PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY EXPECTED ACTUAL
EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS
(2026)
●● Psychological traits
Answer: characteristics that describe way sin which people are different
from each other
●● Psychological mechanisms
Answer: processes of personality
●● Murray's 3 Levels of Personality Analysis
Every human being is:
Answer: 1) Like all others (human nature level)
2) Like some others (individual/group level)
3) Like no others (individual uniqueness level)
●● 6 Domains
Answer: 1) Dispositional: ways individuals differ
2) Biological: genetics, psychophysiology, evolution
3) Intrapsychic: mental mechanisms of personality
4) Cognitive-Experiential: cognition and subjective experience
,5) Social and cultural: personality affects and is affected by social and
cultural contexts
6) Adjustment: personality plays a key role in how we adjust to our
everyday lives
Don't Buy Swiss Cheese, It's Aged!
●● Is there a grand theory of personality
Answer: NO
The 6 domains can ultimately provide foundations for a unified theory
●● Sources of Personality Data
Answer: S-data
O-data
T-data (fMRI, projective techniques, experiments)
L-data (life outcome--info gleaned from events)
●● Agreement across data sources is ___ to____
Answer: low to moderate
some traits more observable
depends heavily on research questions
●● Triangulation
, Answer: examine results that transcend data sources *using two methods
to check the results*
●● Reliability
Answer: the degree to which an obtained measure represents the true
level of a trait
●● 3 Types of Reliability
Answer: 1) test-retest
2) inter-rater
3) internal (measures that test the same construct should yield similar
results)
●● Validity
Answer: extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure
●● 5 Types of validity
Answer: 1) Face--appears to "look good"
2)Construct--contains all necessary parts
3) Predictive/Criterion--predicts criteria external to test
4) Convergent--correlates with similar measures
5) Discriminant--does not correlate with dissimilar measures
EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS
(2026)
●● Psychological traits
Answer: characteristics that describe way sin which people are different
from each other
●● Psychological mechanisms
Answer: processes of personality
●● Murray's 3 Levels of Personality Analysis
Every human being is:
Answer: 1) Like all others (human nature level)
2) Like some others (individual/group level)
3) Like no others (individual uniqueness level)
●● 6 Domains
Answer: 1) Dispositional: ways individuals differ
2) Biological: genetics, psychophysiology, evolution
3) Intrapsychic: mental mechanisms of personality
4) Cognitive-Experiential: cognition and subjective experience
,5) Social and cultural: personality affects and is affected by social and
cultural contexts
6) Adjustment: personality plays a key role in how we adjust to our
everyday lives
Don't Buy Swiss Cheese, It's Aged!
●● Is there a grand theory of personality
Answer: NO
The 6 domains can ultimately provide foundations for a unified theory
●● Sources of Personality Data
Answer: S-data
O-data
T-data (fMRI, projective techniques, experiments)
L-data (life outcome--info gleaned from events)
●● Agreement across data sources is ___ to____
Answer: low to moderate
some traits more observable
depends heavily on research questions
●● Triangulation
, Answer: examine results that transcend data sources *using two methods
to check the results*
●● Reliability
Answer: the degree to which an obtained measure represents the true
level of a trait
●● 3 Types of Reliability
Answer: 1) test-retest
2) inter-rater
3) internal (measures that test the same construct should yield similar
results)
●● Validity
Answer: extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure
●● 5 Types of validity
Answer: 1) Face--appears to "look good"
2)Construct--contains all necessary parts
3) Predictive/Criterion--predicts criteria external to test
4) Convergent--correlates with similar measures
5) Discriminant--does not correlate with dissimilar measures
