Psych 321 Final exam 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 perspective (previously covered in this course)
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?
,Give an example of something that can lead to priming (hint: give two
examples in class)? Correct Answer-People are predisposed to perceive
the world in different ways
- concepts are consistently activated due to personality, or something
that might have been activated recently, or some significant event that
comes to mind quickly
- people with different traits see the world differently
Examples:
- Dominant vs. submissive
- Shy person so many memories related to social rejection that recalled
by slightest thing
- recently have financial set back and now find prices in stores much
higher than they were before
- 911
- florida shark attacks
What does chronic accessibility mean? Correct Answer-Activation of a
concept or idea by repeatedly or recently perceiving it or thinking about
it
- becomes part of our personalities
- May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
- constantly primed and reprimed
- 2 people can observe the same thing but have different perceptions and
interpret different because of priming
, What is rejection sensitivity and how does it relate to chronic
accessibility? Correct Answer-• Being especially aware of suggestions
of impending rejection
- Affects interpretation of ambiguous signals
- Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
- chronic accessibility may lead to this, when a person senses the
slightest expression of disinterest they conclude they are being rejected,
comes in to play only when relevant stimuli are present
How does aggression relate to chronic accessibility? Correct Answer-•
Aggression: perceptions of hostility
- Aggressive themes saturate the media
- Mindfulness can help overcome the immediate gut reaction
- accessibility of ideas related to hostility can cause some people to
believe an ambiguous situation as threatening
What is meant by perceptual defense? Correct Answer-Screening out
information from consciousness that might make the individual anxious
or uncomfortable
- Flashing words, "rape" sweat glands when sweat but would say they
couldn't read the word, had to look longer at negative words before they
would say they could recognize them
What evidence suggests that perceptual defense may entail an
unconscious process? Correct Answer-• Similar to psychoanalytic
defense mechanisms
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 perspective (previously covered in this course)
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?
,Give an example of something that can lead to priming (hint: give two
examples in class)? Correct Answer-People are predisposed to perceive
the world in different ways
- concepts are consistently activated due to personality, or something
that might have been activated recently, or some significant event that
comes to mind quickly
- people with different traits see the world differently
Examples:
- Dominant vs. submissive
- Shy person so many memories related to social rejection that recalled
by slightest thing
- recently have financial set back and now find prices in stores much
higher than they were before
- 911
- florida shark attacks
What does chronic accessibility mean? Correct Answer-Activation of a
concept or idea by repeatedly or recently perceiving it or thinking about
it
- becomes part of our personalities
- May come from evolution, temperament, or experience
- constantly primed and reprimed
- 2 people can observe the same thing but have different perceptions and
interpret different because of priming
, What is rejection sensitivity and how does it relate to chronic
accessibility? Correct Answer-• Being especially aware of suggestions
of impending rejection
- Affects interpretation of ambiguous signals
- Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
- chronic accessibility may lead to this, when a person senses the
slightest expression of disinterest they conclude they are being rejected,
comes in to play only when relevant stimuli are present
How does aggression relate to chronic accessibility? Correct Answer-•
Aggression: perceptions of hostility
- Aggressive themes saturate the media
- Mindfulness can help overcome the immediate gut reaction
- accessibility of ideas related to hostility can cause some people to
believe an ambiguous situation as threatening
What is meant by perceptual defense? Correct Answer-Screening out
information from consciousness that might make the individual anxious
or uncomfortable
- Flashing words, "rape" sweat glands when sweat but would say they
couldn't read the word, had to look longer at negative words before they
would say they could recognize them
What evidence suggests that perceptual defense may entail an
unconscious process? Correct Answer-• Similar to psychoanalytic
defense mechanisms
