Chapter Two Flashcards
self-report data (S-data)
information somebody reveals about themselves or others
unstructured (open-ended) self-report
twenty statements “i am _____” questionnaire
structured (forced-choice)
likert-type scale; indicates participants to answer a degree (number) to how much a trait characterizes them
experience sampling
people answer questions (such as about moods or physical symptoms throughout the day) every day at random times for several weeks or longer
observer-report data (O-data)
information gathered about our personalities from observing sources (parent, friend, teacher, etc.)
naturalistic observation
observers recording events that occur in the normal course of the lives of participants
artificial observation
when experimenters instruct participants to perform a task and observe how individuals behave in these constructed settings
test-data (T-data)
when participants are placed in a standardized testing situation to see if different people react differently to an identical situation
life-outcome data
the information that can be gleaned from the events, activities, and outcomes in a person’s life that are available to public scrutiny
triangulation
to examine results that transcend data sources (if results are the same for self-report data and a following observer-report data)
test-retest reliability
repeated measurement; whether a test produces similar results when repeated with the same participants under similar conditions
internal consistent reliability
examining the relationships among items themselves at a single point in time, and the items all correlate well with eachother
inter-rater reliability
when obtaining measurements from multiple observers and they all agree
response sets
refer to the tendency of some people to respond to the questions with answers unrelated to the question content
socially desirable responses
the tendency to answer items in such a way as to come across as socially attractive or likable
face validity
on the surface, a test measures what it’s supposed to measure
predictive validity
whether a test predicts criteria external to the test
convergent validity
whether a test correlates with other measures that it should correlate with
discriminant validity
what a measure should not correlate with
construct validity
a test measures what it claims to measure, correlates with what it’s supposed to, and is not correlated with what it shouldn’t correlate with
generalizability
the degree to which the measure retains its validity across various contexts
experimental methods
typically used to determine causality — to find out whether one variable influences another variable
random assignment
of participants, a procedure that helps ensure all groups are the same at the beginning of a study
counterbalancing
obtaining equivalence by counterbalancing the order of conditions
correlational studies
statistical procedures used for determining whether there is a relationship between two variables
act nomination
a procedure designed to identify which acts belong to which trait categories
prototypicality judgement
involves identifying which acts are more central to, or prototypical of, each trait category
the recording of act performance
securing information on the actual performance of individuals in their daily lives
the lexical approach
starts with the lexical hypothesis; all important individual differences have become encoded within the natural language
synonym frequency
if an attribute has not merely one or two trait adjectives to describe it but more, then it is a more important dimension of individual difference
cross-cultural universality
if a trait is sufficiently important in all cultures in which its members have codified terms to describe the trait, then the trait must be universally important in human affairs
statistical approach
numerically groups together like minded items aka a pool of personality items
factor analysis
identifies groups of items that covary, but tend not to covary with other groups of items
theoretical approach
starts with a theory that determines which variables are important
