exam 1 (midterm) Flashcards
the three components of the “psychological triad”
think, feel, and behave
The unique goal of personality psychologists (hint: mission impossible)
Explain whole persons
But if you try to understand everything about a person at once, you will be overwhelmed.
trait approach
how people differ psychologically
psychoanalytic approach
focus on the unconscious mind and internal mental conflict
biological approach
understand the mind in terms of the body
learning and cognitive processes approach
Learning, classic behaviorism, social learning, cognitive personality
phenomenological approach
focus on people’s conscious experience of the world
Has humanistic and cross cultural aspects
What is the “One Big Theory”? What’s the disadvantage of using the OBT?
The OBT explains everything that the trait, biological, psychoanalytic, humanistic, and learning/cognitive approaches account for separately
Unlikely to be able to explain all aspects of personality well, which is why personality psychologists use multiple approaches to gain a fuller idea.
self reports data
participants simply tell the psychologist (usually via questionnaire)
informant’s data
to gather info about one’s personality, ask the people that know them the best
life data
verifiable, concrete, real-life facts that hold psychological significance
Such as age, gender, income, GPA, etc.
behavior data
observations of behavior in daily life or in a lab
*Natural B data vs lab B data
*Physiological measures: blood pressure, galvanic skin response, heart rate, etc.
out of SIBL- which is more frequently used
Most personality tests provide S-data, others use B-data
Be familiar with what “causal force” looks like in S data.
An advantage of S data
S data tends to create reality: if you see yourself as friendly, you will make extra effort to come across that way
Definition of “omnibus” in terms of personality inventories
Omnibus inventories aim to assess a broad range of personality traits
such as the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)
projective tests
ask someone to interpret a meaningless/ambiguous stimulus
Rorschach inkblot, thematic apperception test, etc.
All projective tests provide B-data: they are specific, directly observed responses to a particular stimulus
All the disadvantages of B data apply
objective tests
tests that consists of a list of questions to be answered Yes/No, True/False, numeric scale, or computer scored sheet
Much less open to interpretation and more objective
3 methods used for constructing objective tests: rational method, factor analytic method, and empirical method
limitations of projective tests
o Expensive, timely
o Psychologist cannot be sure what they mean
o Less expensive techniques work as well or even better
Be familiar with what happens to “reliability” in objective tests that involve a large number of questions.
The principle of aggregation: Averaging measurements, allowing random influences to cancel each other out
Spearman-brown formula: Measures degree to which reliability increases with more items
reliability
provides same results repeatedly
Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity
validity
degree to which a measurement actually measure what it is supposed to
generalizability
the degree to which a measurement or results applies to other tests, situations, or people
open science
A set of practices intended to move research closer to the ideals on which science as founded
Include fully describing all aspects of all studies, reporting studies that failed as well as those that succeeded, and freely sharing data with other scientist
trait approach uses what type of research design?
correlational designs
primary focus of the trait approach.
Focuses exclusively on individual differences, focus on comparisons
The trait approach seeks to measure the degree to which a person might be more or less dominant, sociable, or nervous than someone else
-Made on ordinal rather than ratio scales
The main tenets of the “situationist” position (in other words, what would a situationist believe to be true in terms of personality?)
There is an upper limit to how well one can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of their personality. This upper limit is a low upper limit
Situations re more important than personality traits
The professional practice of personality assessment is a waste of time, and also everyday intuitions about people are wrong, because we see others as being more consistent across situations than they really are. The fundamental attribution error is to believe that behavior is importantly influenced by personality
person situation debate
Which is more important for determining what people do: the person or the situation?
how personality judgement affects the Opportunities and Expectancies of a person.
Opportunities: employment, friendships
-Example: shyness
Expectancies
-Intellectual expectancy effects: climate, feedback, input, output
-Social expectancy effects: perceptions of attractiveness influence behavior
Definition of the expectancy effect (sometimes known as “self-fulfilling prophecies”)
tendency for someone to be the kind of person they are expected to be
Review graph of group consensus and accuracy. What does the research say about this? (What doesn’t change as much while the other significantly increases?)
Consensus (agreement among judges) was almost as good at the beginning as ti became by the end, did not change significantly
Accuracy (agreement between their descriptions and the targets’ own self descriptions) did improve significantly
Why? Judges’ first impressions of their target agree with each other because they are based on stereotypes and other misleading cues. After observing for a period of time, judges begin to discard stereotypes and see the person as they really are
Be able to identify the four moderators of accuracy.
- The Good Judge: socially skilled, agreeable, adjusted, high empathic concern
- The Good target: judgability, extraverted, agreeable, etc.
- The good trait
- The good information (larger amount, better quality)
Important aspect of the “good trait”
Easy to observe, highly visible
Evidence against the idea that peer judgements are socially constructed and agreement is based on communication
The Big Five: 1) Know which one tends to describe negative emotionality. 2) Which one is most difficult to grasp of the five?
Neuroticism: negative emotionality
Openness: least replicable across samples and cultures ???
single trait approach
examine correlations between 1 trait and many behaviors
What do people with a certain personality trait do?
many trait approach
examines correlations between 1 behavior and many traits
Do people with certain traits do one important behavior?
Know which traits you scored highest on in the “Big Five Personality Project” assessment and be able to explain why you agree (or disagree) with the results.
Conscientiousness and agreeableness were my highest scores
Conscientious: rule-abiding, ambitious, considerate, avoid risk, feel guilty when I don’t meet expectations
Agreeableness: compassionately, modest, cooperative, team player, rate others positively
Definition of “personality stability” and how it is evidenced in terms of correlation (.60 to .90)
Rank-order consistency: people tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people of the same age
R = 0.60-0.90 for 10-year span
What is “heterotypic continuity”? Provide an example.
Fundamental behavioral and emotional tendencies stem from that very early root and persist throughout life and develop into adult personality. The expression of these tendencies change with age, but underlying trait is the same
Fragile child acts differently than fragile adult, but trait is the same
According to the “Steps to Personality change” model, there are the two primary steps that need to take place for personality change to occur. What are these two steps?
Want to change (desirable or necessary) , and believe change is possible (feasible)
function of frontal cortex
Cognitive functioning, such as planning, foresight, and understanding
Crucial for unique human aspects of cognitions like planning and anticipating consequences (central to conscientiousness, empathy, moral reasoning)
function of amygdala
Links perceptions and thoughts with emotional meaning
Role in negative and positive emotions
Assessing whether a stimulus is threatening or rewardin
Definition of Neural context effect
It is important to look at more than one area of the brain to understand complex processes
Frontal lobes and emotion: What is the evidence that emotions are intertwined with frontal lobe functioning? (hint: left vs right frontal lobes)
Pleasant emotions (left) and unpleasant emotions (right)
Approach (left) and withdrawal (right)
What are neurotransmitters?
Biological substances that affect the body in locations different from where they were produced
Critical for communication across the synapses between neurons
function of dopamine
o Responding to rewards and approaching attractive objects and people
- Name the hormone associate with “fight or flight” responses
epinephrine and norepinephrine
Name the field of study under the biological approach that attempts to explain individual differences in behavior.
o Behavioral genetics: addresses how personality traits that differ among individuals are passed from parent to child and shared by biological relatives
o Molecular genetics: determine whether differences in traits correlate with differences in a particular gene
Know what is meant by “evolutionary personality psychology.”
Addresses how patterns of behavior that characterize all humans may have originated in the survival value of these characteristics
What is the “evolutionary mismatch?”
Idea that certain traits that have evolved in the past may not be useful or may even be detrimental to survival today
Describe two key points relating to gene-environment interactions.
Shared environment does not seem to matter very much
Propensities to behave in certain ways
Alleles and cultural differences: prevalence of alleles may vary across cultural groups
Genes are not causal. There must be an environment for there to be behavior
Thoroughly answer the following points:
Be able to describe the purpose of the MEP in relation to this course (1pt)
Be able to describe three concepts learned in class that apply and/or inform you of your current mentorship experience (3 pts).
