1. What is the difference between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality?

1. nomothetic approaches seek to find generalized laws of behaviour that help us classify people in terms of their similarities, while idiographic approaches seek to find what makes people unique
2. nomothetic approaches view only the differences between people, while ideographic approaches seek to find similarities
3. ideographic approaches try to categorize people, while nomothetic approaches don’t

2. What is one of the main assumptions of the trait approach to personality?

1. traits are not very stable across the lifespan and are therefore weak predictors of personality
2. traits stay relatively stable across the lifespan
3. traits change drastically around the age of 6 years, which has to be taken into account when predicting personality

3. Sophie is a 22-year-old psychology student. She loves reading books and is a great drawer. She does go to parties every now and then, but she prefers to meet her friends for a coffee, movies or cooking together. She does not like to be the centre of attention. How would Eysenck make use of biological explanations to describe Sophie’s personality trait?   

1. he would argue that Sophie has very low arousal levels in her ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)
2. he would argue that Sophie’s autonomic nervous system is generally less aroused and therefore does not invoke a ‘fight-or-flight’ response in her
3. he would argue that Sophie has high arousal levels in her ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)

4. What are the five personality traits identified by the five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1997)?

1. extraversion, neuroticism, introversion, liveliness and agreeableness
2. agreeableness, openness to experience, introversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness
3. extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience and conscientiousness

5. Peter studies Psychology in his first year. His friends know him as a very keen and eager student. He always carries a book with him and, every free minute, he works on some kind of thinking task. He loves to borrow books from the library that are meant for third year students. What is the best way to describe Peter?

1. he has a high need for cognition
2. he has a high need for stimulation
3. he has a high need for attention

6. Harold works for a big law firm in London. He is often confronted with challenging cases but manages to stay calm and does not stress out about it. He and his colleagues love to go bowling after work, and Harold is very good at it. Often, he wins, which makes him very happy, but he is just as happy when one of his colleagues takes the lead. Which type of personality best describes Harold?

1. personality Type A
2. personality Type B
3. personality Type C

7. Which of the following is NOT given as a criticism of the Type A/B personality theory?

1. most of the research on Type A personality is purely correlational
2. there is a lack of cross-cultural research
3. the questionnaires that claim to measure Type A personality have poor internal reliability scores

8. Allison is a very self-critical, restless and impatient person. She believes her personality can explain her stomach problems. What approach is she taking?

1. specificity approach
2. generality approach
3. specificity approach and generality approach

9. Renee has just recently quit smoking, and she was surprised how easy it was for her compared to the experiences of her friends. What is most likely to be TRUE for her?

1. she has a high sense of self-efficacy
2. she has an internal locus of control
3. she has a high sense of self-efficacy and an internal locus of control

10. What is meant by ‘interactionism’ in personality psychology?

1. the view that the interaction between people shapes their personalities
2. the view that there is reciprocal interaction between personality, situations and the environment
3. the view that children should interact with other children as much as possible to shape a personality that will benefit them in their later lives