Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is the study of individuals?
Personality
What are the ways that personality is described?
Types, Traits, and Factors
How many TYPES can a person have?
Only one
How many TRAITS can a person have?
Many
What are comparisons with other individuals? (Research based on groups of people)
Ex. comparing various peoples scores on a test, taking personality tests and seeing if you scored higher or lower than most people.
Nomothetic
What is a study that focuses on one individual rather than many? This is a very intense case study of a single individual.
Idiographic
What is a method of knowing based on systematic observation? Ex. conducting an experiment to see whether an intervention increases self-esteem
Scientific Method
What is the assumption that phenomena have causes that can be discussed by empirical research?
Determinism
What is a conceptual tool for understanding certain specific phenomena?
a Theory
What are the two levels of thinking in theory?
Theoretical level (theoretical constructs) and Observable level (operational definitions)
Is a hypothesis derived from an observable position or a theoretical position?
Theoretical Position
What is required criteria of a good theory?
Verifiability, Comprehensiveness, Applied Value, & Parsimony and Heuristic Value
What are ideas about personality that are held by ordinary people and not based on formal theory?
Implicit theories
What are personality measurements?
Reliability, Validity, and Measurement Techniques
What is repeatability, as when a measurement is repeated at another time or by another observer, with similar results?
Reliability
What is a desirable characteristic of a test, indicating that it actually does measure what it is intended to measure?
Validity
What is a research strategy that manipulates a cause to determine its effect?
Experimental Research
What is a research strategy that examines the relationships among measures?
Correlational Research
What variable is manipulated and thought to be a “cause”?
Independent Variable
What is an intensive investigation of a single individual?
Case Study
What is the application of a personality theory to the study of an individuals life?
Psychobiography
What is combining ideas from a variety of theories?
Eclecticism
What is a basic theoretical model, shared by various theorists and researchers?
Paradigm
