[To the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction (2017) by Russ Dewey]
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Revised 11/23/2016. Welcome to the self-quiz on the Human Nervous System. These questions accompany Chapter 11 (Personality Theories) of the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction). They are general enough to be useful for students using other textbooks as well.
Read the question and click on an answer. You will jump to a correction or (if the answer is correct) a confirmation.
This page is from https://www.psywww.com/selfquiz/ch12mcq.html
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[The remainder of the page is not meant to be read sequentially; it consists of answers and explanations separated by stretches of nothing. You will jump back and forth to these as you click on possible answers of the questions.]
You picked...
an inhibited or sad surface personality
No, this is a common feature of multiple personality patients ("surface personality" referring here to the personality most commonly shown the public, usually the first one a therapist sees).
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a second personality which is more carefree
No, this is actually fairly typical of MPD patients, going back to the earliest cases reported in the 1800s.
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a history of childhood punishment or trauma
No, this is commonly one of the factors leading to MPD (which has been described as a "post-traumatic stress syndrome of childhood origin").
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hypnosis used to explore the problem
No, hypnosis is commonly used with MPD patients. This is important to modern skeptics who believe the syndrome is diagnosed way too often these days. A person under hypnosis might well come out with MPD-like behaviors if a therapist asks leading questions, expects to find MPD, or otherwise "suggests" the existence of MPD during hypnosis.
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borderline schizophrenia
Yes...this is the one element out of the five which is NOT typical of multiple personality patients. "Borderline schizophrenia" or "schizotypal personality" is a distinct syndrome, separate from MPD.
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Freud was the first person to talk about "catharsis"
No, in fact, Freud's wife had an uncle who had published many articles about catharsis. The concept was well known to Europeans before Freud's time.
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most personality theories in the first part of the 20th Century were reactions to Freud
Yes...from Jung to Alder to Horney to people like Maslow, Rogers, and Ellis....all the "big names" in personality, psychotherapy, and counseling psychology were influenced by Freudian theory. Usually they ended up criticizing it and reacting against it with their own theories.
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Freud's id/ego/super-ego scheme appears in most of today's theories
No, although many psychologists informally used the term "ego" as a shorthand for the "executive function" in personality, the id/ego/super-ego scheme is distinctively Freudian and is not commonly used in non-Freudian theories.
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Freud was the first to identify multiple personality
No, cases of multiple personality were discussed in the early 1800s, decades before Freud was born.
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Freud brought scientific method to psychology
Not exactly...in fact, Freud resisted attempts to do controlled research on his theoretical ideas. One researcher, writing Freud excitedly to announce what appeared to be confirmation of one of Freud's ideas, was surprised to get a curt reply saying such research was unnecessary.
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the agent of adaptation
No, it was the ego (not the super-ego) that Freud described as "serving three harsh masters..." (the id, the super-ego, and reality) and mediating between them or adapting to their sometimes conflicting demands.
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an internalization of parental values
Yes; the super-ego is roughly synonymous with "conscience" (not "conscious" but "conscience") which can give you feelings of pride or guilt. This was supposedly a taking-in or "internalization" of the values and morals and beliefs of parents and other influences such as church, school, and the culture at large.
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the primary process
No, the id was supposed to be based on "primary process thinking" or the urge for immediate gratification.
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it
No, "it" is the meaning of the Latin word "id." Georg Groddeck wrote The Book of It in which he argued that "We are lived" by an unseen presence... From this Freud got his concept of "id."
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the "engine"
No, the id was the source of psychic energy or "libido" which Freud believed was the energy powering all aspects of the personality.
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it provides a harmless but pleasant change of mood and emotion
No, sublimation is a Freudian defense mechanism, so it would have to be activated when something was threatening to the ego...
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it occurs only in "nice" people
No, sublimation involves socially approved activity but it does not have to be nice. An executioner might be doing sublimation, channeling aggressive urges of the id into a "socially approved" activity.
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it is the result of higher education
No, sublimation can involve educated activities such as doing research (in fact, Freud felt that all such activities were, in the end, forms of sublimation). But this is not part of the definition of sublimation.
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it protects the ego from damage
No, that is not why Adler called it "healthy." All the defense mechanisms protect the ego, if you accept Freud's characterization of them, so that would not distinguish sublimation from the others.
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it benefits humanity
Yes...Adler was reacting to Freud's insistence that the higher and finer impulses of humans were, in reality, redirections of id impulses such as sex and aggression. Adler's reply was, "Then this is a healthy defense mechanism" because the end result was to produce behavior beneficial to society and the individual
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the id
No, Jung did not use the "id" concept the way Freud did.
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the anima
No, the anima is supposed to be the submerged, female side of a male's personality.
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displacement
No, displacement is a Freudian defense mechanism in which id energies are redirected from a forbidden goal (such as hitting a teacher who flunks you) toward an acceptable outlet (such as kicking an empty Coke can).
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the "wild man" archetype
Yes...Jung identified the "wild man" as a primitive, instinct like pattern in the human psyche. In Jung's theory, such patterns were like a "species memory" which we bring to the interpretation of our present-day surroundings. The Bigfoot legend, for example, appears to involve this archetype, as does the Abominable Snowman legend, and many other similar tales told in other cultures.
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a harsh upbringing
No, Jung would say the reaction to a "wild man" relates to something deeper, shared with all humans...
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"vanishingly small"
No, this is a major distinction in Adler's theory...
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the complex is normal; everybody has it
No, just the opposite...an inferiority complex is abnormal, and it paralyzes an individual.
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inferiority feelings are more intense
No, an inferiority complex would be more intense than inferiority feelings, in Adler's scheme of things.
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the complex is due to childrearing, the feelings are not
No, inferiority feelings could be due to childrearing as well.
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inferiority feelings are normal and universal
Yes. Adler pointed out that we all feel inferior at times, and this is not necessarily a bad thing; it motivates us to improve ourselves and better our position in life.
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a "spoiled child" syndrome
No, Horney felt that love and warmth from parents was essential in developing a healthy personality.
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a feeling that nothing is difficult, and effort is unneeded
No, Horney saw more positive consequences of early emotional support.
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"basic confidence"
Yes....Horney thought that cold or uncaring parents produced children with "basic anxiety" who felt the world was a hostile, untrustworthy place, while warm and caring parents produced children with "basic confidence," faith in the world and themselves.
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a life without difficulties but also without challenges
No, Horney wrote about social pressures such as unemployment and economic depressions which can create difficulties for anybody, even the well-adjusted.
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a preoccupation with receiving, not giving, affection
No, just the opposite; a person who was given warm, nurturent parenting would develop into a person more comfortable expressing these emotions, in Horney's view.
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"childhood never occurred"
No, guess again...
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the matter of identity is already settled, without crisis
Yes; the issue of identity is "foreclosed," closed ahead of time by firm identification with a particular set of values, so an identity crisis does not occur at the usual time of adolescence in such people.
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identity is in a "moratorium"
No, that was a different category identified by Marcia and colleagues....adolescents who postponed the decisions about their identity. Foreclosers were something else.
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identity is "diffuse"
No, in a forecloser, identity is quite definite.
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life is a series of continuing crises, so they "shut down"
No, a forecloser does not face an identity crisis at the usual time because a firm identity is already established, for better or worse.
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self-efficacy
Yes...self-efficacy is the power to change your environment or make things happen...to be effective. Bandura, attending a tiny high school with teachers who were sometimes ill- prepared, found he could teach himself, and in this way he learned he had personal power or effectiveness ("efficacy").
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reinforcement
No, although Bandura was sympathetic to behaviorism, his was not a reinforcement theory alone.
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the ego
You could argue for this answer, actually, but Bandura would not use a Freudian term. He had a different way of describing the strength of the executive process in personality...
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social organization
No, although it is true Bandura studied in a small group with his friends on occasion, he tells the story of his high school experiences to make a slightly different point.
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audacity
Perhaps Bandura was audacious ("bodacious") to think he could educate himself better than his teachers could do it, but this is not the point of his example.
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come up with contradictory conclusions
No, actually there was remarkable agreement, in one respect...
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agreed upon five basic dimensions of personality
Yes. A variety of different research teams over a period of decades arrived at the same set of five basic personality traits or dimensions. This started to become clear to researchers in the early 1990s.
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settled on five basic areas of disagreement
No, there was actually some amazing agreement...
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"run out of research ideas"
No, actually there was a development which stimulated much new research.
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come "full circle" to emphasizing Freudian ideas
No, the research teams were evaluating personality traits, not Freudian ideas per se.
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