Ch.2 - Personality Research Methods Flashcards
S-Data
Self reported data, high face validity
I-Data
Informant data, information from people that know you
L-Data
Life outcome data, objective truths in someones life in the past
B-Data
Behavioral observations, observing the subject
Advantages of S-Data
- Large amounts of info
- access to thoughts, feelings
- simple
Disadvantages of S-Data
- lack of self awareness
- dishonesty
- too simple
Advantages of I-Data
- large amount of info
- real world basis
- more honest
Disadvantages of I-Data
- limited behavioral info
- lack of access to private experience
- bias
Advantages of L-Data
- objective and verifiable
* important
Disadvantages of L-Data
• lack of psychological relevance
Advantages of B-Data
- wide range of contexts
* appearance of objectivity
Disadvantages of B-Data
- difficult and expensive
- uncertain interpretation
- subjective
Face-Validity
Measures what it seems to measure on face value
Self-Verification
People work to confirm their self conception
Expectancy Effect/Behavioral Confirmation
Adjusting behavior to meet expectations
EAR
Electronically activated recorder
Ambulatory Assessment
Computer assisted methods to assess behavior, thoughts, and feelings
Lab B-Data
experiments where researchers make an event occur and records the behavior
Test Reliability
Reliable tests measure variables consistently
Error variance
Portion of the data that occurred by chance
Aggregation
Allows random influences to cancel each other out
Factors That Undermine Reliability
- low precision
- participant state
- experimenter state
Factors that Improve Reliability
- aggregation
* standardized research procedure
Validity
A valid test measures of predicts what it claims to measure
Construct validity
The extent to which a test actually measures what it should
Face Validity
Test appears to measure what its supposed to
Convergent Validity
How a measure is related to what it should be
Discriminant Validity
A measure is not related to what it should not be
Generalizability
The degree to which the measure maintains its validity across contexts
Unstructured Interviews
Lets person talk freely, yields rich info but low validity
Structured Interviews
Pre determined questions to be asked, more valid but no individual nuances
Expressive Behavior
Analysis in how people stand, move, and speak
Experiments
Research methods where investigator varies some factors, keeps others constant, and measures effect on random assigned subjects
Experimental Group
Participants exposed to independent variable
Control Group
Participants not exposed to the independent variable
Random Assignment
Procedure of assignment subjects to groups
Experimental vs Correlational Methods
Both:
1. Assess relationships between two variables
2. Statistics are interchangeable
Differences:
• Experimental manipulates causal variable, correlational measures it
