Free Personality Theories MCQs with Answers

• A. displacement
• B. reaction formation
• C. reciprocal determinism
• D. the Oedipus complex

Explanation: The Oedipus complex refers to a boy’s unconscious desire for his mother combined with rivalry or hostility toward his father during…

• A. extravert
• B. iconoclast
• C. animus-type personality
• D. archetypal personality

Explanation: In Jung’s terminology, an extravert directs psychological energy toward the outer social world and is typically sociable, talkative, and…

• A. ideal self and actual self
• B. the pleasure principle and the reality principle
• C. introversion and extroversion
• D. the client's values and the therapist's values

Explanation: Rogers assessed congruence by comparing the real or actual self with the ideal self; a small gap indicates greater congruence and…

• A. self-serving bias
• B. an external locus of control
• C. the pleasure principle
• D. reciprocal determinism

Explanation: Believing that luck or outside forces determine one’s outcomes reflects an external locus of control.

• A. repression
• B. displacement
• C. projection
• D. identification

Explanation: Identification involves adopting or psychologically experiencing the qualities, feelings, or behavior of another person whom one admires.

• A. environmental factors that could promote aggression
• B. feelings of repressed hostility
• C. instinctual explanations
• D. early learning experiences and reinforcement history

Explanation: As a behaviorist, Skinner would explain aggression through observable environmental influences, especially the person’s learning history…

• A. regression
• B. identification
• C. projection
• D. reaction formation

Explanation: Reaction formation occurs when a person expresses the opposite of an unacceptable underlying impulse.

• A. passive-aggressive
• B. manic-depressive
• C. unstable-introverted
• D. external-dependent

Explanation: Eysenck’s dimensions include introversion-extraversion and emotional stability-instability, with anxiety and moodiness indicating…

• A. superego is to repetition principle
• B. ego is to reality principle
• C. ego is repetition principle
• D. ego is executive principle

Explanation: Freud’s id seeks immediate gratification according to the pleasure principle, whereas the ego operates according to the reality principle.

• A. inability to test or verify concepts
• B. limited recognition of temperament, emotion and subjective factors
• C. ability to explain behavior after the fact only
• D. emphasis on the conditions under which behaviors occur

Explanation: Behavioral theories focus on observable behavior and environmental conditions, so they are often criticized for giving too little…

• A. have removed the "person" from personality
• B. emphasize situational determinants of behavior
• C. stress the role of the unconscious
• D. would view a trait as stable in all situations

Explanation: Learning theorists explain personality in terms of behavior shaped by reinforcement, punishment, modelling, and situational conditions.

• A. create traits that fit people
• B. increase the number of basic traits that have been identified
• C. classify traits and discover how they are related to behavior
• D. reduce the common traits to measures of temperament

Explanation: Trait theorists identify and classify basic traits, then examine how those traits relate to patterns of behavior.

• A. fixation
• B. free association
• C. factor analysis
• D. projection

Explanation: Free association asks a person to report thoughts without censorship, allowing unconscious ideas and feelings to emerge.

• A. reciprocal determinism
• B. an internal locus of control
• C. reaction formation
• D. the self-reference phenomenon

Explanation: An internal locus of control means expecting outcomes to depend mainly on one's own effort and choices.

• A. collective psychology
• B. existential psychology
• C. depth psychology
• D. analytical psychology

Explanation: Jung called his approach analytical psychology, which examined the unconscious, archetypes, and the collective unconscious.

• A. ideal self
• B. gender identity
• C. unconditional positive regard
• D. attributional style

Explanation: Optimism is reflected in attributional style, especially the tendency to explain setbacks as temporary, specific, and externally caused…

• A. Situations change traits
• B. Situations create new traits
• C. Traits determine situations
• D. Situations affect how traits are exhibited

Explanation: Trait-situation interaction means that a trait may be expressed differently depending on the circumstances.

• A. pleasure principle
• B. reality principle
• C. ego ideal
• D. partial ego principle

Explanation: The ego follows the reality principle, delaying immediate gratification until it can be achieved safely and realistically.

• A. Trait; humanistic
• B. Psychoanalytic; behaviorist
• C. Psychoanalytic; humanistic
• D. Trait; behaviorist

Explanation: Psychoanalytic theory places unconscious motives at the centre of behaviour, whereas behaviorism focuses on observable behaviour and…

• A. as reliable but no necessary valid estimates
• B. as ballpark estimates of the influence of genetics
• C. as accurate estimates of the influence of genetics
• D. as relatively useless estimates of the influence of genetics

Explanation: Heritability estimates describe the proportion of variation within a particular population and environment, not the fixed genetic cause of…