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PSYC1001 > Personality > Flashcards

Personality Flashcards

1
Q

What is the problem of defining personality?

A

The properties are difficult to define. Although we recognise the properties of personality, their constitution is unclear. This concept applies to the whole of personality.

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2
Q

What were the historical definitions of personality?

A

Hippocrates and Galen thought of personality through the four humors or temperaments (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm)

Kant(18th century) said personality had special laws which apply to it

Gall (18th century) said that personality is defined by size and shape of the brain, as revealed through lumps and bumps - phrenology

William James (1842 - 1910) suggested 3 components to personality

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3
Q

What was William James’ suggestion of 3 components to personality?

A

Ego - The Self (The personal self rather than the thought)

Material self - Me (bodily changes is a result of certain actions. I.e. we feel sorry because we cry)

Social - Me (A man has as many social selves as individuals who recognise him - each carry an image of him in their mind)

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4
Q

What are some recognised features of personality?

A

Psychological in nature

Falls outside the intellectual domain

Enduring dispositions rather than transient states

Forms relatively broad or generalised patterns

Personality based on what people ‘typically’ do

Personality features are probabilistic in nature

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5
Q

What are the individual differences in psychology?

A

Physical and psychological

Psychological splits into intellectual and non intellectual

non intellectual splits into transient and enduring

Enduring splits into specific and broad personalities

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6
Q

What are enduring characteristics?

A

Only characteristics that have some degree of stability and consistency are thought of as lasting dispositions of a person - aspects of personality

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7
Q

What are the two main scientific approaches to identifying enduring characteristics?

A

Biological and environmental methodologies.

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8
Q

What are biological methodologies

A

An approach to the study f personality that emphasises contribution of biological structures and processes

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9
Q

What are environmental methodologies

A

An approach to study of personality that emphasises contribution of environmental forces

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10
Q

What is evidence for biologically based personality?

A

Neural networks
Gut biomes
Genes

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11
Q

What is evidence for environmentally based personality?

A

Family
Cultural norms
Nationality

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12
Q

Why might personalities differe from an environmental based personality perspective

A

Different opportunities, learning and epigenetics

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13
Q

What are some examples of research questions to explore personality theory?

A

What biological, social and/or processes of interaction MIGHT matter? (Observation based theory)

What biological, social and/or processes of interaction DO matter? (empirical testing theory)

What kinds of rules might personality systems follow?

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14
Q

What are nomothetic methodologies?

A

Approaches to the study of personality that emphasises development of generalisations and laws of behaviour –> follows lawful relations

Suggests that everyone follows the same rules, BUT vary in some way such as:

Strength of function
Sensitivity of function

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15
Q

What are examples of nomothetic methodologies?

A

Hearts
Lungs
Immune system

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16
Q

What are idiographic methodologies?

A

Approaches study of personality that emphasises intensive analysis of individual’s uniqueness

These methodologies are person specific and is based on the idea that different people follow different rules in different situations

Evaluates individuals on various measures:

Interview
Focus groups
Observations
Biological and behavioural perspectives

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17
Q

Overall, what does personality theory suggest?

A

Personality is a science: it’s not just implicit personality theories and common sense

Personality structures: Structure of personality is the most stable and enduring parts of it

Personality processes: Dynamic motivational concepts (conscious or unconscious)

Personality expressions: Examples such as aggression-hostility, physical appearance, optimism, mental health

Personality determinants: Environmental, biological and genetic

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18
Q

What does Freud propose the unconsciousness is?

A

The unconsiousness is the larger circle which includes the smaller circle of the conscious

Argues that everything conscious has a preliminary step in the unconscious

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19
Q

What is mental energy?

A

Energy that the psyche needs to function

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20
Q

What is psyche?

A

It is the human soul, mind or spirit.

Psychological result of mainly the brains and partly the rest of the body’s physiological functions

Proposes that the psyche consists of the Id, Ego, and Superego

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21
Q

What does Freud propose are the two fundamental drives in life?

A

Libido/life drive/sexual drive/eros

Thanatos(death)

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22
Q

What is libido/life drive/sexual drive/eros?

A

A motive towards (pro)creation, protection, enjoyment of life, (re)productivity and growth

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23
Q

What is Thanatos(death)?

A

A motive towards disorder and ultimately death

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24
Q

What is Freud’s psychosexual stages of development?

A

Developmental periods with a chracteristic sexual focus (urge for physical pleasure) that shapes personality

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25
Q

What are the 5 stages to the psychosexual stages of development?

A

1)Oral stage

2)Anal stage

3)Phallic stage

4)Latent stage

5) Genital stage

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26
Q

What is the oral stage?

A

Stage between birth and 18 months old/ Focusses on oral satisfaction. Freud believed mouth was only organ of pleasure at this time

If they are underfed –> oral passive: trusting, dependency

If they are overfed –> oral aggressive: aggressive, dominating

If well fed –> good trust in the world

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27
Q

What is the anal stage?

A

Stage between one to three years of age. Around this age, child begins to toilet train, bringing child’s fascination with the anus. Here the erogenous zone focusses on bowel and bladder control

If toilet training is too harsh –> Anal retentive: tidiness, obsessiveness, mean, stubborn

If toilet training is too lax –> Anal expulsive: untidiness, generosity

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28
Q

What is the phallic stage?

A

Three to six years of age. Focus on genitals and sexual connection to mother or father.

Involves vanity, self obsession, sexual anxiety, envy etc.

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29
Q

What is the latent stage?

A

Six to puberty .

Calm phase where sexual energies are suprssed and they develop social development skills

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30
Q

What is the genital stage?

A

Begins with onset of puberty. Person seeks way of satisfying sexual inputs and aggressive impulses through competition, physically demanding activities, exercise etc.

They become more mature, and are able to love and be loved. Sexual instinct directed to heterosexual pleasure

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31
Q

What is fixation?

A

Failure to move from one stage to another, due to excessive gratification or frustration of needs at a particular stage

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32
Q

What is psychic determinism?

A

Everything that happens in a person’s psyche has a specific cause.

Cause lies in processes (or dynamics) and structure of personality

Purpose of psychoanalysis is to find the causes by digging into the hidden part of the psyche

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33
Q

What does the topographic model consist of?

A

Conscious, preconscious and unconscious

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34
Q

What is the conscious in the topographic model?

A

The ‘tip of the iceberg’

Objects perceived

Events recalled

Stream of thought

Everyday life

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35
Q

What is the preconscious in the topographic model?

A

Associated with a part of the part below level of immediate conscious awareness, from which memories and emotions that have not been repressed and can be recalled

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36
Q

What is the unconscious in the topographic model?

A

The hidden, ‘secret’ realm in the mental world that Freud thought contains a significant portion of our mental life, operating under its own rules

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37
Q

What is the structural model?

A

Suggests that the internal structure of the mind consists of specific, functionally independent and sometimes conflicting parts.

It consists of the Id, Ego and Superego

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38
Q

What is the Id?

A

The irrational and emotional part of the mind.

Follows the pleasure principle which suggests a need for immediate gratifications of Id’s urges (raw biological desires)

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39
Q

What is the Ego?

A

The rational and decision making part of the mind. It aims to balance both the needs of the superego and the id

Follows the reality principle which suggests a force that delays the gratification of the Id’s needs until appropriate conditions

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40
Q

What is the Superego?

A

The moral part of the mind

(kind of battling against the id)

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41
Q

What is psychic conflict?

A

Friction between different parts of the mind

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42
Q

What is ego’s main role in psychic conflict?

A

Find a middle course (a psychic compromise) between competing demands of motivation, morality and practicality.

Without internal compromises, the individual is filled with internal conflict between needs and impulses that can have consequences such as mental illness and crime

The ego attempts to achieve this through ‘defence mechanisms’ which aim to cope with psychic conflict and find solutions

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43
Q

What can prolonged and unresolved conflict lead to?

A

Leads to increased levels of anxiety and/or guilt

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44
Q

What is the ego anxious about?

A

Anxious about the Id getting out of control and doing something terrible or the superego getting out of control and making the person feel guilty

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45
Q

What are the ego’s defense mechanisms?

A

Repression
Denial
Projection
Displacement
Regression
Sublimation

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46
Q

Explain repression as a defense mechanism

A

Unconscious mechanism employed by ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming consious

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47
Q

Explain denial as a defense mechanism

A

Involves blocking external events from awareness. If some situation is just too much to handle, the person refuses to experience it

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48
Q

Explain projection as a defense mechanism

A

Involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives to another person

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49
Q

Explain displacement as a defense mechanism

A

Satisfying an impulse (e.g. aggression) with a substitute object

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50
Q

Explain regression as a defense mechanism

A

This is a movement back in psychological time when one is faced with stress

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51
Q

Explain sublimation as a defense mechanism

A

Satisfying an impulse (e..g aggression) with a substitute object. In a socially acceptable way. I.e. Channel impulse into socially acceptable behaviours such as work

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52
Q

What is psychoanalytic theory?

A

Involves the Id, superego, ego and the defence mechanisms

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53
Q

Where is the Id in terms of consciousness?

A

Fully unconscious

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54
Q

Where is the superego in terms of consciousness?

A

Preconcious and unconscious

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55
Q

Where is theego in terms of consciousness?

A

Conscious and preconscious

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56
Q

What was Jung’s structural model?

A

Suggested the roles of archetypes.

Suggests that archetypes emerge from the collective unconscious into the personal unconscious. Here they form complexes that drive behaviour and experience

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57
Q

What are complexes?

A

They are a blend of archetypal patterns and material in the personal unconscious

58
Q

What is the collective unconscious

A

Made of archetypes which embody ancient, qualitiative patterns of being that evolved to deal with existence (such as love or fear)

They form the foundation for complexes within the personal unconscious, and thus determines the way we organise experience

59
Q

What is the physiological perspective of the collective unconscious?

A

Qualitative patterns are expressive of shared neurological systems (everyone has them) - neocortex (reasoning), limbic system (emotions), reptilian complex (instincts).

The most ancient systems are automatic (i.e. unconscious)

Conscious, regularatory systems are more recently developed

Determines how we respond to situations

60
Q

How were complexes identified?

A

Developed by Jung - identified through word association tasks on the basis of Galton’s work

Participants were given a stimulus word (e.g., water, family), and asked to ‘answer as quickly as possible with the first word that occurs to you’ – and psychological and physiological variables were assessed such as:

Response times
Vocal tone
Galvanic skin response
Heart rate

61
Q

What were the general results of the word association tasks to identify complexes?

A

Responses to emotional stimuli are different from that of neutral stimuli

Discreet patterns of response revealed

Jung claimed these patterns exposed latent, unconscious psychological patterns which are actually complexes: 11 patterns identified

Forms basis of MBTI

62
Q

What were the contributions of Freud and Jung?

A

First (formed) personality theories

The first theories to propose the existence and the influence of unconscious processes and forces

The first theories to focus and explain the effects of early development on adult personality

Fundamental contribution to the foundations of “modern” psychiatry

Major contributions to the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders such as clinical hypnosis and free association and dream therapy

63
Q

What were the criticisms of Freud’s and Jung’s theories?

A

Poor/questionable testability and scientific value –> no falsifiability

Poor external validity

Inadequate empirical evidence

Sexism

Function more like philosophies or faith systems

64
Q

Who are some key theorists in the existentialist and humanist accounts?

A

Rollo May - existential psychology

Carl Rogers - humanistic psychology

Abraham Maslow - Maslow hierarchy of needs

65
Q

What is the main philosophical foundations of existentialism?

A

Originally thought of by Kierkegaard

Individuals are free, responsible and self determining agents

Suggests free will can triumph anxiety

Search for meaning of ‘absurd’ - reason cant explain everything, science cant explain what it is to be human

66
Q

What is phenomenology?

A

Thought of by Husserl and Heidegger

Focusses on human experience and the nature of consciousness

The phenomena of human experience primary:

Aboutness (everything is about something)

Beingness (the avoidance of nothingness)

Unitary nature of human experience

(I think its a precursor to humanism)

67
Q

What are the shared assumptions of phenomenology and existentialism?

A

Unconcerned with explanatory, theoretical concepts

Can only be discovered via experience

Individuals are free, responsible self-determining agents

Search for meaning ‘absurd’

68
Q

What are the key concepts that we talk of when discussing existentialism and humanism?

A

Personal Growth
Personal Experience
Now and Here
Personal Responsibility
People are good or bad

69
Q

What is the existentialism point of view on personal growth?

A

Embracing challenges of existence

Confronting our fears

Making choices that create the reality we see

Anxiety as a doorway to growth

Emphasising uniqueness of one’s experience

70
Q

What is the existentialism point of view on personal experience?

A

Finding inner peace

Finding congruence between ideal and real self

Trust in our body

Existential living - being in the moment

Openness to experience - ability to adapt

71
Q

What is the existentialism point of view on now and here?

A

Phenomenal centredness

Being fully present

Genuince participation in other beings

Self consciousness

72
Q

What is the existentialism point of view on personal responsibility?

A

Create an optimal reality through choices we make

Search for meaning

Develop a sound self-concept

Not be held captive to past conflicts

73
Q

What is the existentialism point of view on ‘people can be good or bad’?

A

Belief that people are who they are because of the choices they make

(key difference with humanism)

74
Q

What are the key features of humanism?

A

Humanism is the belief that humans, as individuals are unique beings and should be recognised as such. Focusses on human factors rather than others

75
Q

What is the humanist point of view on personal growth?

A

People should realise their most important goals and full potential

Understand these goals

Identify and utilise the means to reach the goals

Encourage self exploration

76
Q

What is the humanist point of view on personal experience?

A

Valuing and embracing subjective experiences as a source of self understanding

Emphasising uniqueness of individual experience

77
Q

What is the humanist point of view on ‘now and here’?

A

Prioritise present moment awareness and avoid dwelling in the past or future

Being fully present

78
Q

What is the humanist point of view on personal responsibility?

A

Emphasise person’s active role in shaping their life and experiences

Encourage autonomy, self determination and pursuit of personal goals

79
Q

What is the humanist point of view on ‘people can be good or bad’?

A

Belief in the inherent goodness of people

Belief that people have innate capacity for growth, self improvement and compassion

Fostering optimistic view of human nature - strength and potential

80
Q

Explain the role of mental health in existentialism?

A

Rejects medical model of mental illness

Suggests people have been ill due to incongruence/incongruity.

Explains that disharmony within cognitive elements of experience lead to this mental health issues

Existential guilt and anxiety

Terror management (Nothingness vs beingnness)

81
Q

What is the idea of self in existentialist psychology?

A

The self is a response to existence. Existence is full of challenges such as death and sadness, and suggests that these challenges must be embraced for life to be worth living

We are free to choose how we respond to life, and we aren’t necessarily held hostage to past conflicts(Freud) or complexes (jung) or situational constraints

82
Q

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

A

Pyramid sort of structure, and this is the order from the top to the bottom

Self actualisation (self fulfilment need)

Esteem needs (psychological need)

Belongingness and love needs (psychological need)

Safety needs (basic need)

Physiological needs (basic need)

Suggests that needs from the bottom need to be satisfied before individual attends to needs which are higher up

83
Q

What are the contributions of existentialist and humanist theories?

A

The first holistic personality and psychological theories

The first theories of personality to capitalise on subjective (free) will, personal responsibility and conscious choice

The first non-deterministic theories of personality

Gave rise to positive psychology, transpersonal psychology and holistic approaches to medicine

Major contribution to social care systems, humanitarian interventions and the treatment of (primarily) substance abuse and relational problems (e.g. person centred therapy, gestalt therapy, logotherapy)

84
Q

What are the criticisms of existentialism and humanism?

A

Too much reliance on the individual’s self reported conscious experience and introspection (subjectivity)

Methodology is often too vague, unscientific and untestable

Theories lack falsifiability

They function best as (arguably great) life guides

What is conventional is mediocre?

Society is bad, indviduals are good?

85
Q

What were the objections to the approaches of personality (e.g. psychoanalysis) back then?

A

Lack of standardisation or scientific bases

How can we really know whats going on in ones mind if we cant directly observe and measure it

Limited to certain cases

Conclusions may be biased/subjective

Observations and interpretations of evidence without scientific controls

86
Q

What is behaviourism?

A

Suggests that personality is the sum of behaviours, and that the only valid way to know a person is through directly observing their behaviours

87
Q

What is radical behaviourism? What are the key ideas?

A

Suggests that personality doesnt really exist, and that environmental contingencies can shape a person into anything and anyone

Our final personality makeup is the end product of our habit systems

Systematic differences in behaviour and experience more or less fixed by age of 30

88
Q

What are the 3 main types of learning argued for in behaviourism?

A

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

Habituation (non-associative learning)

89
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

When something that naturally produces a response (unconditioned stimuli) becomes paired with ‘something else’. Over time, conditioning occurs such that ‘something else’ produces the same response

90
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

When reward or punishment makes a behaviour more or less likely to occur. Based on the idea of behavioural hedonism which suggests that there is an innate desire to maximise pleasure and minimise pain

91
Q

What is habituation(non-associative learning)?

A

Process through which the intensity of behavioural responses to repeated stimuli declines or gets extinguished through time by ‘getting used’ to some stimuli

92
Q

What are some criticisms of behaviourism?

A

Deterministic (dehumanising - no free will)

Overdependence on animal reasearch –> ethical issues

Doesn’t propose a personality structure but only explains differences in individual experiences

Too simplistic

Can we really explain personality just from behaviour?

93
Q

What is the process of functional analysis?

A

Initial situation –> construed situation –> (Initiated action plan –> executed actions –> outcome situation –> construed situation)

94
Q

What is cognitive behaviourism

A

Cognitive behaviorism states that our responses to all stimuli are based on the complex interactions that take place among our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as well as any reward systems that may be present.

Suggests that individual responses to stimuli could be developed via observational (vicarious) learning. Obserevational learning involves reciprocal determinism; complex interaction between self system, behaviour and environment

95
Q

What does the ‘self system’ (the individual) involve?

A

Perception (of ourselves)

Evaluation (of our performance)

Regulation (of response)

96
Q

How does the self system allow for observational learning? (what processes are involved) (4)

A

Attentional processes

Retention processes

Production processes

Motivation processes

This is a form of socio-cognitive behaviourism

97
Q

What is involved in attentional processes?

A

Determine what is selectively observed out of the profusion of modelling possibilities

98
Q

What is involved in retention processes?

A

Represent or symbolise modelled information to be retained

99
Q

What is involved in production processes?

A

Convert represented information into imitative actions i.e. organising responses in a manner consistent with what was modelled

100
Q

What is involved in motivation processes?

A

Drive the performance of the modelled behaviour insofar it fits with cognitions, beliefs, feelings etc.

101
Q

What is the cognitive affective account?

A

Claims an internal system mediates situational input and behavioural output. It involves the Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS - the system as a whole)

CAPS are made up of cognitive-affective units (CAU’s) - elements of the whole

A dynamic system in which CAU’s interact in complex and probabilistic ways –> outcomes cant be certain

102
Q

What do cognitive affective units consist of?

A

Encodings: Categories (constructs) for the self, people, events and situations (external and internal)

Expectances and beliefs: ABout the social world, about outcomes for behaviour in particular situations, about self - efficacy

Affects: Feelings, emotions and affective responses

GOals and values: Desirable outcomes and affective states; aversive outcomes and affective states; goals, values, and life projects

Competencies and self regulatory plans: Potential behaviours and scripts that one can do and plans and strategies for organising action and for affecting outcomes and one’s own behaviour and internal states

103
Q

What are the impacts of complex interactions between CAU’s?

A

Gives rise to probabilistic situation - specific behaviours, especially as all these different CAU’s play a different factor in response to a random situation –> conditional probability

104
Q

What are the contributions of the cognitive affective account?

A

First objective personality theories

First truly specific theories of personality

First theories to point out major effects the environment has on personality

Major contributions to treatment (primarily) of phobias, substance abuse, personality and mood disorders. For example:

Systematic desensitisation
Aversion therapy
Schema therapy
Dialectic behaviour therapy
Rational - Emotive therapy
Free association

105
Q

What are traits?

A

Traits are general dispositions that people possess that uniquely influences their psychology.

Traits are probabilistic

106
Q

What are the key assumptions of the trait approach?

A

Personality exists

Personality is a probabilistic and dynamic system

Personality has both qualitative and quantitative properties

traits = certain qualities such as extraversion

Every human possesses ALL traits, but not at the same intensity or centrality –> key idea

Development of traits ends in early adulthood

Relatively stable traits over time and situation, however they constantly fluctuate and/or drift

Personality develops through interplay between: cognition, temperament, constitution or physiology, environment

107
Q

What are the two main trait taxonomies?

A

Lexical taxonomy (E.g. the big 5)

Psychobiological taxonomy (E.g. Eysenck’s Big 3)

108
Q

What is lexical taxonomy and what does it involve?

A

Seeks to identify personality trait descriptors in natural language

Includes:
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Conscientiousness
Openness
Agreeableness

109
Q

What is psychobiological taxonomy (Eysenck’s Big 3) and what does it involve?

A

Seeks to identify biological/genetic markers of personality traits

Includes:
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Psychoticism

110
Q

What is neuroticisim?

A

Degree of persons emotional stability

111
Q

What is extraversion

A

Degree of persons social/interpersonal impact

112
Q

What is conscientiousness

A

Degree of persons responsibility, dutifulness and will to achieve

113
Q

What is openness

A

Persons artistic tendencies, intellect and acceptance of new ideas or change

114
Q

What is agreeableness

A

Degree of quality of persons social /interpersonal impact

115
Q

What is psychoticism?

A

Predisposition to psychotic disorders and antisocial/psychopathic tendencies

116
Q

What is the lexical hypothesis?

A

Those individual differences that are of the most significance in the daily transactions of persons with each other will eventually be encoded into their language

117
Q

Explain lexical methodologies

A

Allport recognised problem of defining personality and sought a descriptive account of personality

He and Odbert identified terms in a dictionary and idnetified which ones has something to do with human behaviour/traits, and involved a clear inclusion/exclusion criteria

Terms were then divided into 4 columns; neutral terms, censorial and evaluative, metaphorical, and ‘terms designationg mood, emotional activity, or casual and temporary forms of conduct’

118
Q

What was the inclusion/exclusion criteria?

A

Terms needed to distinguish people in terms of behaviour is included

Terms that are described as common behaviours (i.e. walking, digesting) is excluded

119
Q

How did Hans EYsenck contribute to psychobiological methodologies?

A

He used lexical methodologies as a starting point, and using statistical analysis from factor analytic approaches, he was able to identify 2 primary systems of personality;

Extraversion and neuroticism

However, he eventually added psychoticism to his model. This is known as the PEN model of psychology

He used techniques to identify physiological differences between extraverts and introverts depending.

119
Q

What are the problems with lexical accounts?

A

They describe traits not explain them

Why do we behave in and experience the world as we do

What is the source of individual differences in behaviour and experience?

What is personality?

120
Q

WHat is the psychobiological perspective on extraversion?

A

It is associated with cortical arousal and the ascending reticular system (ARAS)

Extroverts are less easily aroused so need more stimulation —> thus more social

Meanwhile introverts are more easily arroused –> less stimulation –> less social

121
Q

What is the psychobiological perspective on neuroticism?

A

It is associated with the visceral brain (or limbic system), and the fight or flight system.

Neurotics are more easily aroused –> more easily panicked

Emotionally stable, less easily aroused –> less easily panicked

122
Q

What is Jeffrey Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) as part of psychobiological methodologies?

A

Emphasis on behavioural reinforcements

Traits are explained by individual differences in sensitivity to reward, punishment and threat.

Proposed 3 brain systems;

1) Behavioural activation system - sensitivity to reward

2) Behavioural inhibition system - sensitivity to punishment

3) Fight, flight, freeze - sensitive to unconditioned stimuli

Differences in these brain systems cause differences across 4 different traits;

Impulsivity
Anxiety
Approach
Avoidance

123
Q

How are biological models tested?

A

EEG

MRI and fMRI

Genetic testing

Brain trauma

124
Q

What is personality proposed to be made up of?

A

Dimensions - which are sets of characteristics that all define personality. These dimensions have been discovered through lexical evidence

They are also assumed to be linear and independent from each other (for mathematical models)

125
Q

WHat is the limitations of the assumptions of linearity and independence?

A

linearity means as scores on one characteristic increase or decrease, the other one does the same

In reality these dimensions are likely to be oblique and non linear

126
Q

Is there indepndence between the big 5 traits?

A

There is partial independence between these traits

127
Q

What are the contributions of psychobiological and lexical methodologies?

A

Scientific theories which are evidence based - current formally accepted view of personality

Clear cut and reliable predictions

Testable - probabilistic

Cross cultural validity

Direct applications to occupational/educational psychology

CLassifications of disorders in ICD and DSM manual

Criminal profiling and adoptive interrogation techniques

Evolutionary psychology

128
Q

What are the limitations of the lexical and psychobiological methodologies?

A

Cant manage the complex, dynamic interactions between elements of personality. Statistical methods of analysis assume independence and linearity

Lexical approach cant identify what personality traits are

Biological approach generally unreliable

How to account for changes in personality traits through adulthood?

Theoretically weak

129
Q

What are the general types of personality assessment?

A

Behaviour observations and self(peer) reports

130
Q

What are behaviour observations?

A

Assessment of typical manifestations of an attribute within a specific context E.g. semi-unstructured interview, participant observations.

There is a problem with replicability

131
Q

What are self(peer) - reports?

A

Self reported assessments of one’s own (or their peers) feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, motives etc.

E.g. personality tests, standarised (clinical interviews), surveys

However, there is a problem with dishonesty and response biases

132
Q

How can personality be quantified?

A

Nomonological scoring

Idiographic scoring

133
Q

What is nomonological scoring?

A

Standardised (nomonological) questionnaires, with questions which is asked to everyone

134
Q

What is idiographic scoring?

A

Judgement based evaluations:
Clinical, workplace and research

Based on psychologists judgement, and is semi structured - there is flexibility in the questions

135
Q

What is validity

A

Degree to which a claim is correct or true.

Is a given definition of a construct correct?

Does a test measure what it claims to measure (internal validity)

Can tests be generalised to population (external validity)

136
Q

What is reliability?

A

Degree of consistent or stable accuracy of measurement outputs across time or context

How well does a measurement assess what it claims to assess?

How accurate is an individual’s claim or report of their condition

137
Q

What are some concerns with interpreting test results?

A

Are the observed attributes real? - Cultural test biases, procedural/admin biases, faking, framing biases

Are the observed attributes important? - Difference between statistical and practical importance

Do tests help or hurt? - person as a number, issues of labelling

138
Q

What are some examples of psychobiological personality assessments?

A

Measures biological functions that relate to personality.

E.g. fMRI scans, EEG data, GSR data, PET scans, blood tests and gene sequencing.

However, there is the problem of reductionism (can we reduce people to brain processing) and practicality (expensive)

139
Q

What are some everyday applications of traits?

A

They can be associated with important life outcomes:

Academic performance has a +ve association with conscentiousness

Work performance has a -ve association with neuroticism

Anxiety disorders has a +ve association with neuroticism

Marital success has a +ve association with agreeableness

Openness to experience has a +ve association with intelligence

PSYC1001 (6 decks)

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