WGU C484 EXAM STUDY GUIDE
Personality Traits - Answers-enduring characteristics that describe individual's behavior.
Heredity - Answers-factors determined at conception; one's biological, physiological and
inherent psychological makeup
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - Answers-a personality test that taps four characteristics
and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types
Problem with Myers-Briggs - Answers-it forces you into one or another personality type,
there is no in-between
Big Five Personality Model - Answers-A personality assessment model that taps five
basic dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability
and Openness to Experience
Self-monitoring - Answers-a personality trait that measures an individual's ability to
adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.
Proactive personality - Answers-people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take
action and persevere until meaningful change occurs
Other orientation - Answers-employees high in other-orientation also exert especially
high levels of effort when engaged in helping work or prosocial behavior
Values - Answers-basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of
existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of
conduct or end-state of existence.
Value System - Answers-a hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual's values in
terms of their intensity
Rokeach Value Survey - Answers-consists of two sets of values, terminal values and
instrumental values
Terminal Values - Answers-desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would
like to achieve during his or her lifetime
Instrumental Values - Answers-preferable modes of behavior or means of acheiving
one's terminal values
Personality-job fit theory - Answers-a theory that identifies six personality types and
proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover.
,Person-organization fit - Answers-people are attracted to and selected by organizations
that match their values and they leave organizations that are not compatible with their
personalities
Power distance - Answers-a national cultural attribute that describes the extent to which
a society accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally
Individualism - Answers-the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather
than as members of groups
Collectivism - Answers-a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups
of which they are a part to look after them and protect them
Masculinity - Answers-favors traditional work roles of achievement, power and control.
Societal values are characterized by assertiveness and materialism
Femininity - Answers-indicates little differentiation between male and female roles. A
high rating indicates that women are treated as the equals of men in all aspects of
society
Uncertainty Avoidance - Answers-the extent to which a society feels threatened by
uncertain and ambigious situations and tries to avoid them
Long-term Orientation - Answers-emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence
Short-term Orientation - Answers-emphasizes the past and present, respect for
traditions, and fulfillment and social obligations
Extraversion - Answers-extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable, while
introverts tend to be reserved, timid and quiet
Agreeableness - Answers-highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting.
people who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable and antagonistic
Conscientiousness - Answers-A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized,
dependable and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily
distracted, disorganized and unreliable.
Emotional Stability - Answers-People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm,
self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous,
anxious, depressed and insecure.
Openness to Experience - Answers-Extremely open people are creative, curious, and
artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the category are conventional and find
comfort in the familiar.
, Core self-evaluation - Answers-bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their
capabilities, competence, and worth as a person
Machiavellianism - Answers-the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains
emotional distance and believes the ends justify the means
narcissism - Answers-the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-
importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.
Holland's Personality job fit types - Answers-realistic, investigative, social, conventional,
enterprising, and artistic
Perception - Answers-a process by which individuals organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment
Attribution theory - Answers-an attempt to determine whether an individual's behavior is
internally or externally caused
Fundamental Attribution Error - Answers-the tendency to underestimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making
judgments about the behavior of others
Self-service bias - Answers-the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes
to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors
Selective perception - Answers-the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on
the basis of one's interests, background, experience and attitudes
Halo effect - Answers-the tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on
the basis of a single characteristic
Contrast effect - Answers-evaluation of a person's characteristics that is affected by
comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the
same characteristics
Stereotyping - Answers-judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group
to which that person belongs
Self-fulfilling prophecy - Answers-a situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a
second person, and the resulting expectations cause the seonc person to behave in
ways consistent with the original perception
Decisions - Answers-choices made from among two or more alternatives