Objective Personality Tests

Question 1

Define trait

Answer 1

any distinguishable/relatively enduring way an individual varies from another

Question 2

What makes a trait a psychological trait

Answer 2

Usually involves a behavior.
Possibly beliefs/attitudes
Not really physical traits

Question 3

Why is the concept of traits historically controversial?

Answer 3

Because people behave differently in different situations some argued that situation only determines behavior and that traits didn’t exist

Question 4

What determines behavior?

Answer 4

Situations AND traits

Question 5

When is it useful to measure personality?

Answer 5

All kinds of scenarios
job selection, mental health (personality disorders), establishing clinical tx, tracking development or vice versa (brain injury), establishing clinical relationship, etc.

Question 6

What is the most common way to collect information in a personality measurement?

Answer 6

Self-report measures

Question 7

Pros and cons of self-report of personality

Answer 7

pros:
- some info cannot be gained any other way
- spend more time with self - all situations and all times

cons:
- how know if people are being honest? (faking, social desirability)
- even if honest, do they know themselves? (self-deception, self-serving bias)

Question 8

What is the alternative to self-reports in personality measurements?

Answer 8

Other-reports

Question 9

Pros and cons of other-reports

Answer 9

pros:
- may predict outcomes a little better (depending on the construct)

cons:
- raters usually see a person in only 1 context (coworker, classmate, family member)
- different raters may not agree
- raters are not perfectly accurate (own biases and response tendencies)

Question 10

What are the 3 major approaches to personality measures?

Answer 10

1. theoretical
2. factor analysis
3. empirical keying

Question 11

What is the most commonly used approach for personality measures?

Answer 11

Theoretical

Question 12

Describe steps of theoretical approach

Answer 12

Top-down approach
- Start with theory of personality/important trait
- write items to reflect the trait
- construct validate

Question 13

What is the lexical hypothesis?

Answer 13

The theory that if differences between people are important, words to describe the differences will be developed.
The more important the difference, the more words there will be for it and the more often they’ll be used
By analyzing language - one can identify most important personality traits

Question 14

Describe the factor analysis approach

Answer 14

• Start by analyzing super long list of adjectives
• if 2 items correlate they likely have something in common
• eventually develop large clusters of similar adjectives to describe a trait

Question 15

True or False: researchers essentially find the same 5 personality factors across all groups (ages, languages, cultures, etc.)

Answer 15

True - the big 5 are argued to be universally important

Question 16

What kinds of outcomes do the Big 5 predict?

Answer 16

work, life satisfaction, divorce, longevity

Question 17

Describe the empirical keying approach. What is considered more important with item with this approach?

Answer 17

-Start with large pool of items
- administer to two groups of people (1 group definitely has trait and the other randomly sampled)
- find items differentiating between 2 groups - keep those

Selecting items based on whether they predict the criterion or not. It doesn’t matter if items seem related to one another or the construct - only matters if they predict correctly

Question 18

The 3 major approaches to personality measurements are considered:
A. Objective measures
B. Projective measures

And why?

Answer 18

Objective measures

Because scoring individual tests doesn’t require (much) judgment
not because judgment-free or perfectly accurate

Question 19

What do objective measures typically rely on when collecting data?

Answer 19

self-report measures and easily observable traits (remember there are limitations to both)

Question 20

How do you gather information people don’t want to share or don’t know about themselves?

Answer 20

Implicit measures

Question 21

Define implicit personality

Answer 21

personality traits not driven by conscious decisions

Question 22

Define chameleon effect

Answer 22

high trait empathy, nonconsciously mimic others

Question 23

Define trait anxiety

Answer 23

How threatening stimuli capture attention more easily

Question 24

Define subliminal stimuli

Answer 24

Stimuli below threshold for conscious perception

Question 25

Define supraliminal stimuli

Answer 25

Stimuli above threshold for conscious perception

Question 26

What is the implicit associations test (IAT)? Why was it created?

Answer 26

creates a network of associations
“raise left hand for ‘self’ words and right hand for ‘other’ words”

Created to measure attitudes towards minority groups

Question 27

Pros and cons of IAT

Answer 27

pros:
- hard to fake
- implicit personality better predictor of automatic behavior

cons:
- low test-retest reliabilty
- low convergent validity

Question 28

What is the emotional Stroop test? What trends are found with those who take it?

Answer 28

the test with colored words (name the color of word then the word itself ignoring the color)

• anxious people show bias towards threatening stimuli and take longer to reply to these words

Question 29

What is the dot probe test? What trends are found with those who take it?

Answer 29

dot in middle of screen and stare at it, raise hand that’s on the same side as the word that pops up

-quicker to respond to dots on same side as anxiety words
-slower to respond to words on opposite side as anxiety words

Question 30

True or False: dot probe test and implicit association test are examples of attentional bias

Answer 30

False - dot probe test and emotional Stroop test

Question 31

True or False: dot probe test and emotional Stroop test reflect implicit anxiety

Answer 31

True - not to be confused with anxiety itself