3: Personality measurement, measures, and judgment

Question 1

What are trait psychologists primarily interested in?

Answer 1

determining the ways in which people are different from each other

Question 2

Which approach does The trait perspective take?

Answer 2

It takes a quantitative approach, which emphasizes how much a given individual differs from average (statistical and mathematical)

Question 3

there is a degree of consistency in personality over time, but what is able to change?

Answer 3

the latent trait may remain stable but the manifest behaviour may change over the years

observing changes in behaviour in someone over time does not necessarily mean that his or her personality has changed. It can simply be that the latent trait is now expressed in other behaviours that may be more appropriate given, for example, one’s age.

Question 4

What is rank order?

Answer 4

If all people show a decrease in a particular trait at the same rate over time, they might still maintain the same rank order relative to each other

Question 5

Which traits show high test–retest correlations, even with years or decades between measurement occasions?

Answer 5

Traits such as intelligence, emotional reactivity, impulsiveness, shyness and aggression

Question 6

trait theories share three important assumptions about personality traits, which?

Answer 6

1. meaningful individual differences
2. stability or consistency over time
3. consistency across situations.

Question 7

How does personality traits relate to situations?

Answer 7

personality traits are average tendencies to behave in certain ways.

For example, if a young man is ‘really conscientious’, he is expected to be conscientious at work, conscientious at school and conscientious during recreation activities

Question 8

What did Walter Mischel say about traits, situations and behavior? And what is this position callad?

Answer 8

If behaviour differs from situation to situation, then it must be situational differences, rather than underlying personality traits, that determine behaviour.

This position is called situationism

Question 9

What did Mischel’s debate with trait psychologists made clear?

Answer 9

there are two possible explanations for behaviour, or why people do what they do in any given situation:

○ Behaviour is a function of personality traits, B = f (P).

○ Behaviour is a function of situational forces, B = f (S)

Question 10

is behavior a function of personality traits or is behavior a function of situational forces?

Answer 10

Both are correct - it depends

people behave differently at funerals than they do at sporting events, illustrating that situational forces direct behaviour in certain ways

Some people, however, are consistently quiet, even at sporting events, whereas other people are talkative and sociable, even at funerals. These examples lend support to the traditional trait position, which stresses that personality determines why people do what they do

Question 11

What does Funder (2006) personality triad say?

Answer 11

That behaviour is a function of the interaction between personality traits and situational forces

Therefore, it consists of the triad: persons, situations and behaviours

Question 12

When very specific situations can provoke behaviour that is otherwise out of character for the individual, it is called xxx?

Answer 12

situational specificity

in which a person acts in a specific way under particular circumstances

Question 13

situations in which nearly all people react in similar ways are called?

Answer 13

strong situations

This could be e.g. funerals

Question 14

Apart from situational specificity and encountering strong situations, there are three other ways in which personality traits interact with situations, which?

Answer 14

1. situational selection, the tendency to choose the situations in which one finds oneself
2. personality influences the kinds of situation in which people spend their time. This is also referred to as the person–environment fit.
3. situation can affect the person’s personality as well

Question 15

What is evocation?

Answer 15

the idea that certain personality traits may evoke specific responses from the environment

Question 16

What is manipulation?

Answer 16

Manipulation is the intentional use of certain tactics to coerce, influence or change others

Individuals differ in the tactics of manipulation they use

Question 17

Which measurement does the trait approach rely on?

Answer 17

self-report questionnaires

Although trait psychologists can use other measurement methods (e.g. projective techniques, behavioural observation)

Question 18

What does Carelessness/inattention refer to? (in self-report-measurements)

Answer 18

Some participants filling out a trait questionnaire might not be motivated to answer carefully or truthfully

Question 19

When is carelessness/inattention often seen?

Answer 19

if questionnaires are too long, the participant may not be reading the questions carefully but is nevertheless providing answers

Question 20

How could one detect carelessness/inattention in self-report measures?

Answer 20

1. A common method for detecting these problems is to embed an infrequency scale within the set of questionnaire items. The infrequency scale contains items that all or almost all people will answer in a particular way. fx “jeg går altid på hænder op af trappen”
2. Another technique used to detect carelessness is to include duplicate questions spaced far apart in the questionnaire.
3. include reversed questions
4. include factual or reasoning questions “how many sides are there in a triangle?”

Question 21

What is it called when participants have the tendency to choose intermediate or neutral answers?

Answer 21

middle category endorsement

Question 22

In which way could you minimize middle category endorsement?

Answer 22

by using a forced-choice format.
For example, in this case the researcher may decide to use two alternatives (‘yes’ and ‘no’) instead of three

You could also use a Likert Scale - but here people could also choose a lot of middle answers

Question 23

Sometimes people are lying when filling out a self-report, what does it mean for a researcher when the answers are rated false negative or false positive?

Answer 23

1. The researcher may conclude that a truthful person was faking and reject that person’s data (called a false negative).
2. Or they may decide that a person who was faking was actually telling the truth (called a false positive)

Question 24

What is a Barnum statement?

Answer 24

They are generalities – statements that could apply to anyone.

These are often found in astrology predictions

Question 25

What does classical test theory assume?

Answer 25

that each observed score (X) consists of a true score (T) and an error component (E). That is, X = T + E. The more one can reduce the error in an assessment, the more closely the observed score will approach the true score

Question 26

What does response theory (IRT) state?

Answer 26

that the probability that a person will give a certain answer to an item (statement, question, etc.) depends on the characteristics of the person and the item

Question 27

What is personnel selection?

Answer 27

When employers use personality assessment in the workplace to pick out the “right” candidate for a job

Question 28

What is integrity tests?

Answer 28

tests that are designed to predict a tendency toward theft or other forms of counterproductive behaviours in work settings

Question 29

Which tests are often used to select the right candidate for a policejob?

Answer 29

the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which primary use is to identify persons with significant psychological problems.

Question 30

What is the most widely used personality assessment device in business settings?

Answer 30

the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which provides information about personality by testing for eight fundamental preferences. These eight fundamental preferences reduce to four scores – you are either extraverted or introverted; sensing or intuitive; thinking or feeling; judging or perceiving

Question 31

Which problems are there with the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?

Answer 31

1. the theory on which it is based – Jung’s theory of psychological types – is not widely endorsed by academic or research-oriented psychologists.
2. People don’t come in “types” like a bimodal distribution, instead people are placed normally distributed.

Question 32

Given the highly negative reviews on the scientific merit of the MBTI, why does it continue to be a hugely popular tool in consulting and career counselling?

Answer 32

□ First, the popularity of the MBTI may reflect the success of the publisher’s marketing campaign.

□ In addition, the test comes with rather simple scoring and interpretation instructions, making it usable and understandable by people without advanced training in personality psychology.

□ Moreover, the interpretations the test offers are readily translated into seemingly sensible predictions about work and interpersonal relations

Question 33

Shold the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator test be used to select employees?

Answer 33

NO, people are more than what the test indicates and the test does not have a scientific foundation

Question 34

What is an alternative to the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator test and why?

Answer 34

the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

Because:
1. the HPI is based on the Big Five model, which has been modified specifically for applications to the workplace

2. The construction and development of the HPI followed standard statistical procedures, resulting in an inventory with a high level of measurement reliability (mere end 400 validitetsforsøg)
3. The test has been able to predict occupational success in a wide variety of job categories
   (over 200 different work categories)

Question 35

What is social cognition?

Answer 35

the process through which people think about and make sense of themselves and others

Question 36

What are the Four core processes of social cognition?

Answer 36

Attention: the process of consciously focusing on aspects of one’s environment or oneself

Interpretation: giving information meaning

Judgment: Using information to form impressions and make decisions

Memory: Storing information for future use

Question 37

What does it mean that people are motivated tacticians in relation to goals of social cognition?

Answer 37

as peoples goals change, they adopt different styles of thought.
Because goals are very different, different styles of thought are sometimes needed to achieve them.

Question 38

Why do people have to conserve their mental effort?

Answer 38

Because of the complex social environments, we need simple ways of understanding the world - strategies that help us make “good enough” judgments

Question 39

Our belief about the world function as xxx?

Answer 39

expectations

(tell us what we may expect from people and situations - saving us the effort of having to evaluate each new situation from scratch)

Question 40

We tend to remember people and events that are consistent with our expectations - true/false?

Answer 40

True. But sometimes we also have good memory for events inconsistent with expectations because they receive a lot of attention

Question 41

Our expectations are sometimes inaccurate leading to stereotypes - true/false?

Answer 41

True.

Question 42

What is an Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 42

It is when an initially inaccurate expectation leads to actions that cause the expectation to come true

Question 43

What is Dispositional inferences and why does it occur?

Answer 43

judgments that a person’s behavior is caused by his or her disposition, or personality.

When people want to simplify and conserve mental effort, they tend to see other peoples’ behaviors as stemming primarily from their personality.

It may be simpler to assume a personality influence than to assume a situational one as situations that influence behavior often are invisible to observers

Question 44

What is Correspondence bias?

Answer 44

the tendency to overestimate the causal influence of personality factors on behavior and to underestimate the causal role of situational influences.

Question 45

Why is the the fundamental attribution error (also called correspondence bias) far from fundamental?

Answer 45

Because it depends on whether the culture is individualistic or collectivistic.
If individualistic the correspondence bias often occur, but in collectivistic cultures people often assume that situational factors caused the behavior.

Question 46

What are cognitive heuristics?

Answer 46

a mental shortcut used to make a judgment

Question 47

Which cognitive heuristics does people use?

Answer 47

1. Representativeness heuristic - a mental shortcut people use to classify something as belonging to a certain category to the extent that it is similar to a typical case from that category
2. Availability heuristic - a mental shortcut people use to estimate the likelihood of an event by the ease with which instances of that event come to mind
3. Anchoring and adjustment heuristic - a mental shortcut through which people begin with a rough estimation (an anchor) as a starting point and then adjust this estimate to take into account unique characteristics of the present situation
   OBS! this can result in The false consensus effect

Question 48

What is the false consensus effect?

Answer 48

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others agree with us

Question 49

When do we use mental shortcuts?

Answer 49

1. when high in arousal - it narrows the beam of our attentional spotlight.
2. when it’s our circadian down time (tired)
3. a dispositional need for structure increase the desire for mental economy and thus encourage individuals to take cognitive shortcuts
4. when situations are complex and when time is short.

Question 50

Why do we desire positive self-regard?

Answer 50

• With positive self-regard comes the belief that we’re effective - such beliefs help us summon the willpower and energy we need to achieve.
• Self-regard indicates how we’re doing in our social lives - when our social interactions and friendships are going well, we feel better about ourselves.
• Self-regard may indicate how successfully we’re living up to society’s standards of value - when self-regard is low it may signal that we need to affirm our society’s values.
• health benefits (mere indirekte, og ikke noget vi direkte handler pba.)

Question 51

Which Cognitive strategies do we use for enhancing and protecting the self?

Answer 51

1. Social comparison
   - Downward social comparison = the process of comparing ourselves with those who are less well off (for at få det bedre med sig selv)
   - Upward social comparison = the process of comparing ourselves with those who are better off (for at motivere til self-improvement)
2. Self-serving attributions
   Self-serving bias = you take personal credit for your successes and blame external forces for your failures
3. Exaggerating our strengths, diminishing our weaknesses
   - if you see yourself as smart, you will place a high value on intelligence as a trait. Similarly people tend to devaluate the traits and abilities they don’t have.
   by manipulating the relative importance of different traits and abilities, we can boost our self-image. “I have what’s important”

Question 52

Self-esteem influence the strategies people use to create a positive self-image. Which strategies do you use when your self-esteem is high, moderate and low?

Answer 52

High self-esteem = direct self-enhancing strategies

Moderate to low self-esteem = focus on protecting the esteem they already possess.

Question 53

What are attribution theories?

Answer 53

Attribution theories are theories designed to explain how people determine the causes of behavior

People are trying to attribute the causes of behavior to forces either internal to the actor or external to the actor

Question 54

Two attribution theories have been especially prominent, which?

Answer 54

Edward Jones and Keith Davis - correspondent inference theory

Harold Kelley - covariation model

Question 55

What is central in the correspondent inference theory (Edward Jones and Keith Davis)?

Answer 55

The theory proposes that people determine whether a behavior corresponds to an actor’s internal disposition by asking whether:

1) The behavior was intended
2) The behavior’s consequences were foreseeable
3) The behavior was freely chosen
4) The behavior occurred despite countervailing forces

Question 56

What is central in the covariation model (Harold Kelley)?

Answer 56

the theory proposes that people determine the cause of an actor’s behavior by assessing whether other people act in similar ways (consensus), the actor behaves similarly in similar situations (distinctiveness) and the actor behaves similarly across time in the same situation (consistency).

Kelleys covariation model proposes that the effective detective might extend the analysis even further by considering available information outside the immediate situation.

Question 57

Evaluating and developing measures of personality operates at three distinct levels, which?

Answer 57

1. Instrument
   - e.g. which test should I use to assess a broad range of characteristics of the individual?
   (fx full big five inventory - you should choose whose big five to use)
2. Test/Scale
   - ønsker man at måle ekstroversion, så skal man se på om testen viser nok bredde og giver nok information til at man kan sige noget ud fra den.
3. measure/Item
   - is the item effective for assessing the trait?
   - validitet

Question 58

When trying to classify personality assessments you could consider two characteristics, which?

Answer 58

1. Structure of the test
   - is it structured with contrained response options or open-ended?
2. Disguise
   - hvor tydeligt er det hvad der spørges om?

Question 59

Give an example of a structured, non-disguised test?

Answer 59

The big five

Question 60

Give an example of a structured, disguised test? when is this useful?

Answer 60

MMPI (Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory)

When lying might be a major concern (derfor disguised, så de ikke nødvendigvis forstår hvorfor netop dét spørgsmål stilles)

Question 61

Give an example of a non-structured, non-disguised test? When is this useful?

Answer 61

Therapy

Useful in settings where respondent and assessors goals align, and when the respondents current perceptions of their environment and themselves is important

Question 62

Give an example of a non-structured, disguised test? When is this useful?

Answer 62

Projective tests / Rorschach test

Useful when one believes unconscious factors strongly affect behavior (fx som forsøg på at forhindre forsvarsmekanismer fra at forstyrre respons)

Question 63

When creating a personality inventory you can use the rational strategy (aka the theoretical method), what does this ad consist of?

Answer 63

• Write questions that appear related to the trait you want to measure (face valid)
• select items that “hang together” (correlate with each other)

Man udvælger nogle spørgsmål som lægger sig tæt op at det trait man vil undersøge og grupperer dem.

structured and non-disguised

Question 64

When creating a personality inventory you can use the empirical strategy, what does this ad consist of?

Answer 64

• identify individuals with important features e.g. skizophrenia
• ask them lots of questions about anything and everything
• identify patterns of responses characteristic of the group(s) of interest (e.g. “i like to read mechanics magazines” and skizophrenia)

structured and disguised

Question 65

When creating a personality inventory you can use the factor analysis strategy, what does this ad consist of?

Answer 65

• provide participants with a broad set of questions (with direct relevance to personality and fewer than the empirical strategy)
• identify multible groupings of items that hang together = factors

Question 66

Are children a good source of self-report?

Answer 66

No, they don’t know themselves very well

Question 67

what is extreme responding? (self-report)

Answer 67

when extreme options are selected rather than intermediate options, even when inaccurate.

Question 68

What does inattention and extreme responding/response sets hurt - validity or reliability?

Answer 68

Inattention = reliability

Extreme responding / response sets = validity

Question 69

People can lie or fake in a self-report, how could you minimize the risk of this?

Answer 69

1. include a question that involve “unlikely virtue” or “unlikely vice” like “I’ve never gassed in public”
2. Include an overclaiming question
   e. g. include a band that doesn’t exist.

Question 70

What could be the reasons people are faking in self-reports?

Answer 70

1. social desirability responding
   - svarer efter hvad samfundet mener er bedst
2. ideographically desirable responding
   - man erklærer sig uenig med det samfundet mener er fordelagtigt

Question 71

When do you often use the MMPI test?

Answer 71

when you raise suspecion on faking

Question 72

The MMPI test use 3 validity scales to detect response biases, which?

Answer 72

1. “lie scale” (which assess social desirability biases)
2. “F scale” (which assess careless responding)
3. “K scale” (which assess a defensive test-taking attitude)

Question 73

The MMPI have some issues, which?

Answer 73

• some scales have low reliability (test-retest, internal consistency)
• some scales have social/racial biases (e.g. people say insulting and vulgar things about me” could be true if you are ethnic, and therefore not a expression of bad mental health)
• Not always useful for normal personality

Question 74

What is the implicit association test (IAT)?

Answer 74

A test that measure something uncontrolled like reaction time, when trying to assess information about personality.

People who implicitly know they have a certain trait will respond faster when the trait is paired with “me” than with “not me”

Question 75

What is a projective test?

Answer 75

A test where you “project” your own feelings, desires or fears onto stimuli

e.g. inkblots in the Rorschach test

Question 76

How is the validity and reliability of the Rorschach test?

Answer 76

Reliability and validity are heavily contested

low test-retest

Question 77

Why do we use projective tests?

Answer 77

They can be used to supplement information from other, more valid tests.

BUT! they can make things worse, like the “Broken leg” case (Meehl) or make you neglect more valid tools

Question 78

What is the thematic apperception test (TAT)?

Answer 78

a projective test with pictures of individuals in important life situations with ambigious scenes.

One should answer what is happening in the photo.

Answers often refer to oneself.

Question 79

How do we know if our personality judgments are right?

Answer 79

1. consensus: judgments that agree with judgments from other sources (such as other people)
2. Predictive validity: judgments predict the target person’s behavior

Question 80

What makes a good judge for personality?

Answer 80

1. someone open, conscientious, intelligent and sociable
2. a woman
3. a communion - someone interested in developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships

Question 81

What makes a good target when assessing personality?

Answer 81

1. someone stable
2. someone who does not change much across situations
3. someone extraverted and agreeable (easy to observe)
4. someone with a transperent self

Question 82

When is it easy to assess personality?

Answer 82

1. when the traits are good
   - observable
   - evalutative
   - evolutionary (maybe)
   - related to sociosexuality
2. when the information is good
   - more information are better
   - strong situations vs. weak situations
   - not a stressful/emotional situation where people are having a hard time to self-monitor

Question 83

What does SOKA (Vazire) mean?

Answer 83

self-other knowledge assymmetry

Question 84

What is central in the SOKA (Vazire) model?

Answer 84

It is a model for how high/low of observeableness and evaluativeness a given trait is.

How observable and evaluative a trait is, influence whether yourself or others are the best/most accurate predictors of the trait.

e.g.
extraversion = highly observable, low on evaluative (self- and others rating = equally)

neurotisism = low on both observability and evaluativeness (self-rating are more accurate)

Intellect = low observable, high evaluative (others ratings are more accurate)

Question 85

What is central in the realistic accuracy model?

Answer 85

consists of 4 steps for making a good judgment of a persons traits:

1. the behavior observed has to be relevant to the trait
2. the behavior should be available to the observer/judge
3. the behavior should be detectable by the judge
4. utilization = can the behavior be interpreted the right way?