Psych 321 Exam 5 questions with correct answers
What is meant by personality processes? Correct Answer-• The
mechanisms that unfold over time to produce the effects of personality
traits
• A sequence of steps through which a personality trait produces an
outcome
• Includes perception, thought, motivation, and emotion
• Understanding these will help us understand someone's personality
How have other perspectives approached personality processes? Correct
Answer-• Learning: but ignoring cognition is too limited
• Social learning: focused on cognitive processes
• Phenomenology: emphasizes importance of the way an individual
thinks about that world
o Personal constructs
o Mindfulness
• Psychoanalysis: levels of consciousness and the need for compromise
• Biological approach: how representations of the self may be organized
in the brain
• Trait approach: people have different traits based on different thoughts,
feelings, and desires
What does priming mean and how does this relate to personality?
Correct Answer-• People are predisposed to perceive the world in
different ways
o Dominant vs. submissive
,• Priming and Chronic accessibility
o Activation of a concept or idea by repeatedly or recently perceiving it
or thinking about it
- Part of our personalities
- May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
What does chronic accessibility mean? Correct Answer-- refers to the
degree in which schemas are easily activated for individuals across time
and situations
- txtbk: "Over time, this kind of situational priming fades, fortunately,
but the concepts are constantly primed and reprimed because of their
chronic accessibility become part of our personalities"
What is rejection sensitivity and how does it relate to chronic
accessibility? Correct Answer-• Being especially aware of suggestions
of impending rejection (example: discussing a relationship problem with
a partner and the slightest expression of disinterest may lead to someone
feelings rejected)
o Affects interpretation of ambiguous signals
o Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
How does aggression relate to chronic accessibility? Correct Answer-•
Aggression: perceptions of hostility. You have this idea already
accesible in your mind that people are being hostile.
o Aggressive themes saturate the media
, o Mindfulness can help overcome the immediate gut reaction
What is meant by perceptual defense? Correct Answer-• Screening out
information from consciousness that might make the individual anxious
or uncomfortable (opposite of chronic accesibility)
o "The mind has mechanisms that not only selectively attend to certain
stimuli, but also actively screen out other stimuli that could cause too
much anxiety."
What evidence suggests that perceptual defense may entail an
unconscious process? Correct Answer-• Similar to psychoanalytic
defense mechanisms
• People can have physiological reactions to emotionally charged words
before they are consciously aware of them
• We might be able to avoid conscious awareness of things we find
threatening
What do cognitive psychologists consider the limits of consciousness?
Correct Answer-• Thought
o Determines many, but not all, actions
o Not all thinking is conscious
• Consciousness
o Whatever the individual has in mind at the moment
• Short term memory (STM)
What is meant by personality processes? Correct Answer-• The
mechanisms that unfold over time to produce the effects of personality
traits
• A sequence of steps through which a personality trait produces an
outcome
• Includes perception, thought, motivation, and emotion
• Understanding these will help us understand someone's personality
How have other perspectives approached personality processes? Correct
Answer-• Learning: but ignoring cognition is too limited
• Social learning: focused on cognitive processes
• Phenomenology: emphasizes importance of the way an individual
thinks about that world
o Personal constructs
o Mindfulness
• Psychoanalysis: levels of consciousness and the need for compromise
• Biological approach: how representations of the self may be organized
in the brain
• Trait approach: people have different traits based on different thoughts,
feelings, and desires
What does priming mean and how does this relate to personality?
Correct Answer-• People are predisposed to perceive the world in
different ways
o Dominant vs. submissive
,• Priming and Chronic accessibility
o Activation of a concept or idea by repeatedly or recently perceiving it
or thinking about it
- Part of our personalities
- May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
What does chronic accessibility mean? Correct Answer-- refers to the
degree in which schemas are easily activated for individuals across time
and situations
- txtbk: "Over time, this kind of situational priming fades, fortunately,
but the concepts are constantly primed and reprimed because of their
chronic accessibility become part of our personalities"
What is rejection sensitivity and how does it relate to chronic
accessibility? Correct Answer-• Being especially aware of suggestions
of impending rejection (example: discussing a relationship problem with
a partner and the slightest expression of disinterest may lead to someone
feelings rejected)
o Affects interpretation of ambiguous signals
o Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
How does aggression relate to chronic accessibility? Correct Answer-•
Aggression: perceptions of hostility. You have this idea already
accesible in your mind that people are being hostile.
o Aggressive themes saturate the media
, o Mindfulness can help overcome the immediate gut reaction
What is meant by perceptual defense? Correct Answer-• Screening out
information from consciousness that might make the individual anxious
or uncomfortable (opposite of chronic accesibility)
o "The mind has mechanisms that not only selectively attend to certain
stimuli, but also actively screen out other stimuli that could cause too
much anxiety."
What evidence suggests that perceptual defense may entail an
unconscious process? Correct Answer-• Similar to psychoanalytic
defense mechanisms
• People can have physiological reactions to emotionally charged words
before they are consciously aware of them
• We might be able to avoid conscious awareness of things we find
threatening
What do cognitive psychologists consider the limits of consciousness?
Correct Answer-• Thought
o Determines many, but not all, actions
o Not all thinking is conscious
• Consciousness
o Whatever the individual has in mind at the moment
• Short term memory (STM)
