Lecture 2: Traits and taxonomies

Question 1

What is reliability?

Answer 1

Reliability refers to the consistency or stability of a measure (precision)

Question 2

What is test re test reliability?

Answer 2

AKA repeated measure reliability, a measure has test re test reliability if it remains consistent through repetition

Question 3

What is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 3

looks at the agreement between the multiple raters, their coding is correlated to see if it is in statistical agreement

Question 4

What is internal consistency?

Answer 4

does each item in a scale correlate with all the other items? Measured with cronbach’s alpha

Question 5

What is validity?

Answer 5

Degree to which test measures what it claims to measure

Question 6

What is face validity?

Answer 6

does the scale look like its measuring what it’s supposed to be measuring?

Question 7

What is predictive/criterion validity?

Answer 7

does the scale predict the behaviour or outcome that its intended to?

Question 8

What is convergent validity?

Answer 8

similarities between our constructs and questionnaires that measure similar qualities, e.g., narcissism scale and entitlement scale should correlate if they do you have convergent validity

Question 9

What is discriminant validity?

Answer 9

our scale should not be correlated with scales that measure opposite concepts, e.g., an extraversion scale should not correlate with psychoticism

Question 10

What is construct validity?

Answer 10

measures the theoretical construct, the umbrella term that encompasses all subtypes of validity

Question 11

What is Generalizability?

Answer 11

Degree to which a measure retains validity across different contexts, including groups of people and different conditions
-Greater generalizability not always better; what is important is to identify empirical contexts in which a measure is and isn’t applicable

Question 12

What are the research designs used in personality research and which is used most commonly?

Answer 12

• Experimental methods
• Correlational studies (used most often)
• Case studies

Question 13

What are trait descriptive adjectives?

Answer 13

Words that describe traits, attributes that are characteristic of a person and perhaps enduring over time (e.g., shy, friendly, funny)

Question 14

What are the three questions that guide trait research?

Answer 14

1) What are traits?
2) How can we identify which traits are the most important in explaining the ways that people differ?
3) How can we develop a comprehensive taxonomy of traits?

Question 15

What is a taxonomy of traits?

Answer 15

A system that includes within it all the major traits of personality

Question 16

What are the 3 approaches to identification of important traits?

Answer 16

1) Lexical approach
2) Statistical approach
3) Theoretical approach

Question 17

Describe the lexical approach

Answer 17

• Built on lexical hypothesis: all important individual differences have been encoded within the natural language
• Trait adjective terms are important for people in communicating with others
• Two criteria for identifying important traits
• Synonym frequency (the more synonyms a trait has, the more important it is. E.g., extraversion)
• Cross- cultural universality (a trait is more important if it appears across cultures ,i.e., other cultures have words for it

Question 18

What are the limitations of the lexical approach?

Answer 18

• Many traits are ambiguous, obscure, or difficult
• Personality is conveyed through different parts of speech (not just adjectives), including nouns and adverbs
• So many traits are defined as important in this method and no scientific method for narrowing down
• 18,000 trait descriptive adjectives in most comprehensive dictionaries

Question 19

What is the statistical approach?

Answer 19

• Borrowing on the lexical approach. Starts with large, diverse pool of personality items
• Most researchers using lexical approach turn to statistical approach to distill ratings of trait adjectives into basic categories of traits
• Goal of statistical approach is to identify major dimensions of personality
• Most common is factor analysis (identifies groups of items that covary with each other but do not covary with other group of items

Question 20

What is factor analysis and factor loading?

Answer 20

• Factor analysis is a distillation process that organizes group of items by their similarities
• Factor loading: Index of how much a factor explains a variable in factor analysis (-1 to 1). You only get out of a factor analysis what you put in

Question 21

what is the theoretical approach?

Answer 21

• Starts with a theory, which determines which variables are important
• Example: sociosexual orientation
• “Dads”(interested in long term commitment relationships) vs. Cads –> critical individual difference which leads to different mating styles
• Test this theory in the real world to find out important traits
• Strengths coincide with strengths of a theory, and weaknesses coincide with the weaknesses of a theory

Question 22

What problems do the various approaches for identifying traits solve?

Answer 22

• Problem of identifying key domains of individual differences
• Problem of describing order or structure that exists among the individual differences that were identified

Question 23

What is eysenck’s model of personality?

Answer 23

-Model of personality based on traits that Eysenck believed were highly heritable and had psychophysiological foundation
-Example of Traits as Internal Properties
-Three traits met criteria: (PEN)
Psychoticism (P), Extraversion-Introversion (E), Neuroticism-Emotional Stability (N)

Question 24

What was the hierarchical structure of eysenck’s system?

Answer 24

• Super traits (P, E, N) at the top
• Narrower traits at the second level
• Subsumed by each narrower trait is the third level—habitual acts
• At the lowest level of the four-tiered hierarchy are specific acts
• Hierarchy has the advantage of locating each specific, personality-relevant acts within increasingly precise nested system

Question 25

What are the biological underpinnings of eyesencks theory?

Answer 25

Biological underpinnings- key criteria for basic dimensions of personality: 1) heritability 2) identifiable substrates
-Behavioural genetic evidence: P, E, and N have moderate heritability
Identifiable physiological substrate (CNS causal chain)
E-I and heightened brain arousal/reactivity (extraverts have low cortical arousal so seek it from environment and introverts have high arousal therefore )

Question 26

What are some limitations of the biological underpinnings?

Answer 26

• Many other personality traits show moderate heritability

- Eysenck may have missed important traits (3 traits are not enough)

Question 27

What was Cattell’s taxonomy?

Answer 27

• the 16 Personality factor system (e.g., introverted extroverted, high IQ-low IQ, excitable-stable)
• Cattell’s goal was to identify and measure the basic units of personality
• Believed that the true actors of personality should be found across different types of data, such as self report and laboratory tests
• This taxonomy has been used to develop personality assessment tool. 16-PF
• Used to create personality models in business applications, clinical settings, counseling and research for predicting human behaviour

Question 28

What is the five factor Model?

Answer 28

• Originally based on the combination of lexical and statistical approaches
• Big five taxonomy has achieved a greater degree of consensus than any other trait taxonomy in the history of personality trait
• Openess, Conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness neuroticism

Question 29

What are the big five predictions of outcomes?

Answer 29

• Higher educational attainment and earnings predicted by high emotional stability (low N), openness and conscientiousness
• Happiness predicted by high extraversion and low neuroticism (the relationship between extraversion and happiness is sometimes so wrong that extraversion is called positive emotionality)
• Forgiveness predicted by high agreeableness and emotional stability
• Risky sexual behaviors predicted by high extraversion, high neuroticism, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness

Question 30

Which of the big five traits do women score higher in?

Answer 30

Neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

Question 31

What is missing in the five factor model?

Answer 31

-The troublesome fifth factor (the ‘O’): some disagreement remains about the content and replicability of fifth factor (different items in FA). Openness to experience, culture, intellect, imagination, tender mindedness, fluid intelligence

Question 32

Describe people with high vs. low openess

Answer 32

High: creative, artistic, curious, imaginative, non-conforming
low: conventional, down to earth, uncreative

Question 33

Describe people with high vs. low conscientiousness

Answer 33

High: organized, reliable, neat, ambitious
low: unreliable, lazy, careless, negligent, spotaneous

Question 34

Describe people with high vs. low extraversion

Answer 34

high: talkative, optimistic, sociable, affectionate
low: reserved, stays in background, doesn’t mind spending time alone

Question 35

Describe people with high vs. low agreeableness

Answer 35

High: good natured, trusting, helpful
Low: rude, uncooperative, irritable, aggressive

Question 36

Describe people with high vs. low neuroticism

Answer 36

High: worrying, insecure, anxious, temperamental
Low: calm, secure, relaxed, stable

Question 37

What are the 2 key requirements of the experimental method?

Answer 37

• manipulation of one or more variable
• Ensuring that participants in each experimental condition are equivalent to each other at start of study –> Randomly assign participants to groups