Dimensions of Personality Theories

Question 1

physical (level of construction)

Answer 1

pure objective description, including describing size, movement, place, & color; extremely limited view

Question 2

common sense description of actions (level of construction)

Answer 2

words have a shared/agreed upon interpretation/meaning within a culture; not making inferences for explaining the ‘why’ of an event

Question 3

meanings and intents (level of construction)

Answer 3

making inferences about the ‘why’ of an event or the cause and effect; aids prediction; e.g., child is crying –> child is depressed

Question 4

reductionism

Answer 4

mistaken belief or assumption that the smallest unit of analysis or the most specific construct is superior; we can explain certain behaviors by breaking them down into the most basic parts (e.g., physiology explains behavior better than psychology, behaviorism Is ___ - uses limited terms like stimulus, reinforcement, etc to explain all behavior)

Question 5

ideal definition

Answer 5

dictionary definition in the cultural language of what the construct means; particular level of concreteness, as it is usually reduceable to things one can point to; risk of individuals forming their own definitions if can’t point to something physical

Question 6

systematic definition

Answer 6

direct connection and links between other constructs; explicitly details construct meanings; clear & no implicit assumptions; no surplus meaning

Question 7

surplus meaning

Answer 7

the idea that there may be several meanings, as everyone defines terms distinctly; any use of language often involves multiple potential meanings other than explicitly stated; reliability decreases

Question 8

Western view of theories

Answer 8

the world is easily comprehensible with the appropriate principles; __ prioritize relevance of things we should know; everything is predictable; __ are universal, not relative; truth is true everywhere and always

Question 9

Eastern view of theories

Answer 9

the world is complex which thus decreases predictability of events (contradictions are natural, we will always have certain things we cannot understand); simplifying principles decreases understanding; all events are related; connects with Lehrer (2010) - truth is not true everywhere or forever (reason for things occurring evolves over time)

Question 10

Western view of language

Answer 10

emphasizes clarity and directness of language; goal: explain everything concisely and precisely

Question 11

Eastern view of language

Answer 11

language cannot and should not fully describe and explain; meaning and understanding are mutually construed (meaning is created by both the speaker and listener)

Question 12

Systematicness (Systematic vs. Nonsystematic)

Answer 12

refers to how well the theory organizes information (i.e., how much of the world the theory describes); how rich the network of constructs is (i.e., number of terms, whether elaboratively tied together); whether theory explicitly states assumptions; and whether theory specifies time relationships. Leads to greater predictability from limited observations.

Question 13

Operational vs. Non-Operational

Answer 13

refers to how rich the language is for measurement and communication; provides reliability/inter-subjectivity (individuals will form the same understanding/arrive at similar conclusions from identical observations)

Question 14

parsimony

Answer 14

simple explanations that do not depend on indirect assumptions; operations should be specific to one construct and should not overlap with one another (i.e., can’t measure different things in the same way).

Question 15

Kurtz and Grummon (1972) - Different approaches to the measurement of therapist empathy

Answer 15

found that the absence of a systematic definition of empathy resulted in a lack of agreement about the definition among individuals who created empathy scales, which created surplus meaning

Question 16

content theory

Answer 16

sub-theory of every theory; the relatively permanent effects of experience (i.e., stable personality characteristics); explains why different people respond/react differently to the identical event; f (process [previous experience] and genetics) - our current identity is determined by past experiences and any hereditary qualities.

Question 17

process theory

Answer 17

sub-theory of every theory; the changing & acquisition of characteristics; connects previous events to future behavior; must be systematic to enable greater predictability; f(content&environment); the better a __ is, the more control over therapeutic change.

Question 18

Heredity and Constitution vs. Experience (Content of Dimensions)

Answer 18

What has contributed to your content (i.e., who you are) throughout your lifetime?

__: genetic, biological term for qualities observed at birth (differences persist throughout life; implication: change cannot occur since personality is fixed) vs. ___: life events that occurred since birth (describe behavioral variability based on differentiations in how individuals are treated; implications: cannot account for differences at birth)

Question 19

Typologies

Answer 19

one central characteristic defines a person, and that core characteristic dictates all of the individual’s behavior. allows for many general predictions, but this means they are less accurate; they have 0 middle-level constructs (unable to predict variations in behavior of people of the same type).

Question 20

Generality vs. Specificity (Content of Dimensions)

Answer 20

___: few, broad general characteristics vs. ___: many specific, independent characteristics; primarily want a combination of the two types of constructs

if it is too ___ –> inaccurate predictions
if it is too ___ –> constructions are ineffective & have limited breadth

Question 21

Internal vs. Situational (Content of Dimensions)

Answer 21

What makes you behave as you do right now?

___: traits and characteristics from within that are brought to the situation vs. ___: cues in the environment, including different stimuli/elements, that draw behavior from you; interactional view: stability of individual’s behavior across kind or class of settings (both ___ determinants and previous experience are important)