1. Principles + aims, methods, psychometrics (KEY INFO)

Question 1

Individual differences can be defined as…

Answer 1

enduring, typical characteristics or dispositions of individuals.

Question 2

The ________ approach is most frequently used in the study of individual differences.

Answer 2

psychometric

Question 3

Caprara and Cervone (2000) argue that the focus on developing lists of traits or tanomonies is limited because…

Answer 3

it tends to focus on descriptions of the nature of individual differences.

Question 4

Test scores are used to…

Answer 4

make high stakes decisions about individuals

Question 5

An important psychometric principle relates to SCALING and this states that…

Answer 5

complex psychological phenomena can be transformed into quantities or numerical data that represent real differences in complex psychological qualities.

Question 6

The main types of measurement used in individual differences psychology are…

Answer 6

self-report data, observational data, life data and test data.

Question 7

Individual differences psychology relies heavily on __________ data.

Answer 7

self-report

Question 8

The alpha coefficient is the type of reliability used to measure…

Answer 8

the relationship between the individual’s test score and their true score.

Question 9

The psychometric approach to measurement states that actual measures or scores consistent of two types of error, namely _______ error and __________ error.

Answer 9

random

systematic

Question 10

Psychometric tests consist of multiple items and your ‘score is calculated by…

We call your final score…

Answer 10

adding up your scores on a number of items (and sometimes calculating an average score)

aggregate individual data