Introduction/Methods (chapters 1-2) Flashcards
What is the Psychology Triad
The idea that personality psychology addresses how people feel, think, and behave. These things sometimes are in conflict with each other
What is Personality?
An individuals patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour
Its hard to study someones personality, what is a way personality psychologists do so?
The Basic Approach - limiting what you look at, search for more specific patterns and ignoring the bigger picture, since it will be overwhelming
What is the largest and most dominant approach in studying personality psychology
The Trait Approach - focuses on the ways that people differ psychologically and how these differences might be conceptualized, measured, and followed over time
What approach in studying psychology focuses on biological mechanisms and individual differences in the body?
The Biological Approach
What approach (in studying personality psychology) focuses on investigating the unconscious mind and the nature and resolution of internal mental conflcit
Psychoanalytic approach
What is the Phenomenological approach
Focuses on peoples Conscious experience of the world
What is Humanistic Psychology
The approach to psychology that emphasizes aspects of psychology that are distinctly human (things that wouldnt be of concern to your dog)
What is Classic Behaviourism
Classic behaviourism focuses on overt behaviour and the ways it can be affected by rewards and punishments
What is the Social Learning Theory
The Social Learning theory draws inferences about the ways that mental processes such as observation and self-evaluation determine which behaviours are learned and how their performed
What is “Funders first law”
The idea that great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and vice versa
What is the main goal of personality psychology
To explain the whole person and how people function in daily life
Whats the difference between Technical training and Scientific training
Technical training teaches how to use what is already known; scinetific training teaches how to explore the unknown
At the end of scientific education, a future scientist must demonstrate what?
That they have discovered something new
What did Henry Murray comment about personality
That in order to understand personality, first we have to look at it
What is Funders Second Law
There are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous (not clear)
What is Funders Third Law
Something beats nothing, two times out of three
(clues about someones personality might be misleading, but its better than nothing)
What does BLIS stand for
B data - Behavioural Observations
L data - Life Outcomes (how the person is faring in life)
I data - Informants reports (how the person is described by acquaintances and others)
S Data - Self reports
What are some advantages about S-data?
- we can get a lot of information out of them (you know yourself the best)
- we have access to thoughts, feelings, and intentions
- some s-data is true by definition (eg.self esteem)
- casual force (the idea of self-efficacy)
- simple and easy
What are some disadvantages about S-data?
Bias (you dont think your kind but you tell the reporter you are)
Error (you might see yourself as kind but you are not)
Too simple and to easy
What are some advantages and disadvantages about I-data (informants reports)
advantages
- large amount of information
- real-world basis
- common sense and context
- some I-data are true by definition (eg.likeability)
- casual force
disadvantages
- limited behavioral information (a person eill act different in different environemnts and around different groups of people)
- lack of access to private experience (information is only from the outside)
- bias and error
What are some advantages and disadvantages about L-data
Advantages
- objective and verifiable (things like income and marital status can be expressed in exact numeric form)
- intrinsic importance (natural)
Disadvantages
- multidetermination (L data can have many casues)
What are some advantages and disadvantages about b-data
Advantages
- wide range of contexts
- appearance of objectivity
Disadvantages
- difficult and expensive
- uncertain interpretation
What is the Expectancy Effect / Behavioural Confirmation
The tendancy for someone to become the kind of person others expect them to be
What are some of the types of ways you can get b-data
Diary and experience-sampling methods (participants fill out daily diaries about their day)
Electronically activated recorder (EAR), at certain intervals, sample sounds are recorded
Small wearable cameras
Data from cell phones (phone calls, how long they are and what no)
Social media
Labratory B-data (expereiments done in a lab)
What are Projective tests
A personality test that asks clients to interpret meaningless or abiguous stimulus
What are two advantages of labratory b-data
1) Range of Contexts: the psychologist doesnt have to sit arounf waiting for something to happen, they can just make it happen
2) Appearance of Objectivity: the psychologist is gathering information about personality and does. not have to take anyone elses word for it
What are two disadvantages of Labratory b-data
1) difficult and expensive
2) uncertain interpretation: b-data is usually numbers, and numbers dont interpret themselves
What is a Projective Test?
A personality test that asks the client to interpret meaningless or amiguous stimulus
