PSY 315 Quiz Answers

a researcher computes a correlation coefficient between variables X and Y using a handheld calculator. which of the following values would automatically tell the researcher that he or she made a mistake?

250

which of the following behaviors would be the easiest to predict accurately?

David will generally be on time for work most days next week

according to the text, personality's greatest strength, understanding whole persons, is also its greatest weakness. which term describes this fundamental observation?

Funder's First Law

___ data are fairly easily verifiable, concrete, real-life outcomes of possible psychological significance

L data

personality psychology shares with clinical psychology

a common obligation to try to understand the whole person

which of the following is LEAST likely to be considered B data?

a psychologist's interpretation of a participant's responses to an unstructured clinical interview

according to the text, ___ describes a context where social norms tend to restrict what people do in an unstructured conversation

a strong situation

why haven't personality psychologist combined all paradigms into One Big Theory?

a theory that tries to explain everything would probably not provide the best explanation for any one thing

the trait approach, the behaviorist approach, the psychoanalytic approach

address different sets of questions about human psychology

which of the following is NOT an example of something that can limit how reliable a measure is?

after comparing the self-report to informant reports, a researcher realizes their measure isn't accurate

the MOST important and generally useful way to enhance reliability is to

aggregate your measurements

personality is an individual's characteristic patterns of a. all of the answer options are correct b. emotion c. behavior d. thought

all of the answer options are correct

according to the text, correlational and experimental methods are not entirely different. for example, they both

assess the relationships between two variables

which of the following is NOT one of the basic approaches to personality?

assessment

the personality paradigm that focuses on rewards and punishments is known as the ___ paradigm

behaviorist

Funder and Ozer (1983) converted the results of three classic social psychological studies to effect sizes. after comparing those effect sizes with those typically obtained by personality psychologists, Funder and Ozer conducted that

both situational and personality variables are important determinants of behavior

which is the following is an expression of Funder's First Law?

characteristic that are strengths in one sense are weaknesses in other ways

shy people fear social interactions and often feel lonely. others typically perceive them as

cold and aloof

when gathering data or clues about personality, the best policy is to

collect as many clues as possible

the ___ method is NOT a basic method for constructing objective personality tests

consensus validation

in simple language, questions about reliability concern ___, whereas questions about validity concern ___

consistency; accuracy

the Binomial Effect Size Display is a method for illustrating the size of

correlation coefficients

the trait approach is based on empirical research that is mostly from ___ studies

correlational

in addition to serving as a way for psychologists to construct objective tests, the factor analysis method has also been used to

decide how many fundamental traits exist

the finding that more observable traits yield better interjudge agreement suggests that peer judgement is based more on ___ than on ___

direct behavioral observation; a manufactured reputation

which design is best suited for addressing the third-variable problem?

experimental method

peer acceptance is associated with what trait?

extraversion

the Big Five

factor analytically derived dimensions of personality

a major advantage of personality psychology is that it focuses on the whole person and real-life concerns, yet this can often lead to overinclusive and unfocused research. which of the following is a major theme of your yearbook that speaks to this conflict

greatest strengths are usually great weaknesses

after Lenny Skutnik dove in to a freezing river to save a woman in danger of drowning, he rejected the media's assertion that he was a hero and claimed that anyone would have done the same thing. according the Funder, why was it difficult for Lenny to accept that he had behaved heroically?

he did not have the perspective to judge his actions against that of others

the phenomenological approach leads to which two directions of research?

humanistic and cross-cultural perspectives on personality

the factor analytic technique of test construction is designed to

identify groups of test items that seem to be alike

the primary criterion for item selection in the empirical method of test construction is determining whether the item

is cross-validated between two known groups

researchers must use clues to personality in their research because personality

is something difficult to measure that reside inside an individual

what is one of personality psychology's biggest advantages over other areas of psychology?

it appreciates the uniqueness of the individual

what is the big disadvantage of the case study method?

it is not generalizable

someone who is ___ is likely to express his or her personality consistently from one situation to the next

low in self-monitoring

according to the principles on enhancing reliability described in the text, it would be relatively difficult to create a reliable measure of attitudes toward

lumber tariffs

a variable that affects the relation between two other variables is known as a

moderator

eliminating the use of personality tests in employment screening will

not prevent traits from being judged but will change the ways traits are judged

a judge may see a target's behavior, pay attention to the behavior, and use the behavior in his or her judgement about the target's personality. however, for the personality judgement to be accurate, the

observed behavior must be relevant to the trait being judged

which of the following does NOT describe a type of person-situation interaction?

people generally prefer situations that are pleasant

which of the following is NOT one of the responses to the situationist argument?

personality researchers worked harder to find single traits that could strongly predict single responses at a particular point in time

according to the text, which of the following is NOT part of the situationist argument?

persons and situations interact to predict behavior

according to recent research, individuals high in ___ might actually be more consistent

preference for consistency

according to Lee Jussim (1991), the source of real-life expectancies is likely

previous observations of behavioral tendencies

what is the correct definition of the p-value?

probability that the observed result occurred by chance given that the null hypothesis is true

___ test aim to gain insight into personality by interpreting individuals' open-ended responses, whereas ___ tests evaluate individuals' responses to specific questions with predetermined response options

projective; objective

which of the following is NOT an open science practice?

refraining from using deception in experimental studies

Funder notes that the person who is most talkative at a party is also likely to be the most talkative at the department of motor vehicles (DMV). which of the following terms describes this principle?

relative consistency

what are the steps in the Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) of personality judgement?

relevance/availability/detection/utilization

the basic reason that research on the accuracy of personality judgements experience a lengthy hiatus between 1955 and the mid-1980s was that

researchers lacked consensual criteria for deciding the accuracy of personality judgements

which of the following conclusions does Funder draw about the role of persons versus situations in affecting behavior?

situations have an important influence on behavior, but people also tend to be consistent

if measurement errors are truly random, then they should

sum to zero

according to research that shows a link between a trait's observability and the accuracy with which it is judged, which of the following traits would be easiest to judge accurately?

talkativeness

what dramatic conclusion did some psychologist and non-psychologist draw from Mischel's claims regarding personality and behavior?

that personality did not exist

situationism is the position that

the ability of personality traits to predict behavior is severely limited

what is one advantage of collecting descriptions of a participant's personality form his or her acquaintances?

the acquaintances' descriptions of the participants are likely based on many behaviors in many situations

what was the boundary on the acquaintances hip effect identified by Colvin and Funder (1991)?

the advantage of close acquaintances vanishes when the criterion is the ability to predict behavior in a situation similar to one that strangers have seen but acquaintances have not

which of the following is NOT one of the concerns associated with the practice of null-hypothesis significance testing?

the smaller the sample size, the easier it is to find a significant effect

the task of an employer who attempts to identify dependable, conscientious, and hard-working job applicants is similar to the task of the ___ psychology, who attempts to identify and assess individual differences

trait

what is the largest and most dominant approach in personality psychology today?

trait psychology

imagine that a researcher conducts a study and fails to find a statistically significant correlation between exercise and weight loss. however, there is a real association between exercise and weight loss in population. what kind of error has this researcher made?

type II

in a study of social expectancies, Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid (1977) found that if male participants were shown a photograph of an attractive woman and told they would be interacting with her by telephone, the female participant they actually spoke with

was rated by other people as behaving in a warm, humorous, and friendly manner

which of the following illustrates converging criteria that could be used to establish the accuracy of a personality judgement?

you always show up to work on time, and your colleagues say that you are dependable and conscientious