Personality as a Science

Question 1

Layperson’s View of Personality

Answer 1

• adjectives describe a person
• consistent overtime
• people either have them, or do not
• explanation for behaviour

Question 2

Units of Personality

Answer 2

-not just a habit or singular trait
-a set of behaviours that cohere to a detectable pattern

Question 3

Psychological Traits

Answer 3

characteristics that describe how people are different from one another

Question 4

Mechanisms

Answer 4

refer to personality processes

Question 5

an input, decision rule, an output

Answer 5

cue or situation, an evaluation process, behaviour or response

Question 6

Within the Individual

Answer 6

personality is something that a person carries within themselves

Question 7

organized and enduring

Answer 7

they should have some order, but also change a tad bit and fluctuates

Question 8

What are the 4 levels of Analysis?

Answer 8

Human nature, Individual and Group Differences, Individual Differences, Group Differences, Individual Uniqueness

Question 9

Human Nature

Answer 9

how we are like all others

Question 10

Individual and Group differences

Answer 10

how we are like some others

Question 11

Individual Differences

Answer 11

how we are different from others, example; height, arm length, assessing individual differences in athletes

Question 12

Group Differences

Answer 12

how people of one group differ from one another

Question 13

Individual Uniqueness

Answer 13

how we are like no others, our unique interactions with people that no one else has

Question 14

Theory

Answer 14

general statements that explain relations among phenomena

Question 15

5 standards for evaluating personality

Answer 15

Comprehensiveness, Heuristic value, Testability, Parsimony, Compatibility and Integration

Question 16

Comprehensiveness

Answer 16

how much of it does it explain. The more comprehensive, the better the theory

Question 17

Heuristic Value

Answer 17

guides researchers to important discoveries, how important it is, and how it helps you solve the problem

Question 18

Testability (or falsifiability)

Answer 18

can you test the theory or not?

Question 19

Parsimony

Answer 19

contains few assumptions. Have as few variables as possible with the study still being good

Question 20

Compatibility and Integration

Answer 20

can you integrate this with previous research? is it consistent with what was known recently?

Question 21

Predictions should be…?

Answer 21

-testable
-derived from theory
-conditional statements (if…then…)
-variables operationalized

Question 22

Empirical Test

Answer 22

designing a study wanting to determine a specific hypothesis

Question 23

Observations

Answer 23

-collecting and analysing data
-finding different ways to support your hypothesis, statistics is not the only way

Question 24

What is a problem with observations?

Answer 24

we cannot see personality, we can try to make reasonable inferences but we are never 100%people respond to differences not inferences