Psychology of Personality final exam
UPDATED Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Understand how priming works. - CORRECT ANSWER - Part of our personalities
Difference people have a predisposition to be primed for certain concepts
Ex. If you are primed for social rejection, then you will perceive every social situation as an
opportunity for social rejection - this is an example of a chronic accessibility
May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
Know how chronic accessibility affects dimensions of personality - CORRECT
ANSWER - *Rejection Sensitivity*
-Interpret ambiguous signals as rejection
-Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy (clinginess drives people away)
-Anxious-ambivalent attachment
*Aggression*
-Interpret ambiguous signals as hostile
-Slowing down/mindfulness helps
Know what characteristics a person might show if they have high rejection sensitivity. -
CORRECT ANSWER - Clinginess
Know what defensive pessimism is and how a person might use it. - CORRECT
ANSWER - Strategy
,Constantly expecting the worst to happen
Find relief when the worst outcome doesn't happen; able to deal with the complications because
you're happy the worst case scenario didn't happen
Optimists tend to be happier, but there are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies
Understand how goals and strategies relate to motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *What
do you want?*
Our goals drive our behavior by influencing what you attend to, think about, and do
*How will you try to get it?*
Our strategies are the means to that end
Goals across the lifespan - CORRECT ANSWER - Young: preparation for the future
Old (70+): emotional well-being and connections with people (happiness and enjoyment)
Approach motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *Anticipating rewards for success*
Approach-oriented people:
-Tend to be high in extraversion
-Are more likely to fight for rewards
-More successful
Avoidance motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *Worrying about the negative
consequences of failure*
Avoidance-oriented people:
, -Tend to be high in neuroticism
-Are more likely to take flight from negative consequences
-Tend to be lower in self-esteem and have lower life satisfaction
-Students who just want to avoid failing actually perform worse on class exams
-Thinking about failure tends to hinder performance on difficult tasks
Understand what Dr. Neta's research shows about how people interpret surprised faces correlates
to how they interpret other situations - CORRECT ANSWER - Some people interpret
surprise as negative, others as positive
Bias represents a trait-like difference
Know different factors that do or do not increase happiness. - CORRECT ANSWER - ...?
What contributes more to happiness than gender, ethnicity, age, and all other demographics? -
CORRECT ANSWER - High extraversion and low neuroticism
Understand affect intensity and its relationship with physiological arousal. - CORRECT
ANSWER - High affect intensity: experience emotions strongly, more reactive, more
variable
Low affect intensity: experience emotions only mildly, gradual fluctuations, minor reactions
Understand the self-reference effect - CORRECT ANSWER - Increased accessibility of
information when we can associate it with ourselves
It will be easier to remember because it is easily activated
We have lots of associations with ourselves, so we remember new information better when we
put it into our web of personal associations
UPDATED Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Understand how priming works. - CORRECT ANSWER - Part of our personalities
Difference people have a predisposition to be primed for certain concepts
Ex. If you are primed for social rejection, then you will perceive every social situation as an
opportunity for social rejection - this is an example of a chronic accessibility
May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
Know how chronic accessibility affects dimensions of personality - CORRECT
ANSWER - *Rejection Sensitivity*
-Interpret ambiguous signals as rejection
-Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy (clinginess drives people away)
-Anxious-ambivalent attachment
*Aggression*
-Interpret ambiguous signals as hostile
-Slowing down/mindfulness helps
Know what characteristics a person might show if they have high rejection sensitivity. -
CORRECT ANSWER - Clinginess
Know what defensive pessimism is and how a person might use it. - CORRECT
ANSWER - Strategy
,Constantly expecting the worst to happen
Find relief when the worst outcome doesn't happen; able to deal with the complications because
you're happy the worst case scenario didn't happen
Optimists tend to be happier, but there are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies
Understand how goals and strategies relate to motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *What
do you want?*
Our goals drive our behavior by influencing what you attend to, think about, and do
*How will you try to get it?*
Our strategies are the means to that end
Goals across the lifespan - CORRECT ANSWER - Young: preparation for the future
Old (70+): emotional well-being and connections with people (happiness and enjoyment)
Approach motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *Anticipating rewards for success*
Approach-oriented people:
-Tend to be high in extraversion
-Are more likely to fight for rewards
-More successful
Avoidance motivation - CORRECT ANSWER - *Worrying about the negative
consequences of failure*
Avoidance-oriented people:
, -Tend to be high in neuroticism
-Are more likely to take flight from negative consequences
-Tend to be lower in self-esteem and have lower life satisfaction
-Students who just want to avoid failing actually perform worse on class exams
-Thinking about failure tends to hinder performance on difficult tasks
Understand what Dr. Neta's research shows about how people interpret surprised faces correlates
to how they interpret other situations - CORRECT ANSWER - Some people interpret
surprise as negative, others as positive
Bias represents a trait-like difference
Know different factors that do or do not increase happiness. - CORRECT ANSWER - ...?
What contributes more to happiness than gender, ethnicity, age, and all other demographics? -
CORRECT ANSWER - High extraversion and low neuroticism
Understand affect intensity and its relationship with physiological arousal. - CORRECT
ANSWER - High affect intensity: experience emotions strongly, more reactive, more
variable
Low affect intensity: experience emotions only mildly, gradual fluctuations, minor reactions
Understand the self-reference effect - CORRECT ANSWER - Increased accessibility of
information when we can associate it with ourselves
It will be easier to remember because it is easily activated
We have lots of associations with ourselves, so we remember new information better when we
put it into our web of personal associations
