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Oakdale High School
Advanced Placement Psychology
Mr. Simoncini
Chapter 10 Reading Response Questions
PP. 409-419
1. Define personality and list the various types of personality theories.
2. Summarize the key elements of the psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive theories
of personality.
3. In what ways do the social-cognitive theories complement rather than contradict the
clinical perspective?
4. What was the genesis of the psychodynamic approach and who was its first practitioner?
5. Differentiate between the terms psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory. Also briefly
discuss why Dr. Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalytic theory.
6. Freud considered the unconscious to be the center of the personality. According to
Freud, what was the unconscious and why did he summarize that we go about our daily
business without knowing the real motives behind our behavior?
7. Discuss the “drives” that Freud specified when he described the personality as the
mental equivalent of steam in a boiler.
8. What is the iceberg metaphor?
9. Discuss Freud’s concept of the personality structure.
10. Summarize Freud’s concept of psychosexual stages: those forgotten experiences in
infancy and early childhood that, in his theory, had the strongest impact on personality
formation and later behavior.
11. What are some of the major criticisms of Freud’s theory? Where might he have been
right?
12. In general, what are ego defense mechanisms?
13. What is Freud’s concept of repression?
14. Briefly discuss each of the following ego defense mechanisms: denial, rationalization,
reaction formation, displacement, regression, sublimation, and projection.
15. Why do practitioners of psychoanalytic theory utilize projective tests? In your response,
discuss the Rorschach inkblot technique.
16. How is the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray and McClelland) perhaps a better test
than the Rorschach inkblot technique?
17. How is a Freudian slip an example of psychic determinism?
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18. What are some of the more significant criticisms of Freud’s theories?
pp. 419-429
19. Discuss Carl Gustav Jung’s concepts of the personal unconscious, the collective
unconscious and archetypes.
20. Summarize the archetypal memories the textbook discusses.
21. According to Jung, what are the causes of mental disorders?
22. What is Jung’s principle of opposites? In your response please include a specific
example noted by the textbook.
23. Summarize the primary criticisms of Jung’s theories.
24. Summarize Karen Horney’s criticism of Freud’s theories. What alternative viewpoint did
she offer?
25. Horney listed ten neurotic needs. What do they represent and what are they?
26. What are Horney’s three patterns of attitudes and behavior that people use to deal with
basic anxiety?
27. Summarize Alfred Adler’s concept of the inferiority complex.
28. How do the Humanists define personality?
29. What do the Humanists believe to be the causes of mental disorders?
30. Summarize the components of Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory.
31. What were the common characteristics shared by people whom Abraham Maslow
considered to be self-actualized?
32. How did Maslow explain maladjusted people?
33. How did Carl Rogers define a fully functioning person?
34. According to Rogers, what is incongruence?
35. With the concept of phenomenal field as the basis, describe Rogers’s views about
personality.
36. How do humanistic theorists differ from psychodynamic theorists regarding personality?
37. What are the most significant criticisms of the humanistic theories?
38. Summarize Albert Bandura’s theory of observational learning and personality.
39. Summarize Julian Rotter’s concept of locus of control.
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430-437
40. Define the term temperament.
41. What do biological psychologists now suspect about depression and other individual
differences in disposition?
42. Discuss what Kagan (1994) and Zimbardo (1990) have learned about shyness.
43. What is the Five-Factor Theory and why do many psychologists consider it important in
the study of personality?
44. Briefly discuss the 16 Personality Factor theory of Raymond Cattell.
45. Briefly describe the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. In your discussion,
why do scientists consider that test an “exemplary instrument?”
46. How did Walter Mischel challenge the trait theorists and what is the person-situation
controversy? What major lesson can we learn from that controversy?
47. Discuss the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)—its use and concerns about it.
438-443
48. What is implicit personality theory and what concerns do some psychologists have about
it?
49. According to our textbook, “in judging people, Americans and Europeans also tend to
make the fundamental attribution error.” Discuss that error.
50. According to Harry Triandis, in what aspect of personality do cultures most differ?
Discuss.
51. Discuss other ways that cultures differ regarding personality.
52. How do culture and personality interact?
53. With regard to personality theory, what are eclectic psychologists?