methods and assessments Flashcards
what is the popular observational study mentioned in the lecture?
mary ainsworth’s strange situation
- observes child’s behavior with stranger and caregiver
- gives rise to attachment theories
observing oneself is called ___________.
introspection
Carl Jung’s 8 personality types (_ _ _ _) were conveived from his work with ____________.
MBTI; introspection
are observations formal or informal sources of info?
informal
what are the pros and cons of observational studies?
pros:
- easy to collect data
- useful info
cons:
- misinterpretation
- memories may be biased
the common method for studying personology is _____________.
observational - case studies
what is personology?
study of person as an entire coherent entity
- personal and social functioning, thoughts, feelings, reactions and actions
case studies of personology involves __-_______ study of a ______ person, across _____ periods of _________. It is heavily _________ with. It’s depth provides __________ take on that person studied.
in-depth; single; long; observations; tempered; critical
what are the pros and cons of case studies?
pros:
- in-depth knowledge
- info pertains to everyday life
- context insight (discovery and verification)
cons:
- high specificity, low generalisability
**elaboration on contextual insight as a pro for case studies:
Discovery: The case study provides clarity on how and why certain results or phenomena emerged. It helps in understanding the real-life conditions or events that led to the observed outcomes.
Verification: It also allows for the confirmation of findings within the same environment or situation. This means the results can be validated against the same contextual factors, enhancing their relevance and reliability.
which research method provides real time answers? what are participants supposed to do?
experience/diary sampling
participants has to answer qns about mood states, behaviors and experiences multiple times a day
what is one issue of the traditional diary sampling?
recall issues/biased memory of participants
what does the beeper study find? which research method was used?
research method: experience sampling
finding of the beeper study is that high testosterone individuals characterised by:
- restless
- thinking
- action
- right now
- likely with friends
pros and cons of experience sampling
pros:
- in-depth info
- across extended period of time
- avoids recall issues
- researchers can discern patterns from large amt of data
cons:
- labor intensive
- alot of time commitment
- data collection across few participants only
generalisability is a forced trade-off with ______.
depth
correlational studies establish meaningful _____ between 2 variables.
r/s
direction and strength are key aspects of what kind of study?
correlational - establish r/s
direction - negative/positive
strength - magnitude
**r coefficient
r = +1: Perfect positive correlation
r = -1: Perfect negative correlation
r = 0: No correlation
0 < |r| < 1: The closer the value is to ±1, the stronger the correlation.
what are the 2 defining characteristics of the expt method?
- random assignment
- manipulation of variable (IV)
conceptual definition: how cool someone is
what could the operational definition be?
scores on an administered scale for coolness
true or false.
both correlational and expt studies can occur naturally or in a controlled environment.
false.
correlational - natural
expt - controlled
what is a multifactorial study?
study that incorporates elements of both correlational and experimental
what are 3 methods of direct assessments in personality psychology?
- objective tests (response clearly indicated and scored)
- self-report measures (eg. likert scale. great validity - measures what it wants to measure)
- informant measures (info/data from friend/family/anyone other than person being studied)
what are the 3 cons of direct assessments in personality psychology?
- social desirability - answer to appear socially acceptable
- self-enhancement bias - overstate positive traits and downplay negatives
- reference group effect - compare themselves to their reference group, skewing results
what are 2 methods of indirect assessments in personality psychology?
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
projective tests
During projective tests, participants describe ____________ stimuli based on their __________ needs, feelings and experiences.
ambiguous; unconscious
what are the 2 cons of projective tests?
- requires subjective interpretation by researcher
- issue with developing reliable and valid scoring system
what is the hypothesis for IAT, an indirect test on personality via sorting tasks?
people form automatic/implicit associations betweenc ertain concepts based on previous experience/behavior
high reliability = greater _______ - lower _______ (error)
consistency; randomness
what is reliability?
consistency/repeatibility of measurement
internal vs test-retest reliability
Internal Reliability: Ensures all test items measure the same thing consistently.
Test-Retest Reliability: Checks if the test gives the same results when taken at different times.
what are the types of validity?
- construct validity - match btwn conceptual and operational definitions (other validities help establish this most impt one)
- content validity - how well test covers all parts of construct it aims to measure
- criterion validity - how measure correlates with gold standard
a) concurrent validity - new measurement + gold standard administered concurrently
b) predictive validity - how well test predicts future outcome - convergent validity - how closely a measure is related to toher measures that consider the same/similar constructs
*discriminant validity - measure does not correlate to other assessments presumed to measure the construct - face validity - how much a test appears to measure what it’s supposed to measure, based on superficial impression
what are the 2 types of criterion validity?
criterion validity - how measure correlates with gold standard
1) concurrent validity - new measurement + gold standard administered concurrently
2) predictive validity - how well test predicts future outcome
reliability vs validity
Reliability: Consistency of the test results (results same everytime)
Validity: Accuracy of the test (measures what it wants to measure)
definition of variable:
dimension along which ____ exists. In case of personality psychology, variable is the dimensionalong which people ______ in thinking, feeling and __________.
variable must have at least 2 ________, but can have an infinite number of _______.
variations; differ; behaving
values/variations; levels
if variable is age, the levels could be?
if the levels are male/female, the variable could be?
18-20, 21-24, 25-30
gender
