Introduction to Personality Psychology Flashcards
What is the definition of personality
regularities of affect, behaviours and beliefs
typical mode of response
shows identity and reputation
expressed as a pattern of dispositional traits
what are dispositional traits
probabilistic descriptions that regularities in affect, behaviours and cognition
traits that only occur over multiple general and broad context
dispositional traits = conceptual definitions
therefore, if want to measure dispositional traits, need to use other operational definitions
what is the history of dispositional personality traits development?
- Ancient Greek
- Allport and Odbert:
> based on the lexical hypothesis, went through the dictionary and came up with 18,000 lexical terms that are used to describe what people are like - Cattell:
> by using factor analysis, shortened the list to 16 factors
What is the lexical hypothesis?
the hypothesis that all terms that are used to describe human are all coded in the dictionary throughout human history
What are the flaws of Cattell’s work
subjectivity (when reducing the terms)
poor replicability
redundancy
What is the model that is developed after Cattell’s work? and the difference between the two models
the big five model (Goldberg) and the five factor model (Costa)
lexical approach vs questionnaire approach
extraversion
agreeableness
consientiousness
neuroticism
intellect (openness to experience)
What is the difference between Allport’s and Cattell’s work
allport came up with a long list of words to describe personality while Cattell came up with a taxonomy/structure/system
Explain the hierarchical structure of personality traits
personality traits can be described in a hierachical model (broader terms > narrower terms)
the narrower terms are not necessarily redundant to the broader terms
no statistically method can understand how many levels there are
e.g., neuroticism (broader big five terms) > anxiety (narrower terms)
Briefly talk about the affect, behaviour, cognition of each Big Five element
Extraversion
> Affect: positive mood and energy
> Behaviour: outgoing, talkative
> Cognition: optimistic
Agreeableness
> Affect: cooperative, trustworthy
> Behaviour: trusting, cooperative, helpful
> Cognitive: understanding
Conscientiousness
> Affect: careful
> Behaviour: pay attention to details, clean
> Cognition: attention to detail
Neuroticism
> Affect: negative mood, worries
> Behaviour: timid, quiet
> Cognitive: ruminate, lack of self confidence
Openness to experience
> Affect: feeling of awe, interest, curiosity
> Behaviour: Love to explore
> Cognitive: curiosity, creativity
What are the two methods to measure whether a method is scientific
reliability
measures the consistency of the method
measure score: true score + measurement error
validity
how relative does the questionnaire measure the construct
explain the types of reliability measures and validity measures
reliability
replicability
> test-retest reliability
> inter-rater reliability
internal consistency
> split-half realiability
> cronbach’s alpha (if a < .6 = not reliable)
validity
> face validity
> content validity
> criterion related validity
> concurrent validity
> convergent (how much correlate to relative items) and divergent (how much correlation with unrelated items)
> Predictive validity
Explain internal consistency
have a consistent result between all the items that measure the same construct
Explain characteristics adaptation and life narratives
they exist because some researchers believe that personalities cannot be expressed merely by dispositional traits
characteristics adaptation
> highly contextualised
> based on time (life stage), place (environmental niche), role (social niche), goal (desired future state), interpretations (appraised current state), strategies (plans and actions to move between states)
life narratives
> highly individual
> view the person’s life as a story
> narrative identity: the internal and dynamic life story of an individual
Viewed from two aspects
> Theme: the outline of the story and the moral of the story
> Structure/Form: the content and details of the story,
