Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is differential psychology?
studying forms of individual differences and personality traits such as abilities, aptitudes, and intelligence
Which is more consistent over time, personality traits or attitude, interests, & opinions?
personality traits – esp. broad based ones
What is situationism?
if behaviour differs from situation to situation, it must be situational differences (rather than personality traits) that determine behaviour
What is person-situation interaction?
behaviour is a function of the interaction between personality and situational forces
What is aggregation?
the process of adding up, or averaging, several single observations, resulting in a more reliable measure of a personality trait than a single observation of behaviour
What is carelessness in terms of a measurement issue?
Participants filling out questionnaires carefully due to rushing, unmotivated, tired, etc.
How can you catch carelessness?
- infrequency scales – if one or two of these items are “wrong”, then the test can be flagged
- duplicate questions
What is an infrequency scale?
items in a questionnaire that almost all people will answer in a particular way
What is faking in terms of a measurement issue?
motivated distortion of answers on a questionnaire
How can you catch faking?
Build a “faking good” profile and a “faking bad” profile and compare participants to these
What is a Barnum statement?
statements that could apply to anyone - generalities
What is the MMPI?
personality test used in the workforce that assess a large number of characteristics
Which is better in selecting police officers? The MMPI-II or the CPI?
CPI
What is the main criticism with the MBTI?
- it is based on a theory that is not widely endorsed by research or academic psychologists
- people are usually somewhere in between, not at the extremes
