Problem 3

Question 1

Personality trait

Answer 1

Refers to differences among individuals in a typical tendency to behave, think, or feel in some conceptually related ways, across a variety of relevant situations + across some fairly long period of time.

Question 2

Structured personality inventories

Answer 2

Are questionnaires that are used for obtaining self- and observer reports of personality

–> “structured” as the individuals being measured are given predetermined options for responding to various items

ex.: answering on yes/no-basis, 1-5 scale etc

Question 3

Good reliability

Answer 3

Occurs when the average response of items is a good indicator of the element that is coming to those items

Question 4

Good content validity

Answer 4

Occurs when the items describe a wide array in interests, all of which are related to the element being measured

Question 5

Unstructured personality inventories/ Projective tests

Answer 5

Are questionnaires that allow individuals to respond in his/her unique way

• has incremental validity
• contrast to structure personality inventories

Question 6

Projection

Answer 6

Is a defense mechanism by which individuals attribute their personality traits to others

–> concept that originated with Freud

Question 7

Projective techniques

Answer 7

Involve presenting respondents with an ambiguous stimulus and asking them to disambiguate the stimulus

ex.: Rorschach inkblot

Question 8

Projective hypothesis

Answer 8

States that respondents project aspects of their personality in the process of disambiguating unstructured test stimuli

Question 9

Rorschach inkblot test (Projective test)

Answer 9

Contains a series of 10 inkblot patterns that an individual has to describe + interpret

–> designed to look like one thing in one part + something contradictory in another part

Question 10

Exner Comprehensive System

(ECS)

Answer 10

Refers to a set of instructions that establishes detailed rules for

1. Delivering the inkblot exam
2. Interpreting the responses

–> provides norms

Question 11

Measure conventionality

Answer 11

Refers to the

a) fitness

• adequacy of the object identified, considering its contours + location

b) frequency

• how often the particular object was named spontaneously

Question 12

Criticism on ECS ?

Answer 12

1. Low reliability

2. Validity

• it is poorly equipped to identify most psychiatric conditions

3. Excessive false positives

• often characterizes normal people as having emotional problems

Question 13

Thematic apperception test (TAT)

(Projective test)

Answer 13

Is a method that asks respondent to formulate a story based on ambiguous scenes in drawings on 31 cards

Question 14

What is the purpose of the thematic apperception test (TAT)?

Answer 14

It is supposed to elicit information about a persons view of others, their attitudes towards the self + expectations about relationships

Question 15

Criticism on Thematic apperception test (TAT)?

Answer 15

1. Low test-retest reliability

• there is no standardized administration of this test

2. Over-diagnosis

• lacks an effective scoring system

Question 16

What are the 3 basic strategies/approaches to developing personality inventories ?

Answer 16

1. Empirical strategy
2. Factor-analytic strategy
3. Rational strategy

Question 17

Empirical strategy

Answer 17

Involves writing down a large number of items that describe a wide variety if actions, thought + feelings on various characteristics

Question 18

Factor analytic strategy

Answer 18

Involves sorting correlated items together into the same category, while putting uncorrelated items into different ones

• each group of correlated items measures different traits
• can only be used when you already have the items

Question 19

Rational strategy

Answer 19

Involves writing down items specifically for the purpose of assessing each trait to be measured

• conducted rationally in the sense that one tries to produce item that would rationally be considered relevant for the trait

–> HIGHEST VALIDITY IN RELIABILITY

Question 20

When are the 3 different strategies to developing inventories used ?

What is the goal of research then ?

Answer 20

Rational

• when generating items for a given scale + guiding the selection of items for final scale

Factor analysis

• when making sure that items intended to measure directs traits really belong to those different factors

Empirical approach

• for empirical data, such as correlations with observer ratings on a trait

Question 21

Lexical hypothesis

Answer 21

States that people will want to talk about personality traits that they view as having important consequences in their lives

–> the’ll therefore invent some words to describe people who have high/low levels of these important traits

Question 22

Lexical approach (Strategy)

Answer 22

Using an already existing list of personality-descriptive adjectives that can be found in dictionaries of any language

Question 23

Big five inventory (BFI)

Answer 23

Refers to a short measure of personality descriptive adjectives

1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Conscientiousness
4. Emotional stability
5. Openness to experience

Question 24

NEO-PI-R (Inventory)

Answer 24

Is a personality inventory that examines a person’s Big Five personality traits

• longer + revised
• Includes Neuroticism instead of emotional stability

=> Lexical approach

Question 25

Hexaco model of personality (Inventory)

Answer 25

Is a ***six-dimensional model of human personality*** that includes 1. Honesty-Humility (H) 2. Emotionality (E) 3. Extraversion (X) 4. Agreeableness (A) 5. Conscientiousness (C) 6. Openness to Experience (O) * full length: 200; half-length: 100 * differentiated among several languages which is how they came up with (H) =\> Lexical approach

Question 26

What did comparisons between the 3 strategies to developing inventories show ?

Answer 26

1. ***Rationally*** constructed self-report scales, showed ***higher correlations with observer reports*** + in general ***higher validity*** 3. Little difference among the three approaches in their usefulness in conducting personality inventories

Question 27

The Rorschach is a problem solving task that is based on perception. What was its intention ? What do the stimuli intend to evoke ?

Answer 27

1. Providing some ***suggestive + obvious shapes*** that many people will see/identify 2. Providing ***perceptual "hooks"*** that will trigger personalized + unique imagery * making the images look like one thing in one part, but look like something else contradictory in another part

Question 28

Criticism on Rorschach inkblot test ?

Answer 28

***1. Lacks standardized procedures + a set of norms*** * needed because seemingly trivial differences in the way an instrument is administered can affect a persons response * Norms might provide a reference point ***2. Poorly equipped to identify most psychiatric conditions***

Question 29

Draw-a-Person test (Projective test)

Answer 29

Is a projective task that asks the respondent to ***depict a human being***

Question 30

Why was the MMPI revised ?

Answer 30

1. Language change 2. Different problems to be assessed 3. Differing norms --\> necessary, but attention to failures that can be made

Question 31

Incremental validity

Answer 31

A test adds new and useful information in a way that others can't