1. According to Costa and McCrae’s findings, the longitudinal correlations of Big Five traits over a 20-year period in middle adulthood are about:

1. 0.45
2. 0.55
3. 0.65
4. 0.75

2. Which of the following factors may explain the increasing stability of personality with age?

1. Selection of environments that fit the person’s traits
2. Absence of major life events
3. Stability of the person’s social and physical environments
4. All of the above

3. Which of the following statements accurately reflects the ‘hard plaster’ and ‘soft plaster’ views of personality change and stability, according to Srivastava et al. (2003)?

1. The hard plaster view proposes that personality change stops at age 30
2. The hard plaster view proposes that personality change slows after age 30
3. The soft plaster view proposes that personality change accelerates after 30
4. The soft plaster view proposes that personality is malleable until age 50

4. Which of the following statements is an accurate statement about mean-level change in adult personality?

1. People tend to become more extraverted
2. People tend to become more neurotic
3. People tend to become less open to experience
4. People tend to become less conscientious

5. Roberts and Del Vecchio (2000) found that …

1. longitudinal personality correlations are almost perfect after age 50
2. personality becomes progressively more stable over time
3. the correlations of personality traits over time remain stable through the lifespan
4. correlations between infant and child personality attribute over a 7-year period are high

6. Which of the following kinds of environmental influence may produce personality change?

1. Socialization
2. Stressful life events
3. Occupying new social roles
4. All of the above

7. Consider the concept of ‘temperament’. Which of the following aspects of individual differences are not associated with this concept?

1. Differences that appear early in development
2. Differences that relate to self-control
3. Differences that are biologically grounded
4. Differences that relate to emotional responses

8. In which respect does Erikson’s model of personality development NOT differ from Freud’s?

1. It focuses on the individual’s social and cultural environment
2. It encompasses the entirety of the lifespan
3. It proposes a series of developmental stages
4. It gives a key role to people’s sense of identity

9. Research on personality change in early adulthood suggests that:

1. positive work experiences enhance openness to experience
2. educational transitions trigger growth in conscientiousness
3. international sojourns for university students increase loneliness
4. first intimate partner relationships can permanently damage adult personality

10. Choose the correct pairing of an infant temperament dimension and its associated adult personality dimension.

1. Activity level and neuroticism
2. Biological rhythmicity and agreeableness
3. Inhibition and low openness to experience
4. Task persistence and conscientiousness

11. Which of the following theoretical approaches is most consistent with the malleability of personality?

1. Behavioural genetics
2. Behaviourism
3. Cognitivism
4. Psychoanalysis

12. Which of the following statements accurately represents Twenge’s work on cohort change in personality?

1. Mean levels of self-esteem have consistently fallen over the last few decades
2. Mean levels of extraversion have consistently risen over the last few decades
3. Mean levels of women’s assertiveness have consistently risen over the last few decades
4. Mean levels of neuroticism have consistently fallen over the last few decades

13. Which of the following statements about personality change is NOT correct?

1. Mean levels of internal attribution have increased in recent decades
2. There is much evidence of mean-level change in adulthood
3. Rank-order stability is measured by correlation coefficients
4. Rank-order stability increases with age

14. According to Erikson, what contrasts with Industry in one of his eight stages?

1. Shame and doubt
2. Isolation
3. Guilt
4. Inferiority

15. Which statement about ‘lay theories’ of personality is false?

1. Entity theorists believe personality is not malleable
2. Entity theorists stereotype people more than incremental theorists
3. Incremental theorists hold a ‘dynamic’ view of personality
4. Incremental theorists attribute differences between social groups to innate factors