Midterm One

Question 1

What are the 6 themes in personality displayed in The Royal Tennenbaums?

Answer 1

Individual differences
Inherited traits
Motives, goals and emotions
Personality change and continuity over time
Childhood influences adulthood
How can we come to know a person

Question 2

What is personality? (5)

Answer 2

Descriptive characteristics (i.e., traits)
Motives and goals
Values
Emotional tendencies
Memories/life stories

Question 3

How do we use personality in everyday life?

Answer 3

As an evaluation of someone
Description of someone
Way to show continuity

Question 4

How do we define personality?

Answer 4

Thoughts (beliefs, values, expectations)
Feelings (emotions, passions)
Behaviours (actions; what you do)

Question 5

What is the scientific definition of personality?

Answer 5

Consistent and enduring patterns of: thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that influence a persons interactions with and adaptations to the environment

Question 6

What are the 3 levels researchers study personality at?

Answer 6

Human nature: how we are like all others, universal aspects
Individual differences: how we are like some others
Uniqueness: how we are like no others

Question 7

What’s the difference between personality and social psychology?

Answer 7

Personality researchers care about all three levels (tend to focus more on individual differences and uniqueness)
Social psychologists tend to focus on human nature level

Question 8

Explain the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 8

Conducted by Philip Zimbardo
Stanford undergrads we recruited to play the role of prisoner or guards in a mock prison

Question 9

What were the results of the the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 9

Participants took the experiment so seriously they had to shut down the experiment
Guards become sadistic and cruel
Prisoners became passive and compliant

Question 10

What was the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal?

Answer 10

During the Iraq war US military had people take over the prisons and act as prison guards
They ended up abusing the prisoners

Question 11

What caused the Abu Ghraib Prison abuse?

Answer 11

Phil Zimbardo believes anyone in their situation would have done the same (situation)
George Bush believes this is not America (person)

Question 12

Describe Abu Ghraib abuse from a “situation” perspective

Answer 12

Human nature perspective
Rotten barrel
Humans have a sadistic that will dominate
Everyone would commit atrocities under these circumstances

Question 13

Describe Abu Ghraib abuse from a “person” perspective

Answer 13

Unique cases perspective
Rotten apple
How many people are truly evil, even in wartime
Only 7 guards received prison sentences
Aggressive tendencies are generally stable over time and across situations

Question 14

What are some personality traits of Chuck Graner from Abu Ghraib?

Answer 14

Described as violent, abusive, arrogant, and mean spirited
History of DV
Seems unique on many levels

Question 15

What are some personality traits of Lynndie England from Abu Ghraib?

Answer 15

Overly compliant personality in the face of perceived authority

Question 16

Describe Abu Ghraib abuse from a human nature perspective

Answer 16

All people are capable of evil; the circumstances unleashed the dark side of human nature

Question 17

Describe Abu Ghraib abuse from an individual differences perspective

Answer 17

Some people are more aggressive, or inclined toward anti-social behaviour than others
Some people are more compliant towards authority than others

Question 18

Describe Abu Ghraib abuse from a unique cases perspective

Answer 18

Graner’s personal history towards violence suggest a unique predisposition

Question 19

What are the 3 pre-scientific methods of determining personality?

Answer 19

Astrology: personality assessment based on birth date
Physiognomy: personality based on shape of body, particularly face
Phrenology: personality based on shape of skull

Question 20

What are the Big 5 dimensions of temperament?

Answer 20

Openness (to new experiences)
Conscientiousness (organized)
Extraversion (higher energy)
Agreeableness (go with the flow)
Neuroticism (negative reactions to things)
*acronym OCEAN

Question 21

What are the 4 major types of descriptive methods?

Answer 21

Life history data
Observers reports
Test data
Self reports
*acronym LOTS

Question 22

Describe the self report descriptive method

Answer 22

Collect research by asking people about their beliefs and behaviours
Answers provided by the subject
Usually using a questionnaire

Question 23

What are some advantages to self report data?

Answer 23

Allows study of difficult to observe behaviours, thoughts, and feelings
Easy to distribute
We know ourselves best

Question 24

What are some disadvantages to self report data?

Answer 24

Respondents may not be representative, overgeneralization
Convenience sampling is tempting
May be biased or untruthful

Question 25

Describe the observer report descriptive method

Answer 25

Observing the behaviour of others
Can be done by:
Parents, friends, teachers
Trained observers
Untrained, participant observers

Question 26

What are some advantages of observer report data?

Answer 26

Capture spontaneous behaviours
Cannot leave out specific information
Avoid bias of self reports

Question 27

What are some disadvantages of observer report data?

Answer 27

Research interference (how naturalistic vs artificial is the observation
Rarity of some behaviours
Observer bias and selective attention
Time consuming

Question 28

Describe the test data descriptive method

Answer 28

Assessing an individuals abilities, cognitions, motivations, or behaviours, by observing their performance in a test situation
Critical element is the test result only has meaning because it was previously assigned a meaning by the researcher

Question 29

What are 2 main types of test data?

Answer 29

Questionnaire tests: meaning comes from score, not answers to the questions
Experimental tests: meaning comes from performance which indicates a particular result

Question 30

What are some advantages of test data?

Answer 30

Allows measurement of characteristics not easily observable or known to the participant

Question 31

What are some disadvantages of test data?

Answer 31

Have to assume that the test measures what you think it measures
More variation that we assume (validity issue)

Question 32

Describe the life history (case studies) descriptive method

Answer 32

Intensive examination of a single person or group
Obtained from life history (e.g., interviews), other life records (e.g., school grades, criminal records)

Question 33

What are some advantages of life history data?

Answer 33

Rich source of hypotheses, abundance of information
Allows for the studies of rare behaviours
Can access all aspects of life

Question 34

What are some disadvantages of life history data?

Answer 34

Observer bias
Difficult to generalize
Difficult to reconstruct
Complexity of past events
Hard to decipher what led to certain behaviours

Question 35

START BACK AT EVALUATING PERSONALITY MEASURES