Chapter 2: Personality Research Methods

Question 1

What is Funder’s second law?

Answer 1

There are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous

Question 2

What is Funder’s third law?

Answer 2

Something beats nothing, two times out of three

Question 3

What are the four (+2) kinds of data?

Answer 3

1. S Data: Self-Report
2. I Data: Informants’ Report
3. L Data: Life Outcomes
4. B Data: Behavioral Observations
5. Natural B Data
6. Laboratory B Data

Question 4

How do we collect information from the different kinds of data?

Answer 4

1. S Data: Ask the person directly
2. I Data: Ask someone they know
3. L Data: Collect information from archive
4. B Data: Watch what the person does

Question 5

What is reliability?

Answer 5

It it the measurement that reflects what you are trying to assess and are not affected by anything else

Question 6

What is validity?

Answer 6

It is the degree to which a measurement measures what it is supposed to

Question 7

What is a construct?

Answer 7

A construct is something that cannot be directly seen or touched, but which affects and helps to explain things that are visible (ex. gravity)

Question 8

What are the three types of generalization over participants?

Answer 8

1. Gender bias
2. Shows versus no-shows
3. Ethnic and cultural diversity

Question 9

What is the definition of the case method?

Answer 9

The case method involves closely studying a particular event or person in order to find out as much as possible

Question 10

What is the definition of the correlational method?

Answer 10

A research technique that establishes the causal relationship between an independent variable (x) and a dependant variable (y) by randomly assigning participants to experimental groups characterized by differing levels of (x), and measuring the average behaviour that results in each group

Question 11

What are the three research design?

Answer 11

1. Case Method
2. Experimental Method
3. Correlation Method

Question 12

Data are…
a. clues to personality
b. always ambiguous
c. how researchers can “see” personality
d. all of the above

Answer 12

d. all of the above

Question 13

If you are interested in what a person does, rather than what a person says about himself, then you should collect…
a. S data
b. L data
c. B data
d. I data

Answer 13

c. B data

Question 14

What does it mean to say that S data have causal force?
a. S data cause personality
b. What people think about themselves influences how they behave
c. How people behave is caused by what others think of them
d. People’s environments cause their self-perceptions

Answer 14

b. What people think about themselves influences how they behave

Question 15

There is a possibility that individuals are so accustomed to certain aspects of their personality that they might not be aware of those traits. This is called the ________ effect.

a. self-verification
b. narcissism
c. fish-and-water
d. self-expectancy
e. auto-blindness

Answer 15

c. fish-and-water

Question 16

Because each kind of data has limitations, personality psychologists should…

a. only use L data, which are the most reliable
b. gather as much data as possible
c. not bother collecting data
d. use only one source of data and control for its limitations
e. focus on S data because it represents the truth as each individual understands it

Answer 16

b. gather as much data as possible

Question 17

What is the best way for a researcher to judge the face validity of items on a measure?

a. Read and consider the content of the items
b. Conduct a confirmatory factor analysis on the items
c. Conduct an exploratory factor analysis on the item
d. Conduct a pilot study using the items
e. Conduct an internal consistency analysis on the items

Answer 17

a. Read and consider the content of the items

Question 18

The most important advantage of B data is that they are based on…

a. a report by the best expert, so they are more accurate
b. common sense, so they have greater psychological relevance.
c. concrete behaviours, so they are never ambiguous
d. direct psychological tests, so they have greater causal force and scientific value
e. direct observations of behavior, so they are more objective and quantifiable

Answer 18

e. direct observations of behavior, so they are more objective and quantifiable

Question 19

Records of employee absenteeism are what type of data?

a. I
b. L
c. B
d. S

Answer 19

b. L

Question 20

According to the text, accidental mistakes in judging personality are considered ________, whereas inaccurate judgments that are influenced by prejudices are considered ________.

a. trivial; serious
b. errors; biases
c. biases; stereotypes
d. random; systematic
e. heuristic errors; formal errors

Answer 20

b. errors; biases