In building theories, which of the following is not a goal of a personality theorist?

The theory must not borrow from past theories; it must be original

The text defines personality as the psychological qualities that contribute to an individual’s enduring and unique patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. Here, enduring refers to qualities that are:

stable across time and situations

The concept of personality structure refers to:

the building blocks of personality theory

The broad goal to do well in class subsumes lower-level goals, such as studying hard for an exam and keeping up with the reading. This illustrates the idea that some structures of personality can be seen as _____ in nature

hierarchical

“Different personality theories provide different conceptions of personality structure” is another way of saying that different theories have different: types

units of analysis

The concept of personality processes refers to:

psychological reactions that are dynamic

On the question of how personality develops, personality psychologists tend to agree that:

Genes and the environment interact dynamically

“People are rational actors” is a statement a personality theorist might say to illustrate his or her:

philosophical view of the person concept of the unconscious

Determining how consistent behavior from situation to situation is difficult because

Both ‘a’ and ‘b’ are correct

That we rarely experience the world as chaotic or our lives as disjointed is illustrative of which of the following concepts?

There is unity to experience and to the self-concept

Your text notes that “Some theorists suggest that we are primarily prisoners of our past.” Which of the following best paraphrases this idea?

Childhood experiences are the primary determinant of personality

Whether we can have a science of persons is made difficult by the fact that:

People construct meaning

According to the text, personality theory can serve all of the following key functions except:

aggrandizing the theorists who come up with them

Your textbook authors suggest that there are several theories of personality, rather than just one, because:

each theory has its strengths and weaknesses

A central focus of psychodynamic theory is

the unconscious

A central focus of phenomenological theory is

the conscious

Trait theorists believe that one of the most important problems to solve is

to determine which individual differences are most important to measure

The biological foundations of personality are reflected in the study of

all of the above

According to learning approaches to personality, the key determinant of behavior is the

environment

The key structural concept of personal construct theory is that of the:

construct

One way in which social-cognitive theory expands upon personal construct theory is in its focus on:

social settings in which individuals acquire knowledge, skills, and beliefs

According to the “theories as toolkits” metaphor, a theory is good insofar as it is:

useful