Chapter 15 Quiz: Personality and Attraction
Multiple Choice
1. The Big Five personality model is also known as:
a) The DISC framework b) The Five-Factor Model (FFM) / OCEAN c) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator d) The Hexaco personality system
Answer: b
2. Which Big Five trait shows the most consistent and robust negative association with long-term relationship quality?
a) Low Openness b) Low Agreeableness c) High Neuroticism d) Low Conscientiousness
Answer: c
3. The "assortative mating" hypothesis predicts that:
a) Opposites attract in long-term relationships b) Partners who complement each other's deficits have better outcomes c) Partners tend to resemble each other on personality and values at rates above chance d) Personality similarity is unrelated to partner selection
Answer: c
4. Which of the following is NOT one of the "dark triad" traits?
a) Narcissism b) Machiavellianism c) Neuroticism d) Psychopathy
Answer: c
5. Regarding introversion and dating apps, the research most consistently finds that:
a) Introverts are less successful on apps because they communicate poorly b) Introverts report higher relative satisfaction with app-based compared to bar/party-based contexts c) Extraverts consistently convert more app matches to long-term relationships d) Introversion has no significant relationship with app behavior or experience
Answer: b
6. The "maturity principle" in personality development refers to:
a) The idea that personality becomes completely fixed by age 30 b) The tendency for Conscientiousness and Agreeableness to increase and Neuroticism to decrease across adulthood c) The principle that mature people prioritize personality compatibility over physical attraction d) The finding that adults always choose more agreeable partners than adolescents
Answer: b
7. Luo and Klohnen (2005) found that, in married couples, ____ was a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than Big Five personality similarity.
a) Physical attractiveness similarity b) Neuroticism alignment c) Similarity in values d) Extraversion matching
Answer: c
8. The finding that dark triad traits predict higher short-term mating success has been criticized primarily because:
a) The study only used female participants b) The effect sizes are large and perfectly replicable c) The "success" is narrow, the effects modest, and the research has been misused to promote manipulation d) Personality cannot be measured in mating contexts
Answer: c
9. "Perceived similarity" refers to:
a) Actual measured similarity between partners on Big Five dimensions b) The subjective sense that a potential partner shares one's values and traits c) The phenomenon of similarity emerging after long relationship exposure d) The tendency to perceive former partners as more similar than current ones
Answer: b
10. Which trait is most associated with initiation rate (rather than initiation success) in courtship?
a) Agreeableness b) Conscientiousness c) Extraversion d) Openness
Answer: c
11. Which of the following best describes the current state of evidence on the "opposites attract" hypothesis?
a) It is strongly supported by multiple independent replications b) It is supported in short-term but not long-term relationship contexts c) It has almost no empirical support; similarity is the dominant pattern d) It is equally supported by the evidence as the similarity hypothesis
Answer: c
12. The chapter's discussion of the WEIRD problem in personality research refers to the fact that most studies use samples that are:
a) Weird in the colloquial sense — unusual or extreme participants b) Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic — limiting generalizability c) Predominantly male and heterosexual d) Conducted only in laboratory settings
Answer: b
Short Answer Questions
13. Explain the difference between Extraversion and social skill. Why does this distinction matter in understanding courtship behavior? (3–4 sentences)
Sample response: Extraversion refers to energetic orientation — high-E individuals are energized by social engagement and seek external stimulation. Social skill is a learned capacity for effective social behavior. The two are correlated but not identical: there are socially skilled introverts and socially ineffective extraverts. In courtship, this matters because Extraversion predicts initiation rate (how often someone approaches) but not necessarily success rate — the assumption that extraverts are inherently better at courtship conflates comfort with competence.
14. What is the ethical problem with using dark triad research as a "mating strategy" guide? Reference at least two specific concerns raised in the chapter. (4–5 sentences)
Sample response: The ethical problems are multiple. First, the research is empirically weaker than popularized accounts suggest — effect sizes are modest and replication is inconsistent. Second, and more critically, the "success" predicted by dark triad traits comes at direct cost to partners who are manipulated or deceived. The literature has been adopted by pickup communities as justification for cultivating manipulative behavior, which is a misuse of science that treats other people as targets rather than agents. The chapter notes that whether dark triad "works" depends entirely on what you think relationships are for — a question the research itself cannot answer.
15. Jordan's opening scene illustrates what the chapter calls "using sociological frameworks as a way to avoid having an actual human experience while also having the human experience." What does this tension reveal about the relationship between intellectual self-awareness and emotional action? (3–4 sentences)
Sample response: The Jordan scene reveals that analytical self-awareness can be both illuminating and immobilizing — Jordan can correctly identify the mechanisms of their attraction in real time but cannot convert that awareness into behavior. This is consistent with research showing that self-reflection and self-monitoring do not automatically reduce the costs of approach (particularly for high-Openness, introverted individuals) — they may actually increase the self-conscious awareness of those costs. The tension suggests that intellectual understanding of psychological mechanisms is not the same as the embodied confidence to act on them, which are governed by different systems. It also functions as a wry reminder that the academy's tools for understanding human experience can sometimes be deployed to insulate oneself from it.