Nature or Nurture
Manita123
ch09.rtf.pdf
Chapter: Chapter 09: Biological Foundations of Personality
Multiple Choice
1. 1. The case of Phineas Gage illustrates the importance of a. a) the brain for specific personality characteristics. b. b) the brain for the ability to walk and speak. c. c) the brain for cognitive functioning. d. d) all of the above.
Ans: a
a. 2. The concept of temperament refers to individual differences in
b. a) impulsivity. c. b) excitability. d. c) quality of emotional response. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: c
a. 3. Individual differences in temperament are believed to be largely
b. a) inherited. c. b) biologically based. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 4. Which of the following is not a figure in the history of temperament theory?
b. a) Galen. c. b) Gall. d. c) Kretschmer. e. d) All of the above
Ans: d
a. 5. The person associated with phrenology is b. a) Galen. c. b) Gall. d. c) Sheldon. e. d) Darwin.
Ans: b
a. 6. The text describes Gall as b. a) a quack. c. b) a knave. d. c) a serious anatomist. e. d) a brilliant theoretician.
Ans: c
a. 7. The person who attempted to classify psychiatric disorders and believed them to be largely hereditary was
b. a) Kraepelin. c. b) Sheldon. d. c) Gall. e. d) Freud.
Ans: a
a. 8. The forerunner of Sheldon's work was b. a) Freud. c. b) Kretschmer. d. c) Kraepelin. e. d) Gall.
Ans: b
a. 9. Kretschmer believed that psychiatric disorder was related to
b. a) intelligence. c. b) brain physiology. d. c) body type. e. d) blood type.
Ans: c
a. 10. Sheldon’s work on the relation of body type to temperament
b. a) is the basis of all contemporary research on the topic.
c. b) yielded strong, convincing results. d. c) a and b. e. d) yielded results that are now recognized as weak, and
are not important to the contemporary field.
Ans: d
a. 11. Work by Schmidt and Fox indicates that which of the following brain regions is involved in inhibitedness
b. a) frontal cortex. c. b) amygdale. d. c) a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 12. Early work on longitudinal studies of temperament was conducted by
b. a) Thomas and Chess. c. b) Kagan. d. c) Piaget. e. d) Rothbart and Ahadi.
Ans: a
a. 13. Thomas and Chess found that b. a) there was no relation between early temperament
and later development. c. b) loving and firm parenting was best for all children. d. c) different parental environments were best for
different children. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: c
a. 14. Thomas and Chess as well as Buss and Plomin used _______ in their research.
b. a) laboratory test data c. b) ratings d. c) behavioral genetics e. d) blood types
Ans: b
a. 15. The research of Buss and Plomin showed evidence of b. a) continuity of temperament over time. c. b) the heritability of temperament. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 16. Kagan improved on early temperament research in his use of
b. a) factor analysis. c. b) objective measures. d. c) parental ratings. e. d) longitudinal research.
Ans: b
a. 17. The person known for distinguishing between inhibited and uninhibited children is
b. a) Freud. c. b) Buss. d. c) Plomin. e. d) Kagan.
Ans: d
a. 18. According to Kagan, highly reactive children are likely to be b. a) inhibited. c. b) uninhibited. d. c) impulsive. e. d) No outcome can be predicted.
Ans: a
a. 19. Kagan found evidence of b. a) longitudinal consistency of temperament. c. b) biological bases for differences in temperament. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 20. Kagan's research suggests that b. a) temperament is fixed in childhood. c. b) parenting can make a difference in temperament. d. c) peers are important in the development of
temperament. e. d) unshared environments are important in
temperament development.
Ans: b
a. 21. According to Kagan, b. a) temperament is fixed by heredity. c. b) temperament can be completely altered by the
environment. d. c) both a and b.
e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: d
a. 22. The best interpretation of Kagan's data is that b. a) temperament sets constraints on personality
development. c. b) temperament can be completely altered by the
environment. d. c) temperament is fixed in childhood. e. d) environment sets constraints on temperament
development.
Ans: a
a. 23. The text suggests that b. a) evidence of inheritance does not mean environment
is unimportant. c. b) evidence of inheritance does not mean temperament
is fixed. d. c) evidence of inheritance does not mean early
experience is unimportant. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 24. Ultimate causes refer to explanations associated with b. a) genes. c. b) evolution. d. c) life history. e. d) neuroscience.
Ans: b
a. 25. Proximate causes refer to explanations associated with b. a) genes. c. b) evolution. d. c) life history.
e. d) neuroscience.
Ans: a
a. 26. The concept of evolved psychological mechanisms suggests that
b. a) psychological mechanisms have endured because of their adaptive value.
c. b) psychological mechanisms have evolved to fit the challenge of modern society.
d. c) both (a) and (b). e. d) neither (a) nor (b).
Ans: a
a. 27. Evolved adaptive mechanisms are viewed as b. a) broad, context-free. c. b) identical in both genders. d. c) task specific. e. d) the same in all species.
Ans: c
a. 28. According to Buss, evolved psychological mechanisms b. a) are always adaptive. c. b) may not fit current living conditions. d. c) are the same for all genders. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: b
a. 29. Evolutionary factors have been suggested as important in b. a) sex differences in mate preferences. c. b) sex differences in causes of jealousy. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 30. According to evolutionary psychology, women show greater parental investment in children than men because
b. a) they can be the biological parent of fewer children. c. b) of a maternal instinct. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: a
a. 31. Parenthood probability theory leads b. a) females to be more concerned about rivals than
males. c. b) males to be more concerned about rivals than
females. d. c) males and females to be equally concerned about
rivals. e. d) to genetic counseling procedures.
Ans: b
a. 32. According to Buss’s hypotheses, b. a) males should prefer young, attractive women. c. b) females should prefer strong, ambitious men. d. c) males should be more concerned than females about
sexual infidelity. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 33. In the Buss research on jealousy, physiological data b. a) matched self-report data. c. b) diverged from self-report data. d. c) were inconclusive. e. d) did not support the hypothesis.
Ans: a
a. 34. Research in evolutionary psychology by Cosmides on the question of cheating detection is concerned with the evolutionarily significant problem of
b. a) dating. c. b) parenting. d. c) social exchange. e. d) playing games.
Ans: c
a. 35. Research by Sugiyama, Tooby, and Cosmides finds that the result of research on cheating detection can be replicated
b. a) in nonliterate cultures c. b) only in literature cultures d. c) only in capitalist societies e. d) only among college students
Ans: a
a. 36. Which of the following would be suggested by trait theorists as important for group survival?
b. a) agreeableness. c. b) openness. d. c) extraversion. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 37. The basis for a link between trait theory and biology comes from
b. a) physiological studies. c. b) genetic research. d. c) evolutionary theory. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 38. Work by Eagly and Wood on men's and women's mate preferences in different nations finds that
b. a) preferences are the same in all countries, as evolutionary psychologists would have predicted.
c. b) preferences are the same in all countries, contrary to the predictions of evolutionary psychologists.
d. c) sex differences are smaller in countries in which men and women have similar social roles.
e. d) sex differences are larger in countries in which men and women have similar social roles.
Ans: c
a. 39. The finding that male-female trait differences are greater in developed, egalitarian cultures than in less developed, less egalitarian cultures would be supportive of a(n) ________________ interpretation
b. a) social role c. b) evolutionary d. c) psychoanalytic e. d) cognitive
Ans: b
a. 40. Criticism of evolutionary psychology include b. a) they underestimate the role of social influences. c. b) they are inconsistent with basic research in
neuroscience. d. c) evolutionary psychology fails to explain individual
differences in the interpretation of ambiguous social situations.
e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 41. Which of the following is not a method used to establish genetic-behavior relationships?
b. a) selective breeding. c. b) twin studies. d. c) adoption studies.
e. d) DNS studies.
Ans: d
a. 42. It can be suggested that b. a) if two individuals are identical genetically, differences
between them must be due to the environment. c. b) if two individuals are different genetically, differences
between them must be due to these genetic differences. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: a
a. 43. In a simplified form, research on twins suggest that b. a) differences between MZ twins are due to the
environment. c. b) differences between DZ twins are genetic
differences. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 44. Adoption studies offer the opportunity to gain greater insight into
b. a) genetic influences. c. b) environmental influences. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 45. According to the research to date, for most personality characteristics one would expect
b. a) biological siblings to be more similar than adopted siblings.
c. b) adopted children to be more similar to adopted
parents than biological parents. d. c) males to be more similar to one another than
females. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: a
a. 46. The concept of heritability estimate refers to b. a) the proportion of individual differences due to genes. c. b) the proportion of a characteristic in an individual due
to genes. d. c) the proportion of group differences due to genes. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: d
a. 47. Heritability estimates might differ if b. a) different populations were studied.
c. b) different measures of h2 were used. d. c) different aspects of the same trait were studied. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 48. One would expect the role of heredity in personality to decline in the following order
b. a) IQ, extraversion, political views. c. b) IQ, religiosity, neuroticism. d. c) extraversion, political views, neuroticism. e. d) neuroticism, extraversion, IQ.
Ans: a
a. 49. The body of evidence to date suggests that b. a) the family environment is unimportant for
personality. c. b) genes are more important than environment for
overall personality. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: d
a. 50. The text suggests that b. a) a high heritability estimate suggests differences
between the two populations studied. c. b) a high heritability estimate suggests the relevant
trait is fairly fixed. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: a
a. 51. Two traits show similar heritability estimates, therefore b. a) their phenotypes are to the same extent genetically
determined. c. b) subgroups within each population will show the same
average scores on the trait. d. c) two individuals randomly selected from the two
groups will be alike on the trait. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: d
a. 52. Data from behavior genetics research indicates the importance of
b. a) genes. c. b) shared environments. d. c) unshared environments. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 53. Nonshared environments include b. a) parts of sibling family environments.
c. b) aspects of sibling non-familial environments. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 54. Which of the following is accurate? b. a) if shared environments are important, adopted
siblings reared together will be more similar than biological siblings.
c. b) if shared environments are important, biological siblings reared together will resemble their parents more than such siblings reared apart.
d. c) if shared environments are important, nonshared environments are unimportant.
e. d) none of the above.
Ans: b
a. 55. Biological sibling differences can be due to b. a) genes. c. b) family environment differences. d. c) nonshared environmental influences. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 56. Recent research suggests that children from the same family are so different because of
b. a) different genes. c. b) nonshared environmental influences. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 57. According to research, b. a) shared family influences are more important than
nonshared family influences. c. b) nonshared family influences are more important than
shared family influences. d. c) shared and nonshared family influences are of equal
importance. e. d) nonshared influences outside the family are more
important than those inside the family.
Ans: b
a. 58. Research suggests that b. a) adopted children growing up in the same family
have similar weights. c. b) biological siblings growing up in different families
have similar weights. d. c) shared environmental influences account for about
20 percent of the variance in personality. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: b
a. 59. Recent behavior-genetic research suggests evidence for b. a) peer-peer rating agreement. c. b) self-peer rating agreement. d. c) support for genetic influences on the Big Five. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 60. In the study of maze-bright and maze-dull rats, it was found that
b. a) an enriched environment helped dull rats but not bright rats.
c. b) an impoverished environment hurt bright rats but not dull rats.
d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 61. Research by Caspi et al indicates that ________ is (are) a main cause of antisocial behavior.
b. a) genetic influences c. b) maltreatment in childhood d. c) an interaction of a and b e. d) neither a nor b
Ans: c
a. 62. Behavior geneticists suggest that after heredity, the greatest influence on personality is
b. a) shared environment. c. b) parents. d. c) early experience. e. d) nonshared environment.
Ans: d
a. 63. In terms of nonshared environment effects, research suggests that
b. a) much of parenting differences reflect genetic differences among children.
c. b) much of parenting differences reflect birth order differences.
d. c) parents treat their children pretty much the same way.
e. d) daughters and sons are treated pretty much the same way.
Ans: a
a. 64. Evidence of the importance of nonshared environments suggests that
b. a) family experiences are unimportant. c. b) early experience is unimportant. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: d
a. 65. The genetic component is least strong for b. a) temperament. c. b) intelligence. d. c) values. e. d) dominance.
Ans: c
a. 66. Evidence in support of a genetic contribution to personality would be if personality characteristics of identical twins reared apart were similar to
b. a) identical twins reared together. c. b) fraternal twins reared together. d. c) fraternal twins reared apart. e. d) siblings reared apart.
Ans: a
a. 67. Genetic research on personality suggests that b. a) children from the same family share genes in
common. c. b) children from the same family experience different
environments. d. c) the importance of genes varies somewhat from trait
to trait. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 68. Genes influence b. a) personality. c. b) environment. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 69. Genes influence environments via b. a) selection of environments. c. b) eliciting environmental responses. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 70. Which of the following is not true? b. a) Genetic factors account for the majority of
personality. c. b) Nongenetic factors are mainly responsible for
environmental differences. d. c) Family experiences are important. e. d) All of the above are true.
Ans: a
a. 71. The text suggests that b. a) genes are more important than environment. c. b) environment is more important than genes. d. c) genes and environment are in constant interplay. e. d) the issue is to be decided in the future.
Ans: c
a. 72. Research to date supports which of the following statements?
b. a) Inheritance plays a strong role in personality. c. b) Environment plays a strong role in personality. d. c) Genes and environment play a role in all traits. e. d) All of the above.
Ans: d
a. 73. Evidence to date suggests that b. a) criminals are made, not born. c. b) criminals are born, not made. d. c) introversion is strongly associated with criminality. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: d
a. 74. The part of the brain implicated in emotion and motivation is the
b. a) amygdala. c. b) hippocampus. d. c) prefrontal cortex. e. d) Broca's area.
Ans: a
a. 75. Kagan suggests that the inhibited child has b. a) a low threshold of amygdala excitability. c. b) left hemispheric dominance. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: a
a. 76. According to Davidson, b. a) individual differences in lateralization begin in
adulthood. c. b) are important for individual differences in mood. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: b
a. 77. Research indicates that depressed individuals have b. a) increased left hemispheric activity. c. b) decreased left hemispheric activity. d. c) increased right hemispheric activity. e. d) decreased right hemispheric activity.
Ans: b
a. 78. Greater right hemispheric activity is associated with b. a) greater negative affect. c. b) greater separation distress in children. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 79. _____________ activity is associated both with schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.
b. a) Serotonin. c. b) Testosterone. d. c) Cortisol. e. d) Dopamine.
Ans: d
a. 80. Which of the following is associated with the stress response?
b. a) serotonin. c. b) testosterone. d. c) cortisol. e. d) dopamine.
Ans: c
a. 81. Kagan found that inhibited children had b. a) left hemispheric dominance. c. b) high cortisol responses. d. c) high serotonin levels. e. d) high dopamine levels.
Ans: b
a. 82. Which of the following is not a superfactor according to Clark and Watson?
b. a) PE. c. b) NE. d. c) C. e. d) DvC.
Ans: c
a. 83. According to Clark and Watson, which of the following is associated with a willingness to engage the environment?
b. a) PE. c. b) NE. d. c) C. e. d) DvC.
Ans: a
a. 84. According to Clark and Watson, affect regulation is most associated with
b. a) PE. c. b) NE. d. c) C. e. d) DvC.
Ans: d
a. 85. High scorers on DvC tend b. a) be "night owls.” c. b) morning larks. d. c) sleep a lot. e. d) none of the above.
Ans: a
a. 86. Dopamine is suggested to be most associated with b. a) PE.
c. b) NE. d. c) C. e. d) DvC.
Ans: a
a. 87. Which of the following has been implicated in DvC? b. a) serotonin. c. b) dopamine. d. c) testosterone. e. d) all of the above.
Ans: d
a. 88. Hamer describes _________ as the "feel bad" chemical. b. a) dopamine. c. b) serotonin. d. c) cortisol. e. d) epinephrine.
Ans: b
a. 89. Research to date suggests b. a) no one-to-one biology-personality trait
correspondence. c. b) a one-to-one biology-personality trait
correspondence. d. c) a curvilinear biology-personality trait relationship. e. d) biology determines personality.
Ans: a
a. 90. Damasio supports which of the following? b. a) The brain functions as a system. c. b) The brain consists of specialized parts. d. c) both a and b. e. d) neither a nor b.
Ans: c
a. 91. The fact that changes in social hierarchy result in changes in neurotransmitter levels illustrates
b. a) phrenology. c. b) plasticity. d. c) regression. e. d) differentiation.
Ans: b
a. 92. Which of the following tends to change in relation to winning and losing in sports?
b. a) testosterone levels. c. b) cortisol levels. d. c) dopamine levels. e. d) serotonin levels.
Ans: a
a. 93. Research by Schwartz et al that examined adults’ reactions to familiar and unfamiliar faces had found that
b. a) temperament qualities that are evident early in childhood disappear by the time a person is a teenager.
c. b) temperament qualities that are evident early in childhood disappear by the time a
d. c) person is an adult. e. d) childhood temperament can be assessed by
examining facial features, just as early researchers had thought.
f. e) temperament qualities that are evident early in childhood persist into adulthood.
Ans: d
a. 94. Your book describes research revealing that sexual orientation in males is predicted the number of siblings one has, regardless of whether they grew up in the same household. What
did the study authors conclude? b. a) The environment, broadly construed, has very little
effect on sexual orientation. c. b) Genetics are largely responsible for sexual
orientation. d. c) Factors associated with the prenatal environment
may explain sexual orientation. e. d) None of the above.
Ans: c
a. 95. Imagine you are interested in testing the hypothesis that growing up in the same household might explain why male sexual orientation is correlated with the number of older brothers one has. What two groups of males might you compare on sexual orientation?
b. a) Males raised with homosexual brothers vs. males raised with heterosexual brothers.
c. b) Males raised with varying numbers of older brothers living in their home vs. males raised with the same number of brothers who did not live in the same home.
d. c) Males raised with no brothers vs. males raised with many brothers.
e. d) Males raised with younger brothers vs. males raised with older brothers.
Ans: b
a. 96. Neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould discovered that baby rats traumatized by separation from a care-giving adult for several hours a day formed fewer neurons in their brain later in life. Her research suggests
b. a) that experience has no effect on brain structures c. b) that genes affect environments d. c) that experience can affect brain structures e. d) that genes do not affect environments
Ans: c
a. 97. Kelley et al., (2002) used fMRI to identify specific regions of the brain that are active when people judge trait adjective are in uppercase letters, described George W. Bush, or described themselves. Compared to baseline recordings, fMRI indicated that medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) was more involved in judgments about the self than about Bush or the typeface of the letters. This indicates that the PFC is:
b. a) the only brain region that comes into play when people think about themselves.
c. b) one region that comes into play when people think about themselves.
d. c) the biological component of the self. e. d) the biological basis of personality.
Ans: b
True/False
a. 98. The key element of the temperament construct is individual differences in emotional quality.
a. 99. ns: True
a. 100. Thomas and Chess suggested a goodness-of-fit between temperament and parental environment.
Ans: True
a. 101. According to Kagan, high reactivity is associated with uninhibited temperament.
Ans: False
a. 102. According to Kagan, environment plays a role in the unfolding of temperament.
Ans: True
a. 103. The text draws a link between inheritance and fixed personality characteristics.
Ans: False
a. 104. Evolved psychological mechanisms are general adaptation mechanisms.
Ans: False
a. 105. Our strong taste for fatty substances is evolutionary based.
Ans: True
a. 106. Ultimate causes refer to biological processes determining current behavior.
Ans: True
a. 107. It is suggested that degree of parental investment in offspring is correlated with the proportion of genes passed on to each offspring.
Ans: False
a. 108. Buss’s research demonstrates that mate preference has more to do with the individual than with evolution.
Ans: False
a. 109. The same personality trait structure has been found across species.
Ans: False
a. 110. Genes govern behavior directly.
Ans: False
a. 111. Behavioral geneticists are interested in genetic and environmental determinants of personality.
Ans: True
a. 112. The data suggest a clear relationship between genetic similarity and personality similarity.
Ans: True
a. 113. Peer ratings confirm the heritability findings based on self- report data.
Ans: True
a. 114. If it is biological and inherited, it is fixed.
Ans: False
a. 115. Some specific genes have been linked to specific personality characteristics.
Ans: True
a. 116. Unique experiences of siblings are more important for
personality than shared family experiences.
Ans: True
a. 117. Children evoke different parental reactions based on constitutional differences.
Ans: True
a. 118. The hippocampus is the key brain structure in emotion and motivation.
Ans: False
a. 119. The amygdala is particularly important in relation to positive stimuli.
Ans: False
a. 120. Depressed individuals have decreased left hemispheric activity.
Ans: True
a. 121. Serotonin is implicated in schizophrenia.
Ans: False
a. 122. Dopamine has been described as the "feel good" chemical.
Ans: True
a. 123. Winning in competitive contests is associated with decreased testosterone functioning.
Ans: False
Essay
a. 1. Outline Kagan’s conception of inhibited and uninhibited temperament and the research findings documenting the stability of these temperament styles.
a. 2. Provide an example of one finding that supports evolutionary psychologists’ views about the biological basis of personality functioning, and one finding that appears to contradict their views.
a. 3. What evidence is there that individual differences in personality have a biological basis? Cite evidence from both twin studies and molecular genetic studies.
