Module 57 REVIEW

• 57-1 How do psychologists use traits to describe personality?

• Trait theorists see personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior. They have been more interested in trying to describe our differences than in explaining them.
• Using factor analysis, they identify clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together. Genetic predispositions influence many traits.

• 57-2 What are some common misunderstandings about introversion?

• Western cultures prize extraversion, but introverts have different, equally important skills. Introversion does not equal shyness, and extraverts don’t always outperform introverts as leaders or in sales success. Introverts often experience great achievement; many introverts prosper.

• 57-3 What are personality inventories, and what are their strengths and weaknesses as trait-assessment tools?

• Personality inventories (such as the MMPI) are questionnaires on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors.
• Test items are empirically derived, and the tests are objectively scored. But people can fake their answers to create a good impression; objectivity does not guarantee validity.

• 57-4 Which traits seem to provide the most useful information about personality variation?

• The Big Five personality factors—conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion (CANOE)—currently offer the clearest picture of personality.
• These factors are stable and appear to be found in all cultures. Many genes, each having small effects, combine to influence our traits, and heritability generally runs about 40 percent for each dimension.

• 57-5 Does research support the consistency of personality traits over time and across situations?

• A person’s average traits persist over time and are predictable over many different situations. But traits cannot predict behavior in any one particular situation.

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is the best term or phrase for a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act?
   1. Myers-Briggs indicator
   2. Factor analysis
   3. Introversion
   4. Extraversion
   5. Trait
2. Jayne refuses to cheat on an exam that many of her friends have shown her copies of. Jayne would rank high on the Big Five trait of
   1. conscientiousness.
   2. agreeableness.
   3. openness.
   4. extraversion.
   5. neuroticism.
3. Which of the following is best described along a continuum ranging from ruthless and suspicious to helpful and trusting?
   1. Conscientiousness
   2. Agreeableness
   3. Openness
   4. Extraversion
   5. Neuroticism
4. Which of the following is true based on “Big Five” personality traits research?
   1. Highly conscientious people are likely to be evening people or “night owls.”
   2. Highly conscientious people get poor grades.
   3. Married partners scoring the same on agreeableness are more likely to experience marital dissatisfaction.
   4. Introverts are more likely to prefer communicating through email instead of in person.
   5. Neuroticism predicts the use of positive-emotion words in text messages.

Practice FRQs

1. Explain one weakness and one strength of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).

Answer

1 point: One point for any strength (for example, the MMPI is empirically derived, assesses several traits at once, or is easily scored). Page 599

1 point: One point for any weakness (for example, the MMPI test-taker might not answer honestly, or validity is not guaranteed). Page 599

2. Gustavo has been rated highly on each of the following traits:
   • Openness
   • Agreeableness
   • Extraversion

   Provide an example of a behavior for each of the three traits that would indicate that he was correctly rated.

(3 points)