Psychological (L1)

Question 1

How is personality defined in this course?

Answer 1

Psychological systems that contribute to an individual’s enduring and distinctive patterns of experience and behaviour.

‘Enduring’ refers to consistency across context and time, while ‘distinctive’ indicates uniqueness to the individual.

Question 2

What does ‘enduring’ mean in the context of personality?

Answer 2

Somewhat consistent across context and time.

This suggests that personality traits remain stable despite changes in environment.

Question 3

What does ‘distinctive’ refer to in personality?

Answer 3

Unique, different, distinct to me not universal.

This highlights individual differences in personality.

Question 4

What is meant by ‘disposition’ in personality?

Answer 4

Tendencies but not 100% consistent, e.g., might enjoy a surprise one day and hate it the next.

This contrasts with factual traits like age.

Question 5

What are the main goals when researching personality?

Answer 5

1. Understand the structure of personality.
2. Determine the origins of personality.
3. Explain behavior over time.

This includes understanding both growth and development as well as factors contributing to personality.

Question 6

What are the three key questions personality research seeks to answer?

Answer 6

What, How, Why.

‘What’ relates to characteristics, ‘How’ to determinants, and ‘Why’ to explanations of behavior.

Question 7

Why do we need theories of personality?

Answer 7

1. Help us understand differences.
2. Organize existing information and see patterns.
3. Generate new information for important issues.

This emphasizes the practical applications of personality theories.

Question 8

What are the main goals for personality theorists when researching/creating a study?

Answer 8

1. Diversity in participants.
2. Objective observations (replicable).
3. Specialized tools for reliable data.

This ensures the validity and applicability of research findings.

Question 9

Describe longitudinal research design.

Answer 9

Repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time.

This approach is often used to track changes in personality over time.

Question 10

What are the strengths of longitudinal research design?

Answer 10

1. Can establish cause and effects.
2. Track changes over time.
3. Identify subtle changes.

These strengths make longitudinal designs valuable for understanding personality development.

Question 11

What are the limitations of longitudinal research design?

Answer 11

1. Time-consuming.
2. Expensive.
3. Common for participants to drop out, leading to biased results.

These limitations can affect the reliability of findings in longitudinal studies.