Chapter 4 Flashcards
Foundation of Trait Psychology
Meaningful individual differences, stability over time, and consistency across situations.
Differential Psychology
Study of other forms of individual differences in addition to personality traits, such as abilities, aptitudes, and intelligence.
Rank Order Stability
If all people show a decrease in a particular trait at the same rate over time, they might still maintain the same rank order relative to each other.
Consistency
Trait theories assume there is some degree of consistency in personality over time.
Situationism
Behavior shifts depending on the situation, so situational differences must determine behavior and not personality traits.
Person-Situation Interaction
One has to take into account both particular situations and personality traits when understanding a behavior.
Aggregation
Adding up or averaging several single observations, resulting in a better measure of a personality trait than a single observation of behavior.
Situational Specificity
A person acts in a specific way under particular circumstances implying that their behavior is caused by the situation.
Strong Situation
Situations in which nearly all people react in similar ways (e.g. funerals, crowded elevators).
Situational Selection
Tendency to choose the situations in which one finds oneself, not finding themselves in fandom situations.
Evocation
Idea that certain personality traits may evoke specific responses from the environment.
Manipulation
Various means by which people influence the behavior of others.
Aggregation
Process of adding up, or averaging, several single observations, resulting in a better measure of a personality trait than a single observation of behavior.
Density Distributions of States
Used to understand the implications of aggregation for how we think about personality traits.
Infrequency Scale
Contains items that all or almost all people will answer in a particular way.
Faking
Motivated distortion of answers on a questionnaire.
False Negative
Researchers conclude that a truthful person was faking and reject that person’s data.
False Positive
Researchers decide that a person who was faking was actually telling the truth.
Barnum Statements
Generalities, statements that could apply to anyone.
Personality Assessment of the Workforce
Based on personnel selection, integrity testing, and concerns over negligent hiring.
Personnel Selection
Employers sometimes use personality tests to select people especially suitable for a specific job.
Integrity Testing
Designed to assess whether a person is generally honest or dishonest.
Overt and Covert Integrity Testing
Both are self-report measures of integrity used in business and industry. Overt measures include questions directly related to past violations of workplace integrity, such as excessive absenteeism or theft. Covert measure include questions that are indirectly related to integrity, such as questions about personality traits that are correlated with workplace integrity, such as conscientiousness.
Negligent Hiring
Hiring someone who is unstable or prone to violence.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Required employers to provide equal employment opportunities to all persons.
Female Underprediction Effect
College entrance exam scores underpredict grade point average for women relative to men.
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures
Purpose of the guidelines is to provide a set of principles for employee selection that meet the requirements of all federal laws.
Disparate Impact
A plaintiff must show that an employment practice disadvantages people from a protected group.
Race of Gender Norming
Forbids employers from using different norms or cutoff scores for different groups of people.
Americans with Disabilities Act
An employer cannot conduct a medical examination during the selection process.
Right to Privacy
Cases that charge an invasion of privacy claim against an employer can be based on the federal constitution, state constitutions and statutes, and common law.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Personality types based on 8 fundamental preferences.
Psychological Types
People come in types or distinct categories of personality.
Hogan Personality Inventory
Questionnaire measure of personality based on the Big Five model but modified to emphasize the assessment of traits important in the business world, including the motive to get along with others and the motive to get ahead of others.
Variability
How external stimuli affects your mood.
Self-Esteem Variability
Self varies depending on situation.
Self-Efficacy
How I feel about myself.
Self-Concept
How I think of myself.
