Personality 1-5

Question 1

The trait approach

Answer 1

An approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions

Question 2

The Person-Situation Debate

Answer 2

Which is more important for determining what people do: the person or the situation

Question 3

The Situationist Argument

Answer 3

This argument claims that behavior is mainly shaped by external situations, not stable personality traits. This means that context influences actions more than consistent personality across different scenarios.

Question 4

Constructivism

Answer 4

The philosophical view that reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist and that only ideas (“constructions”) of reality exist

Question 5

Critical realism

Answer 5

The philosophical view that the absence of perfect, infallible criteria for determining trust does not imply that all interpretations of reality are equally valid; instead, one can use empirical evidence to decide which views of reality are more or less likely to be valid

Question 6

convergent validation

Answer 6

The process of assembling diverse pieces of info that converge to a common conclusion. “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is very probably—but still not positively—a duck.”

Question 7

interjudge agreement

Answer 7

the degree to which two or more people making judgements about the same person provide the same description of that person’s personality

Question 8

behavioral prediction

Answer 8

The degree to which a judgment or measurement can predict the behavior of the person in question

Question 9

predictive validity

Answer 9

The degree to which one measure can be used to predict another

Question 10

moderator variables

Answer 10

A variable that affects the relationship between two other variables

Question 11

Judgability

Answer 11

The extent to which an individual’s personality can be judged accurately by others

Question 12

single trait approach

Answer 12

the research strategy of focusing on one particular trait of interest and learning as much as possible about its behavioral correlates, developmental antecedents, and life consequences

Question 13

many-trait approach

Answer 13

The research strategy focuses on a particular behavior and investigates its correlates with as many different personality traits as possible to explain its basis and illuminate its workings.

Question 14

essential-trait approach

Answer 14

The research strategy attempts to narrow the list of thousands of trait terms into a shorter list of the ones that really matter

Question 15

typological approach

Answer 15

The research strategy focuses on identifying types of individuals. A particular pattern of traits characterizes each type.

Question 16

lexical hypothesis

Answer 16

The idea is that if people find something is essential, they will develop a word for it, and therefore, the major personality traits will have synonymous terms in many different languages.

Question 17

four reasons psychology is important in the business world

Answer 17

(1) Some people make better employees than others.
(2) Some people make better bosses (leaders) than others.
(3) Some people make better financial decisions than others. And
(4) some people are a better fit with certain occupations than others.

Question 18

Occupational success

Answer 18

What do employers look for when selecting new employees?

Question 19

integrity tests

Answer 19

Employers often administer formal personality assessments to measure a wide range of qualities, such as responsibility, job commitment, consistency, moral reasoning, and friendliness. These assessments can also evaluate work ethic, dependability, cheerfulness, energy level, and even-temperedness.

Question 20

Job Performance and Conscientiousness

Answer 20

How well does conscientiousness predict job performance?