Task 3 Flashcards
Empirical approach
based solely on the observed, empirical links between the items and some variable that is assumed to be a good indicator of the trait
clear idea which trait should be measures
No obvious link to the trait counteracts fake self-enhancement bias because the participant does not understand what exactly is tested
Steps of empirical approach
Begins by writing many items that together describe a variety of actions, thoughts and feelings (accounts for various characteristics)
Obtains large sample, asks for other information as well to evaluate which questions are appropriate to asses the trait
Criticism on empirical approach
Collecting data from one sample does not guarantee same outcomes in another sample (collect already valid data or take different samples)
The variables are good indicators but it is hard to cover all influences that might be good indicators as well (just use more than one item)
Factor analytical approach
sorting correlated items together into categories (i.e. the same factor) while putting uncorrelated factors into different categories
Factor analytical approach steps
Starts by writing down large pool of questions, and administer it to a large sample
Try to find groups of related items, such that each group measures a different trait
• Variables identified by this technique should be thought of as dimensions along which people differ, and not as types of people
Try to find out which trait is measured by each of the resulting factors and which items clearly belong to each factor.
Criticism on factor analytical approach
Questionnaire inventory has to be large otherwise the outcome is too limited
Loadings (FAA)
when tasks have a large loading it indicates that they are clearly a part of one factor
Steps of Rational approach
Writes items specifically for the purpose of assessing each trait that has to be measured
Which items are the best ones, that are going to be in the final questionnaire
Items are choose on the basis of correlation between each other
• Exception are items that have low correlation but measuring a part of the trait that is not covered sufficient by others
Limitation Rational approach
Scale can only be as good as the set of items that the psychologist had written to measure the traits
The research aim might become too obvious for the participant because of the limited variation across the items
Lexical approach
o Used list: the set of personality descriptive adjectives that can be found in the dictionaries of any language
o Lexical hypothesis: states that people will want to talk about the personality traits that they view as important. So, there is probably a word that describes a certain trait
Do factor analyse and then you should get a full list of trait variables
MMIP
Criticises rational approach and is done by using empirical approach
• Test implemented by military services in several programs to select personnel for positions such as pilots and special services personnel.
• Use for personnel selection diminished in the 70s, because they lacked predictive validity for job-related criteria and discriminated against people.
The big five inventory
o Measure five broad personality characteristics
o Used in personality research
Lexical approach
NEO personality inventory revised and NEO 5factor inventory
o measure five major dimensions of personality
Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C)
o Based on lexical research
HEXACO
o Measures 6 dimensions of personality
Honesty–Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O)
o Used in personality research
Social desirability scales
o measure a person’s tendency to give socially desirable responses—or socially undesirable responses—to self-report items
o half of the items are reverse coded when in the end they are not similar then the person might be biased
Projective tests
Unconstructed personality tests
• Provides the participant with an ambiguous stimulus, and they have to respond to this stimulus
Uses of projective test
diagnosing mental illnesses, predicting whether convicts are likely to become violent after being paroled, discerning whether children have been sexually molested
Exner Comprehensive System
set of instructions established detailed rules for delivering the inkblot exam and interpreting the responses
Rorschach inkblot test
inkblot is shown, participant interprets, psychologist asses. Differs from Psychologist to another
o ECS Rating:
Colours: emotionality and impulsivity
Movement: imagination
White space: rebelliousness and negativity
Reliability sucks
o Critics:
Low validity and reliability
Fails to consistently detect depression, anxiety disorders or psychopathic personality
Cultural differences for which the comprehensive system does not account
Thematic Apperception test
o involve either a picture of some people interacting or a paragraph that describes the beginning of a story (not so abstract)
o unknown validity
o Critics:
Psychologist rely rarely on scales so they tend to overdiagnoses
Even existing scoring systems have low test-retest reliability
Draw a person test
o Participants have to draw a person or a house and the psychologist interprets the drawings based on several signs (global (i.e. general) approach works better)
o Critics:
Lack of artistic abilities is often misdiagnosed as mental illness
Mixed validity results
Personality trait
refers to differences among individuals in a typical tendency to behave, think or feel in some conceptually related ways, across variety of relevant situations and across some fairly long period of time
Assumptions of personality traits
o Difference among individuals: you can only see a characteristic of an individual when you compare him/her with peers
o In a typical tendency to behave, think or feel: likelihood of showing some behaviour or of having some thoughts or feeling connected to a certain trait
o In some conceptually related way: idea that a trait is expressed by various behaviours and feelings that appear to have some common psychological element (behaviour can account for more than one trait)
o Across variety of relevant situations: shows differences in trait relevant behaviour in variety of settings
o Over some fairly long period of time: some pattern has to be observed over a long time to detect consistency (does not mean that traits can’t change over lifetime
Structured personality interviews
a questionnaire with fixed questions and answer possibilities
o Some questions are focusing in the same characteristic of a trait to get better reliability in the end ´
o Some contain items for which higher responses indicate higher scores on the trait
o Reverse coded: some items are made that disagreement will lead to higher score on the trait
Counteracts the natural tendency to agree with statements independently of the content
Unconstructed personality inventories
A questionnaire where participants can answer freely
The Big five domains
o Extraversion: This factor includes traits such as talkativeness, liveliness and outgoingness versus shyness, quietness and passivity
o Agreeableness: This factor includes traits such as kindness and gentleness versus rudeness and harshness
o Conscientiousness: This factor includes traits such as organization, discipline and thoroughness versus sloppiness, laziness and unreliable
o Emotional stability (vs. Neuroticism): This factor includes traits such as relaxedness versus moodiness, anxiety and touchiness. Neuroticism is on the opposite end of Emotional stability
o Intellect or Imagination: includes traits such as philosophicalness, complexity and creativity versus shallowness and conventionality. Also called openness to experience
o Various traits belonging to the same big five trait are correlated with each other, with the traits at the same pole being positively correlated and the traits at opposite poles being negatively correlated
o Traits belonging to different Big five factors are generally be roughly uncorrelated with each other
HEXACO
o Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Openness to experience (Intellect or Imagination)
The first to are the same in every language. About openness the wording sometimes varied
o Agreeableness:
describes mostly the same concept but some traits have changed
o Emotionality:
Corresponds to the emotional stability factor in Big Five but is flipped to the Neuroticism side so it differs from the English version
o Honest-Humility:
New factor
Includes sincerity, fairness and modesty vs. slyness, deceit , greed and pretentiousness
In the English version they are included as well but only have a small loadings on that factor
Difference between English and multi language model
Different languages have different words and ways to describe personality so multi approach covers more indicators
And the computers were not strong enough these days to analyse large amount of data which they now are
Differences between culture
o languages all contained similar sets of personality-descriptive adjectives, and this indicates that people in very different cultures are describing the same major elements of personality.
