intro to individual differences

Question 1

what is studying indiv diff

Answer 1

its a keystone area that examines how people are similar and diff in their thinking feeling and behaviour

Question 2

what is the basis of indiv diff

Answer 2

plato
-no 2 persons are born exactly alike, but each differs from the other in natural endowments

Question 3

personality according to allport

Answer 3

dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychological systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings

Question 4

what is personality

Answer 4

a mental concept that influences behaviour via mind and body interaction

Question 5

why interested in personality

Answer 5

-helps to explain motivation behind behaviour
-framework to describe and predict similarities and differences
-helps with understanding personality development
-helps understand mental illness and abnormal behaviour, plus developing interventions

Question 6

what are the personality theories

Answer 6

-trait vs type
-eysenk’s personality theory
-carl jung
-cattell’s 16pf trait theory
-psychodynamic
-humanstic
-behavioural, biological, evolutionary

Question 7

how to evaluate theories

Answer 7

-description
-explanation: how theory explains behaviour
-empirical validity: generate predictions
-are concepts operationalised so they can be tested
-comprehensiveness: does the theory encompass normal and abnormal behaviour
-parsimony: economical in terms of the number of explanatory concepts, we want the simplest concept
-heuristic value: does it stimulate research and interest
-applied value: practical usefulness of a theory
-cultural context: some personalities more focused in some cultures than others

Question 8

what is intelligence

Answer 8

ability to solve problems or to create products that are values within 1 or more cultural settings (gardner)

Question 9

what does intelligence involve the ability to…

Answer 9

-learn
-recognise problems
-solve problems

Question 10

theories of intellignece

Answer 10

-charles spearman: general intelligence
-thurstone: primary mental abilities
-sternberg: triarchic theory of intelligence
-gardner: multiple intelligences (8subsets of personality)

Question 11

what is emotional intelligence

Answer 11

ability to perceive, manage and understand our own emotions and the emotions of others
-3 core theories

Question 12

what are the approaches to measuring indiv diff

Answer 12

1.idiographic: central and unique to indiv, not looking to make generalisations, specific characteristics of a person e.g case study, usually qualitative research

2.nomothetic: identify indiv variables or traits that occur across groups, uses statistical techniques to accumulate large amounts of data, helps to draw assumptions and conclusions

Question 13

what are the tools of the trade used to measure personality

Answer 13

-personality measures e.g myers briggs
-ability measures to see how well person performs at specific skill
-motivaiton/drive theory to explain why
-attitude measures e.g likert scale questionnaire
-neuropsychological tests
-psychometric test

Question 14

what is factor analysis

Answer 14

used to develop tests of personality e.g the five factor model

Question 15

constructing psychometric tests

Answer 15

is the test free from error
does it provide confidence and evidence for usefulness
reliability and validity

Question 16

internal reliability

Answer 16

-all items measuring the same thing, as indicated by high correlations among them
-cronbach’s alpha measures reliability of scale
-close to 1 = high reliability

Question 17

test retest reliability

Answer 17

-you should get same score on test 1 as test 2

Question 18

inter rater reliability

Answer 18

do diff raters agree on scoring

Question 19

split half reliability

Answer 19

scores from first half compared to scores on second half

Question 20

convergent validity

Answer 20

association with measures related e.g depression and self esteem

Question 21

concurrent validity

Answer 21

comparing new test with existing one of same nature

Question 22

discriminant validity

Answer 22

tests if concepts that are supposed to be unrelated are unrelated

Question 23

face validity

Answer 23

degree to which procedure appears effective at first glance

Question 24

content validity

Answer 24

evaluates how well an instrument (test) covers relevant parts of construct it aims to measure

Question 25

predicitve validity

Answer 25

ability of test to predict future outcome