Personality, Intelligence & Psychopathology Introduction

Question 1

Define individual differences in Psychology.

Answer 1

The structure and determinants of enduring psychological characteristics as perceived by the individual and those around them.
Cronbach - all organisms adapt to their environments, but not equally well.

Question 2

Name some key approaches to individual differences.

Answer 2

Personality, intelligence, psychopathology. 
Normal/abnormal functioning. 
Focus of abilities/tendencies. 
Basic/applied research. 
Can individuals self-report accurately?

Question 3

What is a personality trait?

Answer 3

An enduring characteristic that predicts behaviour or motivation.

Question 4

What is the difference between a trait and a type?

Answer 4

Type - discreet categories.
Traits - continuous dimensions.
Can convert trait to type but will lose information.

Question 5

Name some key personality traits models.

Answer 5

The big five; OCEAN - Costa & McCrae.
16PF - Cattell (outdated).
HEXACO-PI-R (6 core factors) - Ashton & Lee.
The dark triad.
PEN model - Eysenck.
Reinforcement sensitivity theory (BIS/BAS) - Gray.
UPPS impulsivity (4 forms of impulsivity which link to a facet of a big 5 trait) - Whiteside & Lynam.
Sensation-seeking - Zuckerman.

Question 6

Do personality traits always predict behaviour?

Answer 6

Mischel - situationism.
Personality x situation (interaction) - strong situations constrain behaviour; weak situations allow traits to guide behaviour.
Personality -> situation (interdependent) - people choose their own situations, people perceive and interpret situations differently.

Question 7

Name some examples of measures of personality traits.

Answer 7

Observational measures - Interviews, behavioural coding.
Explicit self-report questionnaires.
Implicit measures - projective tests, IAT.

Question 8

Name the 3 main types of reliability.

Answer 8

Inter-rater reliability.
Test-retest reliability.
Internal consistency.

Question 9

Define reliability.

Answer 9

The consistency of results.

Question 10

Name the 4 main types of validity.

Answer 10

Face validity.
Convergent validity - between self-reports + other reports/ between explicit + implicit tests.
Discriminant validity.
Predictive validity.

Question 11

Define validity.

Answer 11

Does the test measure what it is meant to be measuring?

Question 12

How well do personality measures predict behaviour (Back)?

Answer 12

All five traits predicted behaviour through explicit measures as opposed to only extroversion and neuroticism predicting behaviour through implicit measures.

Question 13

How replicable is the relationship between personality traits and life outcomes and what can be concluded from this (Soto)?

Answer 13

87% of effects were replicated.
Effect sizes were 77% as strong as the original.
Shows how trait research is reliable and personality has real consequences!
Effect sizes may be biased - false positives?

Question 14

Name the main relevance of personality research.

Answer 14

May be relevant for understanding some real-world problems (e.g. personality predicts behaviour).