Chapter 1: Personality Research Methods Flashcards
Grand Theories of Personality
Attempts to theorize statements true to all humankind. Attempted explanations of the universal core of human nature.
What two things does contemporary research now focus on?
Either
1) Particular traits of personality
2) Particular domains/perspectives (such as the biological perspective of personality, or the social perspective)
Barnum Statement
A broad general statement that is made to believe is specific about that individual when it can easily apply to almost any human being.
What are the two factors that constitute personality?
Stability and consistency. Anyone can demonstrate any trait once or twice in their life, but that does not define who they are.
S-Data: include the pros and cons.
Self-report data. Usually obtained through surveys or interviews answered by the participants themselves. This allows access to inner emotions, cognitions and attitudes, although it is not always objective or effective as it relies on the participants’ honesty and self-awareness.
Social Desirability
People taking surveys/interviews have a tendency to “fake good”; people will underreport their negative traits, while overreport their positive traits.
Problem Magnification
People tend to “fake bad”; people will report false issues or overreport symptoms of existing issues to receive medical assistance more quickly.
Carelessness
Simply people not properly reading the material or the survey/reading it at all. People are just answering to complete the survey rather than give valid data.
Acquiescence
When the participant answering the survey agrees to everything.
Extreme Responding
When the participant answering the survey has strong opinions about everything leading them to always answer either a “strongly agree” or a “strongly disagree”.
Central Tendency
The participant answering the survey always has neutral answers which are useless data and provides no information.
O-Data: provide the pros and cons.
Observer-report data. There are multiple observers in an individual’s life. These observers include teachers, friends and family. This allows for more objective data, but no access to inner feelings and cognitions. Additionally, observers will only be able to view the individual in a specific context, leading the information to be limited to that specific environment rather than the whole personality of a person.
T-Data
Test data. This is the data collected during experiments. T-data requires the manipulation of a situation; we must be “testing” for something to collect T-data. This may also include physiological data/responses.
L-Data
Life outcome/lifetime data. Tracks information such as marriage longevity, criminal records, employment status, creative productions such as art and music, and social media posts. Essentially, looks at the participants’ lives and the quality of it.
Aggregation
“A group, body, or mass composed of many distinct parts or individuals.” This refers to the fact that tests/questionnaires are more reliable when they question specific traits with repetition in a variety of contexts. Although people may react differently in different contexts, their AVERAGE tendencies can be used to determine their personality.
