Chapter 2

Question 1

self-reporting questionnaire

Answer 1

most common way to measure personality

Question 2

personality assessment

Answer 2

asks people to report their personalities, use adjectives or agreement with statements (Likert scale)

Question 3

what is the largest negative about personality assessments

Answer 3

prone to socially desirable responding

Question 4

how accurate are people at reporting own personalities

Answer 4

it depends on the person

Question 5

response bias

Answer 5

responding in inaccurate ways, not always conscious, personalities can influence

Question 6

social desirability bias

Answer 6

people self report in better light, more positives and less negatives

Question 7

agreement/acquiescence bias

Answer 7

select positive responses all the time, reverse-score to prevent

Question 8

reverse-scored

Answer 8

statements worded in the opposite direction

Question 9

acquiescence

Answer 9

agree to everything

Question 10

correlation (r)

Answer 10

measures statistical relationship between two variables, positive or negative

Question 11

null correlation

Answer 11

two variables are not related (not statistically significant), correlation of zero

Question 12

statistical significance

Answer 12

when probability of happen by random chance is less that 5%

Question 13

what does reliability tell us?

Answer 13

if a scale is a reliable, gives consistent result each time or consistently measuring the same thing

Question 14

internal reliability

Answer 14

when all items on scale report same concept, use Cronbach’s alpha statistic, 0.60 or more

Question 15

Cronbach’s alpha statistic

Answer 15

average correlation between items

Question 16

test-retest reliability

Answer 16

taking test at two different times produces similar results, at least 0.70, shows makes same results over time

Question 17

intercoder reliability

Answer 17

when assessment involves writing samples/behaviors, indicates correlation between coders’ ratings

Question 18

validity

Answer 18

measures what it is supposed to measure

Question 19

face validity

Answer 19

items appears to measure what they are supposed to

Question 20

predictive validity

Answer 20

measure is related to concrete behavior or outcome

Question 21

convergent validity

Answer 21

scale correlates with similar scales

Question 22

discriminant validity

Answer 22

scale doesn’t correlate with unrelated scales

Question 23

Horoscope example with validity and reliability

Answer 23

sign is consistent (reliable) but not valid because does not correlate well, discriminant and convergent validity

Question 24

Barnum’s effect

Answer 24

people’s tendency to believe vague, positive statements about themselves

Question 25

using statistics to understand personality

Answer 25

descriptive statistics allow for comparison of scores (normal curve)

Question 26

Marlowe-Crowne measures social desirability responding

Answer 26

responses show how people present in public

Question 27

What are the alternatives to self-reporting questionnaires

Answer 27

informant reports, clinical interviews, measuring behavior, archival outcome data, projective tests, physiological measures

Question 28

informant reports

Answer 28

when others report on someone’s personality (when person may lie, used for children)

Question 29

clinical interview

Answer 29

assess abnormal levels of personality that make personality disorder (unstructured, semi-structured, fully structured - best format depends)

Question 30

unstructured interview

Answer 30

interviewer can as any question in any order they want

Question 31

semi-structured interview

Answer 31

interviewer must ask specific questions but can also ask follow ups

Question 32

fully structured interview

Answer 32

interviewer can only ask specific questions in a specific order

Question 33

projective tests (psychodynamic)

Answer 33

measures designed to elicit personality characteristics without directly asking, Rorschach inkblot, thematic apperception test (tell story by picture)

Question 34

triangulation

Answer 34

using different research methods to answer same question, should correlate and show convergent validity (self report + other report + lab assessment = personality)

Question 35

mi

Answer 35

mediating variable, where x is correlated to mi which is correlated to y, not x to y

Question 36

correlational studies

Answer 36

relationship between characteristics, confounding variables, not causation

Question 37

experiment

Answer 37

cause and effect, random assignments to experimental and control

Question 38

longitudinal study

Answer 38

collects data from same people over time, help with direction of causality but still correlation

Question 39

ethics for research

Answer 39

informed consent, truthful reporting, Institutional Review Boards have guidelines

Question 40

getting accurate results

Answer 40

large enough sample (150-200), calculate number of people necessary with power analysis

Question 41

meta-analysis

Answer 41

study of studies that analyzes all results together

Question 42

many labs approach

Answer 42

findings are stronger when obtained in many different labs

Question 43

open practices

Answer 43

higher transparency, should give roadmap for others to check their work (some academic badges)

Question 44

open science

Answer 44

Center for Open Science, Open Science Framework, state goals before starting then gets linked when published, Harvard Data Repository is online database