Mock Midterm Exam: Melanie Klein’s
Object Relations Theory
I. Conceptual Understanding
1. 1. What is the central conflict Klein believed infants experience from birth?
a. Independence vs. dependence
b. Trust vs. mistrust
c. Life instinct vs. death instinct
d. Oral vs. anal pleasure
Answer: c
2. 2. According to Klein, what is the function of the “positions” in infant development?
a. To establish personality traits
b. To transition from childhood to adolescence
c. To organize experiences with internal and external objects
d. To suppress the superego
Answer: c
3. 3. Which of the following best describes Klein’s view of phantasies?
a. Daydreams related to desires
b. Cultural narratives absorbed by infants
c. Unconscious representations of instinctual drives
d. Verbalized wishes in toddlers
Answer: c
4. 4. The paranoid-schizoid position involves:
a. Denial of reality
b. Whole object recognition
c. Splitting and persecutory anxiety
d. Identity diffusion
Answer: c
5. 5. What psychological structure emerges much earlier in Klein’s theory than in Freud’s?
a. Id
b. Superego
c. Ego
d. Libido
Answer: b
6. 6. Which mechanism allows an infant to split off unwanted parts of the self and insert
them into another person?
a. Projection
b. Introjection
c. Projective Identification
d. Repression
Answer: c
7. 7. The depressive position marks the beginning of:
a. Paranoia and withdrawal
b. Emotional detachment from parents
c. Recognition of whole objects and guilt
d. Denial of aggression
Answer: c
8. 8. What role does “reparation” play in the depressive position?
a. It represses bad instincts
b. It mends destructive urges toward loved objects
c. It destroys phantasies
d. It denies previous attachment
Answer: b
9. 9. How does Klein reinterpret the Oedipus complex?
a. As a desire for power
b. As beginning in adolescence
c. As driven by social structures
d. As beginning in infancy and shaped by phantasies
Answer: d
10. 10. According to Klein, the superego in early development is:
a. Formed through logical reasoning
b. Gentle and forgiving
c. Harsh and cruel
d. Absent
Answer: c
II. Terminologies and Definitions
11. 21. What is “introjection”?
a. Forgetting a memory
b. Taking in aspects of the external world
c. Rejecting painful experiences
d. Confusing internal states
Answer: b
12. 22. Define “splitting” in the context of Object Relations Theory.
a. Dividing focus between parents
b. Compartmentalizing experiences as all good or all bad
c. Dividing the ego from the id
d. Avoiding object constancy
Answer: b
13. 23. What is the term for an early unconscious fantasy representation?
a. Dream
b. Thought
c. Phantasy
d. Imagination
Answer: c
14. 24. Which term describes the process of projecting unacceptable parts and then
reabsorbing them in distorted form?
a. Introjection
b. Repression
c. Projective Identification
d. Sublimation
Answer: c
15. 25. What is the main drive behind object relations in infancy, according to Klein?
a. Need for control
b. Need for power
c. Life and death instincts
d. Social imitation
Answer: c
16. 26. The psychic representation of instinctual drives in infants is known as:
a. Phantasies
b. Images
c. Emotions
d. Feelings
Answer: a
17. 27. In Klein’s theory, what does the term ‘object’ refer to?
a. An inanimate item
b. An abstract idea
c. A person or part of a person that satisfies a drive
d. A learned behavior
Answer: c
18. 28. Which defense mechanism describes attributing unacceptable impulses to others?
a. Introjection
b. Projection
c. Repression
d. Reaction formation
Answer: b
19. 29. In Klein’s theory, what is the purpose of internalizations?
a. To form social structures
b. To develop repression
c. To organize introjected experiences into a coherent structure
d. To eliminate parental control
Answer: c
20. 30. What position is characterized by persecutory anxiety and splitting?
a. Depressive
b. Oral
c. Paranoid-schizoid
d. Latency
Answer: c
III. Biographical and Theorist-Based Questions
21. 41. Melanie Klein emphasized the role of which relationship in personality
development?
a. Father-child
b. Teacher-student
c. Peer-peer
d. Mother-child
Answer: d
22. 42. Which theorist developed the Strange Situation procedure?
a. John Bowlby
b. Melanie Klein
c. Mary Ainsworth
d. Margaret Mahler
Answer: c
23. 43. Which theorist focused on the evolution of the self through empathic interactions?
a. Melanie Klein
b. Sigmund Freud
c. Heinz Kohut
d. Carl Jung
Answer: c
24. 44. Who proposed the concept of psychological birth?
a. Freud
b. Mahler
c. Bowlby
d. Erikson
Answer: b
25. 45. Which theorist explored the concept of internal working models in attachment?
a. Mahler
b. Kohut
c. Bowlby
d. Klein
Answer: c
26. 46. According to Mahler, what stage is characterized by omnipotent perception of the
mother?
a. Normal Symbiosis
b. Normal Autism
c. Rapprochement
d. Differentiation
Answer: b
27. 47. Who emphasized narcissism as central to self-development?
a. Bowlby
b. Kohut
c. Mahler
d. Klein
Answer: b
28. 48. Which theorist proposed the separation-individuation process?
a. Freud
b. Klein
c. Mahler
d. Winnicott
Answer: c
29. 49. Which of the following is not part of Bowlby’s separation anxiety stages?
a. Protest
b. Denial
c. Despair
d. Detachment
Answer: b
30. 50. Klein’s relationship with her own daughter was reportedly:
a. Warm and nurturing
b. Strict but caring
c. Detached and conflicted
d. Highly affectionate
Answer: c
IV. Situational and Applied Differentiation
31. 61. A child begins to realize their mother can be both comforting and frustrating. They
feel guilt and try to comfort her. This best represents:
a. Introjection
b. Depressive Position
c. Projection
d. Transference
Answer: b
32. 62. A child angrily throws food and imagines their mother’s breast is dangerous. This is
an example of:
a. Splitting
b. Depressive Position
c. Paranoid-Schizoid Position
d. Repression
Answer: c
33. 63. A toddler repeatedly pushes away and clings to their caregiver. This might indicate
which attachment style?
a. Secure
b. Avoidant
c. Anxious-Resistant
d. Disorganized
Answer: c
34. 64. A boy desires his mother but fears his father will retaliate. This best illustrates:
a. Freud’s theory of guilt
b. Klein’s male Oedipus complex
c. Mahler’s rapprochement
d. Kohut’s mirroring need
Answer: b
35. 65. A patient attributes their internal rage to the therapist and believes the therapist is
angry at them. This is:
a. Projective Identification
b. Introjection
c. Splitting
d. Empathy failure
Answer: a
36. 66. A 3-year-old accepts that her mother sometimes says no but still loves her. She is
likely in which position?
a. Symbiosis
b. Paranoid-Schizoid
c. Depressive
d. Rapprochement
Answer: c
37. 67. A child stops crying when mother leaves and ignores her upon return. Attachment
style?
a. Secure
b. Anxious-Resistant
c. Avoidant
d. Ambivalent
Answer: c
38. 68. A boy who wants to destroy his father and fears retaliation is likely resolving his
Oedipal feelings through:
a. Idealization
b. Repression
c. Castration anxiety
d. Reparation
Answer: c
39. 69. A client re-experiences childhood emotions during therapy with a supportive
therapist. This is:
a. Insight
b. Regression
c. Transference
d. Catharsis
Answer: c
40. 70. An infant unable to see mother as a whole object may experience:
a. Depressive guilt
b. Splitting
c. Reparation
d. Internalization
Answer: b
V. Integration and Comparison
41. 81. Compared to Freud, Klein emphasized:
a. Later childhood trauma
b. Libido development
c. Early infant-mother interaction
d. Role of societal norms
Answer: c
42. 82. Mahler’s “psychological birth” refers to:
a. The physical birth
b. Social awareness
c. Formation of the ego
d. Emergence of individual identity separate from the mother
Answer: d
43. 83. Klein’s Oedipus complex begins:
a. At age 3-5
b. During latency
c. In early infancy
d. After the anal stage
Answer: c
44. 84. Ainsworth’s Strange Situation identifies:
a. Parental discipline types
b. Moral development
c. Attachment styles
d. Defense mechanisms
Answer: c
45. 85. Kohut believed the self develops through:
a. Object constancy
b. Introjection
c. Empathic interactions
d. Role modeling
Answer: c
46. 86. According to Bowlby, the mental model of relationships is formed by:
a. Frequent punishment
b. Attachment experiences in infancy
c. Peer interactions
d. Academic exposure
Answer: b
47. 87. Which of the following theories most aligns with evolutionary psychology?
a. Mahler’s stages
b. Bowlby’s attachment theory
c. Klein’s phantasies
d. Freud’s libido theory
Answer: b
48. 88. The grandiose-exhibitionistic self is part of whose theory?
a. Mahler
b. Freud
c. Kohut
d. Klein
Answer: c
49. 89. Klein’s concept of the “good breast” is most analogous to:
a. Mahler’s ideal object
b. Sullivan’s good mother
c. Bowlby’s secure base
d. Ainsworth’s secure attachment
Answer: b
50. 90. Freud viewed the superego as developing after the Oedipus complex; Klein saw it as:
a. Absent in childhood
b. Delaying moral growth
c. Present and harsh from infancy
d. Nonexistent until adolescence
Answer: c
