Final exam Flashcards
Define personality using the psychological triad
An individuals characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and patterns
Psychological triad
Affect, behavior, cognition (ABC)
Five basic approaches to explaining human personality
- Trait approach
- Biological approach
- Psychoanalytical approach: unconscious mind
- Phenomenological approach: conscious experience
- Learning and cognitive processes
Describe concept of “One Big Theory” and explain if it applies to personality
Theory that accounts for certain things well, but won’t account well for other things. It does not apply to personality because if we have one big theory then it’s less likely to thoroughly answer the question, as opposed to having multiple questions.
Describe the four main sources of data for personality research and identify one advantage and one disadvantage for each
- S-Data: Self reports like questionnaires. A: easy and fast to collect. D: people are motivated to portray themselves better
- I-Data: Informant’s reports. A: They observe you in the real world. D: They might not know everything about you.
- L-Data: Life outcomes that are verifiable facts (gpa, income) A: Real facts awe can verify. D: It doesn’t always tell us everything about a person.
- B-Data: Behavioral data by directly observing sample group. A: Can create a situation for your study. D: Can’t always observe the things you want to study.
Contrast reliability and validity and identify the statistic they are both based
Reliability: consistently yields the same result
Validity: measures what it intends to measure (truth)
Both are based on correlation statistics (r).
Describe factors that undermine reliability and techniques to improve reliability.
Undermine: low precision, state of participants, state of experimenter, the environment
Improve: standardized research protocol (ex. script for SAT), care with research procedure, measure something important, aggregation
Define aggregation
Averaging
Type of reliability
Interated reliability
Describe two types of validity
- Convergent: seeing how one test designed to assess a construct correlates with other tests assessing the same construct
- Discriminant: Unlike other measures of different constructs
Define generalizability and name 3 participant characteristics that are facets
The extent to which a measurement can be found under diverse circumstances
1. Gender bias
2. Shows vs. no-shows
3. Ethnic and cultural diversity
Describe factor analysis and identify how it is related to validity.
Analyzes correlations among questions in a test. Related to validity because it answers “are we measuring what we say we’re measuring”
Describe the basic components of correlational research. Explain the major drawback of
correlational research and identify two general categories of alternative explanations.
- Naturalistic and un-intrusive
- No manipulation
- Cause and effect cannot be determined
- Reverse causation problem
- Third variable problem
Describe the basic components of experimental research. Explain two benefits and two
major drawbacks of experimental research.
- Manipulate predictor
- Measure outcome
- Generalizable, ethical considerations
What are the 6 types of psychological testing
- Physiognomy
- Phrenology
- Association method
- Personal data sheet
- MMPI
- Neo-PI
Physiognomy information
- Aristotle (350 BCE)
- Way of measuring by looking at physical attributes to tell about their personality
Phrenology information
- Francis Gall (1758-1828)
- Read contours of the skull to discern personality traits
Association method
- Carl Jung (1875-1961)
- Standardized list of words with interpretation guidelines
Personal data sheet
- Robert Woodworth (1869-1962)
- 116 true/false items to measure neurotic symptoms
- PTSD
- Logically selected
MMPI
- Hathaway and Mickinley (1943)
- Focuses on pathology
- Empirically selected
NEO-PI
- Costa and McCrae (1985)
- Big 5, created by using factor analysis