the body
○ Psychoanalytic approach: the primary concern is with the unconscious mind
and internal mental conflict
○ Phenomenological approach: focus on the conscious experience of the world
■ Focused on free will– you choose your personality
○ Learning approach: how behavior changes as a result of rewards,
punishments, and life experiences
■ You behave the way you do because of the circumstances that have
shaped your behavior
○ How does each approach explain constructs such as aggression and depression?
■ Aggression:
● Trait approach’s explanation
○ Focuses on individual differences and the stability
of aggressive behavior
, ■ Aggressive children are most likely to become
aggressive adults
● Biological approach’s explanation
○ Genetic predisposition towards aggression
○ Evolutionary theory
■ EX. men tend to be more aggressive than women
because it makes them more successful at passing
on their genes
● Psychoanalytic approach’s explanation
○ People possess an unconscious
■ Depression
● Trait
○ Focuses on identifying depression-prone individuals
○ Person’s general emotional level at present can indicate
that person’s emotions in the future
● Biological
○ Certain people inherit a genetic susceptibility to depression
○ Levels of neurotransmitters
● Psychoanalytic
○ Depression is a result of holding unconscious feelings of
anger and hostility
● Phenomenological
○ People frequently suffering from depression are those
who have low self-worth/self-esteem
■ “You don’t value yourself enough, and that’s
why you’re depressed. You chose to be
depressed.”
● Learning
○ Depression results from a lack of positive reinforcement in
a person’s life
○ Depression depends on how people interpret their inability
to control events
○ Certain individuals use a depressive filter to interpret
and process information
Chapters 2 & 3
● What are the four main sources of data for personality?
○ Self-Report Data, Informant Report Data, Behavioral Data, Life-Outcome Data
○ What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Name and describe each one.
Examples include but are not limited to: biases, causal force, or fish-in-water
effect
■ S-Data
solutions
You will have 60 minutes to complete the exam. Exams will take place in the Digital Learning
Commons and will mostly consis.t of multiple choice questions, but may also include
matching and true/false questions. Exams will cover material from lectures, class discussions,
videos shown in class, and clicker questions, as well as applications of this material.
Missed exam policy: If you miss an exam, I will replace the missing score with the percentage
score that you earn on the corresponding section of the final exam. If you miss an exam, you
may still take it (for practice and feedback) during office hours, but your score will not be
recorded. You can also choose to replace one exam with a second reaction paper.
There will be no individual exam make-ups or early-takes, regardless of the reason for
your absence.
Information to Review for the Exam
Exam 1 covers chapters 1-6 of The Personality Puzzle, lecture, the videos, and clicker questions.
The Chapter headings below serve merely to group relevant information together—the textbook
is not required reading.
Chapter 1
● What is the goal of personality psychology?
○ To account for the whole person and real-life concerns
● What kinds of questions does personality psychology seek to answer and how does the
focus of personality psychology differ compared to other fields in psychology?
○ To consider individual differences, and personality psychology considered that
we are not all the same
■ Advantage: It emphasizes individual differences (whereas other
areas treat all people as if they were the same)
■ Disadvantage: Pigeionholing– putting people into a bin (labeling people)
● What are the basic approaches to personality and their focal topics?
○ Trait approach: people lie on a continuum of personality characteristics
○ Biological approach: understand the mind in terms of the body
○ Psychoanalytic approach: the primary concern is with the unconscious mind
and internal mental conflict
○ Phenomenological approach: focus on the conscious experience of the world
■ Focused on free will– you choose your personality
○ Learning approach: how behavior changes as a result of rewards,
punishments, and life experiences
■ You behave the way you do because of the circumstances that have
shaped your behavior
○ How does each approach explain constructs such as aggression and depression?
■ Aggression:
● Trait approach’s explanation
○ Focuses on individual differences and the stability
of aggressive behavior
, ■ Aggressive children are most likely to become
aggressive adults
● Biological approach’s explanation
○ Genetic predisposition towards aggression
○ Evolutionary theory
■ EX. men tend to be more aggressive than women
because it makes them more successful at passing
on their genes
● Psychoanalytic approach’s explanation
○ People possess an unconscious
■ Depression
● Trait
○ Focuses on identifying depression-prone individuals
○ Person’s general emotional level at present can indicate
that person’s emotions in the future
● Biological
○ Certain people inherit a genetic susceptibility to depression
○ Levels of neurotransmitters
● Psychoanalytic
○ Depression is a result of holding unconscious feelings of
anger and hostility
● Phenomenological
○ People frequently suffering from depression are those
who have low self-worth/self-esteem
■ “You don’t value yourself enough, and that’s
why you’re depressed. You chose to be
depressed.”
● Learning
○ Depression results from a lack of positive reinforcement in
a person’s life
○ Depression depends on how people interpret their inability
to control events
○ Certain individuals use a depressive filter to interpret
and process information
Chapters 2 & 3
● What are the four main sources of data for personality?
○ Self-Report Data, Informant Report Data, Behavioral Data, Life-Outcome Data
○ What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Name and describe each one.
Examples include but are not limited to: biases, causal force, or fish-in-water
effect
■ S-Data
