individual differences: personality

Question 1

what is pervin, cervone and johns definition of personality?

Answer 1

“Characteristics of the person that account for
consistent patterns of experience and action”
(Pervin, Cervone, & John, 2004)

Question 2

what is hughes and bateys definition of personality?

Answer 2

“… a relatively stable and consistent set of
traits that interact with environmental factors
to produce emotional, cognitive and
behavioural responses” (Hughes & Batey, 2017)

Question 3

what are the 4 key influences in the development of personality?

Answer 3

1. Genetic Inheritance
2. Family Experience
3. Culture
4. Life experience

The product of all of the above

Question 4

what is the nature vs nurture debate?

Answer 4

Do genes (nature) or environmental factors (nurture) contribute more to a person’s being?

Question 5

what is the Bouchards case that supports the nature debate?

Answer 5

Twin Studies - case study
Bouchard studied identical twins called oskar and jack and found although they had been separated at birth they were very similar personality and behavioural wise. (nature)

Question 6

what is the case study in support of the nurture debate?

Answer 6

Isabel the chicken girl - case study
born and left in a chicken coop by her mother. she couldn’t speak, wasn’t toilet trained/ imitated the behaviour of the chickens (nurture)

Kamala and Amala - wolf children - caste study
girls who were raised by wolves behaved wolf like doing things like howling walking on all fours and ate directly from bowls with their mouths

Question 7

what do interactionists believe about the nature vs nurture debate?

Answer 7

that both are needed in order for human developmet

Question 8

what is a trait?

Answer 8

“A dimension upon which people differ psychologically.
Traits are stable over time” (Arnold et al., 2010, p. 715)

Question 9

what is an example of a trait?

Answer 9

tendencies to be enthusiastic, demanding, easy-going,
nervous, likeable, competent etc

Question 10

what is factors analysis?

Answer 10

Factors analysis is a statistical technique used to identify key
factors that underlie relationships between variables (Arnold
2010, p. 701)

Question 11

what is the 5 factor model of personality?

Answer 11

based on factor analysis that was derived by groups of psychologists including Goldberg as well as Costa & McCrae, 1987 it presented 5 big personality traits common amongst people around the world

Question 12

what is the big 5 personality traits?

Answer 12

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Question 13

what did Costa & McCrae define openness as?

Answer 13

Openness to Experience: like working with ideas and
possibilities, ready to re-examine attitudes and values

Question 14

what did Costa & McCrae define Conscientiousness?

Answer 14

Conscientiousness: highly organised and thorough in
one’s approach to tasks, a desire to do things well

Question 15

what did Costa & McCrae define Extraversion?

Answer 15

Extraversion: quantity and intensity of energy directed
outwards into the social world, outgoing, assertive

Question 16

what did Costa & McCrae define Agreeableness?

Answer 16

Agreeableness: being helpful to others, mindful of
others’ feelings, preferring cooperation to competition,
kind, sympathetic

Question 17

what did Costa & McCrae define Neuroticism?

Answer 17

Neuroticism: prone to worry and self-doubt, highly
affected by their emotions in stressful situations

Question 18

what are adjectives of openness

Answer 18

Artistically sensitive, intellectual
interests, reflective, insightful, curious

Question 19

what are adjectives of conscientiousness

Answer 19

Efficient, reliable, responsible, ethical,
organised, self-disciplined, scrupulous

Question 20

what are adjectives of extraversion

Answer 20

Talkative, outgoing, candid, energetic,
adventurous, sociable, assertive

Question 21

what are adjectives of agreeableness

Answer 21

Good-natured, forgiving, generous, noncritical, warm, cooperative, trusting

Question 22

what are adjectives of neuroticism

Answer 22

Anxious, tense, hostile, excitable,
emotionally unstable, impulsive

Question 23

what is Reliability?

Answer 23

consistent accurate measurement; few measurement errors
the extent to which a study can be repeated

Question 24

what is Criterion-related validity?

Answer 24

the strength of relationship between a predictor
(e.g., personality/intelligence test, interview) and the criterion (e.g. effective
work behaviours)

Question 25

what is Content validity?

Answer 25

covers representative behaviours/indicators of a construct
→ expert judgement needed

Question 26

what is Construct validity?

Answer 26

Does an instrument measure what it intends to measure.
Expected relations to (theoretically) similar constructs/measures.
→ correlations & factor analyses (CFA, EFA)

Question 27

Positive correlation

Answer 27

As one variable increases, the other variable also increases & vice versa

Question 28

Negative correlation

Answer 28

As one variable increases, the other variable decreases & vice versa

Question 29

according to the Meta-analytic evidence (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Barrick et al., 2001; Wilmot & Ones, 2021) how good is the big 5 at predicting job performance?

Answer 29

Conscientiousness – positively predicts job performance across a
range of jobs

Emotional stability (i.e., low Neuroticism) – positively associated
with job performance; law enforcement; military

Extraversion – positive relation in some jobs i.e., social jobs, such
as sales and management

Agreeableness – positively related to teamwork; healthcare

Openness – positively predicts training performance; professional
occupations

Question 30

what is the johari window model?

Answer 30

a quandrant consisting of:
arena: a personality trait and is known to everyone
blindspot: your reputation part of your personality known by others but not yourself
facade: part of your personality known to yourself and not to others
unknown: part of your personality not known by anyone