How would you describe your own personality? Do you think that friends and family would describe you in much the same way? Why or why not?
How would you describe your personality in an online dating profile?
What are some of your positive and negative personality qualities? How do you think these qualities will affect your choice of career?
What are some examples of defense mechanisms that you have used yourself or have witnessed others using?
What is your birth order? Do you agree or disagree with Adler’s description of your personality based on his birth order theory, as described in the Link to Learning? Provide examples for support.
Would you describe yourself as an extrovert or an introvert? Does this vary based on the situation? Provide examples to support your points.
Select an epic story that is popular in contemporary society (such as Harry Potter or Star Wars) and explain it terms of Jung’s concept of archetypes.
Do you have an internal or an external locus of control? Provide examples to support your answer.
Respond to the question, “Who am I?” Based on your response, do you have a negative or a positive self-concept? What are some experiences that led you to develop this particular self-concept?
Research suggests that many of our personality characteristics have a genetic component. What traits do you think you inherited from your parents? Provide examples. How might modeling (environment) influenced your characteristics as well?
Review the Big Five personality traits shown in Figure 11.15. On which areas would you expect you’d score high? In which areas does the low score more accurately describe you?
According to the work of Rentfrow and colleagues, personalities are not randomly distributed. Instead they fit into distinct geographic clusters. Based on where you live, do you agree or disagree with the traits associated with yourself and the residents of your area of the country? Why or why not?
How objective do you think you can be about yourself in answering questions on self-report personality assessment measures? What implications might this have for the validity of the personality test?