Chapter 9: Models of Optimal Well-Being

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Labouvie-Vief proposed that wisdom involves the integration of two forms of knowledge. One of them, ______, is embedded in the context of social relationships and social experiences and includes intuition and openness to unconscious processes.

A. mythos

B. logos

C. emotional intelligence

D. self-relativism

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Preliminary Wisdom About Wisdom

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. For ______, wisdom involves both an acceptance of life as it has been lived and the reality of approaching death.

A. Erikson

B. Sternberg

C. Maslow

D. Fromm

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Wisdom as a Stage of Life

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the predictors of wisdom based on research of Baltes and Staudinger (2000)?

A. optimism

B. personality dispositions

C. life experiences

D. cognitive styles

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Predictors of Wisdom

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Sternberg based his theory wisdom on ______ knowledge, a kind of knowledge that is difficult to teach to others.

A. meta-heuristic

B. tacit

C. implicit

D. explicit

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: A Balance Theory of Wisdom

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Erikson regarded wisdom as _______.

A. a stage of cognitive thought that goes beyond formal operational reasoning

B. excellence in the performance of one’s life

C. using tacit knowledge and personal values to help find solutions that contribute to the common good

D. the virtue that results from successful resolution of the last psychosocial stage of development: integrity versus despair

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Wisdom as a Stage of Life

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. ______ taught that social feeling could propel a person toward a type of self-realization that would inevitably include greater empathy and compassion for others.

A. Freud

B. Fromm

C. Adler

D. Frankl

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Alfred Adler

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. For Fromm, optimal mental health entailed dealing honestly with life’s basic dichotomies and paradoxes. He called his ideal of optimal mental health ______.

A. the self-archetype

B. the productive orientation

C. the collective unconscious

D. the positive orientation

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Productive Orientation

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Fromm asserted that the path toward ______ comprised self-analysis and the development of values such as honesty, tolerance, patience, self-respect, humility, and generosity.

A. a self-archetype

B. a being orientation

C. true happiness

D. individuation

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Creating the Productive Personality

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Of the following, who included the practice of Buddhist mindfulness meditation in his theory?

A. Frankl

B. Erikson

C. Fromm

D. Jung

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Creating the Productive Personality

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Rollo May argued that most of us deny the power of the daimonic in our lives. By daimonic, he meant ______.

A. conformity

B. demons and other evil forces that threaten our well-being

C. unconscious conflicts

D. any emotional response that has the power to take us over completely

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Rollo May

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Frankl posited that finding meaning through life, rather than through self, results in a style of life that ______.

A. is self-transcendent

B. is self-actualizing

C. fosters one’s self-archetype

D. fosters productive orientation

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Viktor Frankl

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Paul Wong’s dual-system model of well-being incorporates both ______.

A. self-focus and other-focus

B. positive and negative emotions

C. conscious and unconscious conflicts

D. the desired self and the actual self

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Paul Wong and Positive Psychology 2.0

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. ______ was a psychiatrist imprisoned in the Nazis’s concentration camps. He believed that the creation of meaning cannot be tied to happiness or any other specific emotional experience.

A. Rollo May

B. Viktor Frankl

C. Alfred Adler

D. Carl Jung

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Viktor Frankl

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Which of the following is FALSE?

A. Girls feel more authentic in relationships with same-gender classmates and friends than do boys.

B. Authenticity is associated with greater life satisfaction.

C. Currently, there are no scales to measure the construct of authenticity.

D. Greater authenticity is related to less depression, less perceived stress, and fewer complaints of physical problems.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Authenticity: Finding One’s True Self

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Sharna scored high on a questionnaire with the following items: “I am in touch with all my feelings,” “I always stand by what I believe in,” and “I make my own choices in life.” The scale that she completed was most likely a measure of ______.

A. noetic happiness

B. self-esteem

C. wisdom

D. authenticity

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Authenticity: Finding One’s True Self

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. The initial phrase used by ______ to describe his or her theory was “positive mental health” and later as “ideal mental health.”

A. Loevinger

B. Jahoda

C. Erikson

D. Sternberg

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Marie Jahoda and Ideal Mental Health

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Which of the following is TRUE about personal growth experiences, such as workshops, that are based on the ideas of human potential.

A. They seek to help people overcome their self-imposed limits.

B. Research consistently shows that they are most effective if offered in a one-on-one format.

C. They operate from the assumption that about half of the population has the capacity for growth, especially those with certain traits.

D. They tend to focus on reducing the use of defense mechanisms.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Personal Growth and Human Potential

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Loevinger acknowledged the similarity of her ______ stage to Maslow’s stage of self-actualization.

A. existential living

B. integrated

C. eudaimonia

D. quiet ego

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Jack Bauer and the Quiet Ego

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. Costa and McCrae (1993) found a significant correlation between higher ego development and greater ______.

A. conscientiousness

B. openness to experience

C. agreeableness

D. extroversion

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Jack Bauer and the Quiet Ego

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. Interventions called personal growth therapy or human potential ______.

A. operate under the assumption that those with certain traits have the capacity to expand and develop their skills and talents

B. have the goal of normal psychological and social adjustment

C. are focused on people who have low self-esteem

D. operate on the assumption that most people utilize only a small part of their potential

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Personal Growth and Human Potential

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Research has shown a stronger relation between age and wisdom in the United States than in Japan.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Preliminary Wisdom About Wisdom

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. “Solomon’s paradox” refers to the fact that many people have high IQ but score low in assessments of wisdom.

Cognitive Domain: Applied

Answer Location: Wisdom as Postformal Cognitive Development

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Mickler and Staudinger (2008) found that age was a more important predictor in the development of personal wisdom than of general wisdom.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Wisdom as a Form of Excellence

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. According to Loevinger (1976), the highest ego stage in her theory is the “louder” or “noisier” ego.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Jack Bauer and the Quiet Ego

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Rogers hypothesized that it is possible to live without any defense mechanisms.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Carl Rogers and the Fully Functioning Person

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Describe what Bauer meant by a person with a “quiet ego” and one with a “louder ego.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Jack Bauer and the Quiet Ego

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. A lot of research has examined the relation between personality traits and optimal well-being. Which of the following Big 5 traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) is the one that appears most frequently in perspectives in well-being? Explain. You may include research that has linked this trait to other constructs.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Personality Traits Important for Optimal Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Compton and Hoffman, your textbook authors, caution against falling into the trap of thinking that “each of us has a unique intact optimal personality just waiting to be released like a butterfly waiting to emerge fully formed from a chrysalis.” Explain why the analogy of our full potential to a butterfly waiting to emerge is inaccurate.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Your Own Inner Hero

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Curiosity and courage are two traits that have been examined to better understand their role in optimal well-being. Define one of these constructs and include research that has examined it.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Personality Traits Important for Optimal Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Your textbook authors, Compton and Hoffman, stated that “the development, cultivation and use of wisdom can begin at any time.” Discuss at least two ways to cultivate wisdom.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: How to Cultivate Wisdom

Difficulty Level: Medium