PSY 352 LATEST QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS.
Define each of the following defense mechanisms, and describe why Freud thought that each was a
useful tool against anxiety:
-repression
-regression
-projection
-displacement
What are the 6 theoretical approaches to personality? - ✔✔1. dispositional: traits
2. biological: inherited predispositions, psychological process
3. intrapsychic: process within mind
4. cognitive- experiential: thoughts and subjective experiences
5. social & cultural: society, culture, and gender
6. adjustment: coping, adapting, and adjusting to life
What are the 4 types of personality data? - ✔✔1. self-report (S- data)
2. observe-report (O- data)
3. test data (T- data)
4. life-outcome data (L-data)
What are the 6 components of temperament? - ✔✔1. fearful distress/inhibition: amount of withdrawal,
distress in new situations
2. irritable distress: anger, frustration if child can't do what they want to
3. attention span and persistence: habituation, length of interest
4. activity level: physical movement
5. positive affect/ approach orientation: smiling, laughing, cooperation
,6. soothability: easy to calm
How could the Big 5 traits be seen as adaptive answers to evolutionary pressures? - ✔✔Being high/low
in one of the Big 5 traits could potentially help an individual be successful in relationships and work,
which could have evolutionary advantages and provide more mating opportunities.
- high agreeableness: cooperative, devoted, in love
- high extraversion: social climbers, leaders
- high conscientiousness: dependence, well organized, potential for future
Which psychologist is most prominently associated with psychoanalysis? - ✔✔Sigmund Freud
Describe the basic framework of psychoanalytic theory. Be sure to include the following concepts:
- libido & thanatos
- the unconscious
- id, ego, & superego
- pleasure principle & reality principle - ✔✔-2 basic instincts
1. libido: life instinct (sexual energy, self-preservation)
2. thanatos: death instinct (aggression, destruction, self-harm)
-The Unconscious: more to the psyche than just consciously accessible portion (iceberg). Collection of
unacceptable thoughts, wishes, desires, feelings, and memories
-Id: unconscious psychic energy driven by sexual and aggressive urges
-Pleasure principle: demands immediate gratification
-Superego: internalized values, ideals, and standards of society
- Ego: mostly conscious. "executive" part of personality
-Reality principle: seeks to gratify id in acceptable or at least less problematic ways
Why were dreams, slips of the tongue, free associations, resistance, and transference of such
importance to Freud? - ✔✔he found a deeper meaning to everything and believed these all had
something to due to the unconscious
,What are projective tests? - ✔✔personality test using ambiguous stimuli to elicit projection of inner
conflicts
Describe the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test. Why is each considered to be
an example of a projective test? - ✔✔o 77% of clinical psychologists administer Rorschach at least
occasionally (Camara et al., 2000)
o Problems with Rorschach:
- Extracting objective meaning from allegedly ambiguous stimuli
- Requires subjective, projective perspective of clinician
- No universal system for scoring and interpretation
- Low inter-rater reliability
Self- report data - ✔✔- asks person about themselves, open ended questions, true/false, adjective
checklist format
-strengths: access to info that other don't have (anxiety, self-esteem, etc). Easy to measure
-weakness: do people have accurate self-knowledge? Will people be honest? (Social desirability)
Observe- report data - ✔✔- ask someone else about a person
-strengths: access to info not available to person (reputation, social perceptions). Sometimes w/
extremely short exposure. can use multiple observers
-weakness: biased by own personality, experiences w/ person
test- data - ✔✔-put people in standardized situations, look for similarities/ differences (leadership
study)
-strengths: controlled situations, allows hypothesis testing
-weakness: possibility of participant, research bias, different interpretations of situations
Life-outcome data - ✔✔-examine life events (marriage, divorce, job), often use S-data and O-data to
predict L-data
-strengths: can serve as an important source of real-life information about personality. Personality
characteristics measured early in life are often linked to important life outcomes several decades later
, Social Desirability - ✔✔tendency to answer in attractive/likeable ways (lying, distorted self-perception)
How do we get around social desirability (SD)? - ✔✔Crowne Marlow Scale
-filtered: statistically control for it. used forced- choice questionnaire (no SD involved)
-not filtered: component of happiness, mental health
What is a likert scale? - ✔✔range of numbers represent answers
- how creative are you on a scale 1 to 10?
What is experience sampling? - ✔✔report experiences repeatedly over time (detects patterns)
-social media patterns
How does social desirability influence the validity of self-‐report data? How do personality psychologists
manage the effects of social desirability? - ✔✔
What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is reliable? Why is reliability an important aspect
of a psychological measure? - ✔✔-consistent results from a measure over time
-reliability is an important aspect of psychological measures because if we see how consistent results
are, we can conclude how valid the measure is.
What is internal reliability? - ✔✔all questions should measure the same thing (answers will be
correlated)
What is test- retest reliability? - ✔✔taking test at different times produces roughly same results
What is inter- rater reliability? - ✔✔consistent measures from multiple observers
What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is valid? Why is validity an important
CORRECT ANSWERS.
Define each of the following defense mechanisms, and describe why Freud thought that each was a
useful tool against anxiety:
-repression
-regression
-projection
-displacement
What are the 6 theoretical approaches to personality? - ✔✔1. dispositional: traits
2. biological: inherited predispositions, psychological process
3. intrapsychic: process within mind
4. cognitive- experiential: thoughts and subjective experiences
5. social & cultural: society, culture, and gender
6. adjustment: coping, adapting, and adjusting to life
What are the 4 types of personality data? - ✔✔1. self-report (S- data)
2. observe-report (O- data)
3. test data (T- data)
4. life-outcome data (L-data)
What are the 6 components of temperament? - ✔✔1. fearful distress/inhibition: amount of withdrawal,
distress in new situations
2. irritable distress: anger, frustration if child can't do what they want to
3. attention span and persistence: habituation, length of interest
4. activity level: physical movement
5. positive affect/ approach orientation: smiling, laughing, cooperation
,6. soothability: easy to calm
How could the Big 5 traits be seen as adaptive answers to evolutionary pressures? - ✔✔Being high/low
in one of the Big 5 traits could potentially help an individual be successful in relationships and work,
which could have evolutionary advantages and provide more mating opportunities.
- high agreeableness: cooperative, devoted, in love
- high extraversion: social climbers, leaders
- high conscientiousness: dependence, well organized, potential for future
Which psychologist is most prominently associated with psychoanalysis? - ✔✔Sigmund Freud
Describe the basic framework of psychoanalytic theory. Be sure to include the following concepts:
- libido & thanatos
- the unconscious
- id, ego, & superego
- pleasure principle & reality principle - ✔✔-2 basic instincts
1. libido: life instinct (sexual energy, self-preservation)
2. thanatos: death instinct (aggression, destruction, self-harm)
-The Unconscious: more to the psyche than just consciously accessible portion (iceberg). Collection of
unacceptable thoughts, wishes, desires, feelings, and memories
-Id: unconscious psychic energy driven by sexual and aggressive urges
-Pleasure principle: demands immediate gratification
-Superego: internalized values, ideals, and standards of society
- Ego: mostly conscious. "executive" part of personality
-Reality principle: seeks to gratify id in acceptable or at least less problematic ways
Why were dreams, slips of the tongue, free associations, resistance, and transference of such
importance to Freud? - ✔✔he found a deeper meaning to everything and believed these all had
something to due to the unconscious
,What are projective tests? - ✔✔personality test using ambiguous stimuli to elicit projection of inner
conflicts
Describe the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test. Why is each considered to be
an example of a projective test? - ✔✔o 77% of clinical psychologists administer Rorschach at least
occasionally (Camara et al., 2000)
o Problems with Rorschach:
- Extracting objective meaning from allegedly ambiguous stimuli
- Requires subjective, projective perspective of clinician
- No universal system for scoring and interpretation
- Low inter-rater reliability
Self- report data - ✔✔- asks person about themselves, open ended questions, true/false, adjective
checklist format
-strengths: access to info that other don't have (anxiety, self-esteem, etc). Easy to measure
-weakness: do people have accurate self-knowledge? Will people be honest? (Social desirability)
Observe- report data - ✔✔- ask someone else about a person
-strengths: access to info not available to person (reputation, social perceptions). Sometimes w/
extremely short exposure. can use multiple observers
-weakness: biased by own personality, experiences w/ person
test- data - ✔✔-put people in standardized situations, look for similarities/ differences (leadership
study)
-strengths: controlled situations, allows hypothesis testing
-weakness: possibility of participant, research bias, different interpretations of situations
Life-outcome data - ✔✔-examine life events (marriage, divorce, job), often use S-data and O-data to
predict L-data
-strengths: can serve as an important source of real-life information about personality. Personality
characteristics measured early in life are often linked to important life outcomes several decades later
, Social Desirability - ✔✔tendency to answer in attractive/likeable ways (lying, distorted self-perception)
How do we get around social desirability (SD)? - ✔✔Crowne Marlow Scale
-filtered: statistically control for it. used forced- choice questionnaire (no SD involved)
-not filtered: component of happiness, mental health
What is a likert scale? - ✔✔range of numbers represent answers
- how creative are you on a scale 1 to 10?
What is experience sampling? - ✔✔report experiences repeatedly over time (detects patterns)
-social media patterns
How does social desirability influence the validity of self-‐report data? How do personality psychologists
manage the effects of social desirability? - ✔✔
What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is reliable? Why is reliability an important aspect
of a psychological measure? - ✔✔-consistent results from a measure over time
-reliability is an important aspect of psychological measures because if we see how consistent results
are, we can conclude how valid the measure is.
What is internal reliability? - ✔✔all questions should measure the same thing (answers will be
correlated)
What is test- retest reliability? - ✔✔taking test at different times produces roughly same results
What is inter- rater reliability? - ✔✔consistent measures from multiple observers
What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is valid? Why is validity an important
