Four Methods in Personality Psychology

Question 1

What complications arise concerning variables/methods and personality?

Answer 1

Challenging variables to directly observe

Often need several approaches to answer a question

Question 2

What are the four basic types of data?

Answer 2

S - Self-data
I - Informant
L - Life outcome data
B - Behavioural data

Question 3

Data generated from asking someone to evaluate their personality

Answer 3

Self-data (S)

Question 4

What are two characteristics of self-data?

Answer 4

Most common
Perceived high validity

Question 5

Data generated from asking others who know a person to evaluate their personality

Answer 5

Informant (I)

Question 6

Data generated from evaluating how a person is doing in life

Answer 6

Life outcome data (L)

Question 7

Data generated from observing a person as directly as possible

Answer 7

Behavioural data (B)

Question 8

What are two key issues with self-report data?

Answer 8

Biases

Differences or issues with understanding/interpretation

Question 9

To know if a self-report measure is accurate, we need a criterion that is…

Answer 9

Objective, ecological

Question 10

What are two major challenges with traits?

Answer 10

How do we define traits?

How do we quantify traits?

Question 11

Name and describe the three components of the act frequency approach (AFA)

Answer 11

Nomination: Brainstorming characteristics of the variable you want to measure

Prototypicality: Identify the things that are most characteristic of the variable of interest

Observation: Observe daily behaviour

Question 12

Name a pro and a con of the AFA

Answer 12

Pro: Measure of personality independent of self- and other-ratings

Con: Often done in a lab setting, lacks ecological validity

Question 13

What are two key issues with real-life observation?

Answer 13

Influence of observer

Time needed to observe

Question 14

When you see this card, study the “Information Captured by the EAR” diagram

Answer 14

My bad I could not bring myself to type this out

Question 15

What do people typically predict when comparing self-report measures to other methods?

Answer 15

People consistently predict self-ratings will be more accurate than other-ratings

Question 16

What were the findings of the study on self-reports and other-reports using the EAR?

Answer 16

Self- and informant-reports were significantly related to EAR observations

Including other-reports along with self-reports increased the accuracy

Varied across behaviours; Some behaviours are more accurately reported by the individual, other behaviours are more accurately reported by others/informants

Question 17

What does the SOKA acronym mean?

Answer 17

Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry

Question 18

Personality domains can vary according to (SOKA)…

Answer 18

Observability: how visible/obvious it is to others

Evaluativeness: how much it contributes to one’s self-perception

Question 19

How do observability and evaluativeness relate to neuroticism, extraversion, and openness/intellect according to the SOKA model and what does that mean for predictions regarding the accuracy of self- and other-ratings?

Answer 19

Low observability, low evaluativeness= neuroticism (self-rating should be more accurate than other-ratings, friend ratings should be more accurate than stranger ratings)

High observability, low evaluativeness = extraversion (self- and other-ratings should be equally accurate)

Low observability, high evaluativeness openness/intellect (other-rating should be more accurate than self-ratings, friend ratings should be more accurate than stranger ratings)