Intro To Differential - Personality And Intelligence Flashcards
What is differential psychology?
The psychology of how we perceive ourselves and others
According to Cronbach’s Two Disciplines (1957) what do experimental psychologists do?
Manipulate conditions to see what happens
According to Cronbach’s Two Disciplines (1957) what do correlational psychologists do?
Identify and measure free-standing patterns of nature we cannot directly control.
Why are both experimental and correlational types of research needed?
Experimental methods fail to acknowledge that some error in the model is systematic.
Correlational methods fail to acknowledge that situations also constrain behaviour.
What do differnetial psychologists do?
Focus on what can be measured by building theories and assessments about observed phenomena and what might be causing them.
How do psychological differences affect experiments?
They create “noise” or error in experiments and statistically this is called variance
What is a trait?
A characteristic that can produce a particular kind of behaviour.
What are the three asssumed aspects of traits?
They lie within us, allow us to distinguish between individuals, and stay relatively stable over time.
Why are traits important to study?
They can predict life outcomes. However, this is not fate as other factors impact life outcomes too.
Why is it difficult to measure psychological differences?
We cannot directly observe many of the characteristics we are interested in
What is the process for measuring psychological differences?
- Define the trait, constraining what we can measure.
- “Operationalise” it by writing psychometric items to create a measurement “tool”.
- Test the reliability and validity of the measurement tool.
- Examine the shared variance amongst items.
- Consider measurement error.
Who distinguished between fluid and crystallised intelligence?
Cattell (1971)
Who created this definition of intelligence?
“A global concept that involves an individual’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively with the environment”
Wechsler 1958
Who created these definitions of intelligence?
“A very general mental capacity that among other things involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems etc.”
“A broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings - “catching on”, “figuring out what to do”. “
Gottfredson (1994)
Who created this definition of intelligence?
“What the intelligence tests test”
Boring (1923)
