✅ Topic 2: Measurement of Personality traits Flashcards
1
Q
What are the Hierarchy of Personality description?
A
- Proposed by Digman based on the Big 5 models
- 6 separate facets are related to a super trait
- A,C,N super traits are governed by Alpha factor (Stability) and E,O governed by Beta factor (Plasticity)
- Alpha and Beta factors are governed by a general personality factor (Big One)
2
Q
What is meant by the Bandwidth-Fidelity Dilemma?
A
- Definition: an idea that there are likely trade-offs between breadth and accuracy of prediction
- Two approaches:
- Broader, higher-level descriptor: predict more behaviours but with lower accuracy
=> Holistic models of entire personality: aim for simple model of entire personality
- Narrower, lower-level descriptor: predict fewer behaviours but with more accuracy
=> Narrow measures of personality’s specific part(s) focusing on part of personality relevant to specific behaviour. - Example study:
- A study looking at correlations between grades and pre-selected big factors and ‘lower-level’ traits, like ‘need for achievement’ & ‘need for understanding’
=> Traits are better predictors (stronger correlations) compared to the big factors they are a part of
=> BUT! Predict fewer behaviours (e.g. ‘incidence of plagiarism’ not looked at) so depends on aim
3
Q
What is meant by authoritarianism/conservatism?
A
Definition and features:
- Preference for familiar routines
- Strong views on crime and punishment
- Respect for institutions + acceptance of authorities
- Reluctant to introspect (uncritical)
- Belief that pleasure is wrong
=> Rigid and inflexible
=> Maybe a stable aspect of personality trait
Supporting evidence: biological basis
- Twin reared apart show evidence for heritability of conservatism
- Conservatism associated with decreased neural processing in suppressing habitual response to Go/No-Go task + lower response accuracy
→ rigid thinking
4
Q
What is meant by Schizotypy?
A
- Continuity hypothesis: there is no discontinuity between ‘normality’ and mental illness
=> Finding personality traits in non-clinical population related to psychosis
=> Schizotypy: correlations based on clinical description of schizophrenia, reflecting biological vulnerability to psychosis - Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (O-LIFE): A way to measure schizotypy based on factor analysis measuring psychosis-related symptoms
- Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ): Items developed to capture 9 features of schizotypal personality disorder in DSM-3.
5
Q
Describe the 4 concepts/factors of Schizotypy based on the O-LIFE questionnaire?
A
- Unusual experiences: perceptual distortions, hallucinations, and magical thinking.
- Cognitive disorganisation: cognitive difficulties, sense of purposelessness, anxiety, etc.
- Introvertive anhedonia: lack of enjoyment from social sources, and dislike of intimacy.
- Impulsive nonconformity: impulsive and disinhibited behaviours.
6
Q
Describe a study to evaluate the validity of Schizotypy traits?
A
- Example study: asking Ps to name the colour of the ink as fast as they can, 3 conditions:
- Baseline: Xs with coloured inks
- Stroop: distractor word unrelated to next ink colour
- Priming: distractor word predicts next ink colour - Results:
- NP effect = (Priming - Stroop)
- Higher schizotypy have smaller NP effect
=> Supportive evidence for conceptual validity
=> Negative priming (NP), a cognitive inhibition measure reduced in schizophrenia.
7
Q
What is meant by Machiavellianism advice?
A
- A manipulative personality trait => a part of the Dark Triad.
- Machiavellianism:
- Better to be feared than loved
- Make decisions for the benefits of the group, with the absence of morality (ends justify the means)
- Be cunning and strong
- Importance of outer appearance + relationships. - Mach-IV: A questionnaire to measure this trait
- 20 items and Likert-type response
- Seperate into 3 factors: tactics, views, and morality
- Some statement are negatively scored - Supporting study (example:
- Confederate encouraged participant to cheat on experimental task
- Amount of eye contact with experimenter measured following accusation of cheating.
=> Results: people with high Mach maintain more eye contacts post-cheating.
8
Q
Describe all factors of the Dark Triad?
A
Three overlapping, yet distinct ‘dark’ personality traits relating to social malevolence, coldness, aggressiveness, self-promotion and duplicity.
- Machivelianism: deceptive & manipulative nature
- Can be measured using Mach-IV
- Focus on 3 factors: tactics, views, and morality - Narcissism:
- Feeling of superiority, dominance, self-focus
- Subclinical measure of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. - Psychopathy:
- Nonclinical features of psychopaths
- Impulsivity and thrill-seeking
- Superficial charm and manipulative
- Low empathy, remorse and guilt
9
Q
Evaluation of the Dark Triad:
A
- Supporting evidence, people high on these 3 traits are often associated with:
- Preference for short-term relationships
- ‘Night-time’ chronotype (more active at night)
- Cruelty to animals
- Attractiveness to others - Comparison between the Dark Triad and Big Trait Models
- Different associations with Big 5 traits (moderate negative correlations with Agreeableness)
- HEXACO mode: shared ‘dark triad’ variance correlates up to -.94 with Honesty/Humility
10
Q
What is the most common way to measure personality traits?
A
- Self-report scales and Inventories
- Introspective
- Subjective (bias)
- Structured (quantifiable)
- Contain more than 1 item per construct - Differences between scale and inventory:
- Scale: measure only 1 dimension of personality
- Inventory: several scales that together measure multiple dimensions of personality - Common types of errors in personality measurement:
- Random error: non-systematic variation (fault in humans), equally likely to score higher/lower than true score => solution: increase no. of items
- Systematic error: test score always higher or lower than true score => can’t be solved with increasing no. of items
- Common sources of systematic error in self-report scales include: response set bias, socially-desirable responding, and faking
11
Q
Describe the 3 types of systematic error in self-report personality measurement and potential solutions to counter these?
A
- Response set biases
- ‘Straightlighting’ - insufficient effort responding
+ Acquiescence bias: tendency to agree
+ ‘Nay’ saying: tendency to disagree
+ Midpoint response: neither
- Solutions:
+ Remove mid-point option (not always appropriate)
+ Include reverse-scored items (but can be confusing if not done well) - Socially-desirable responding + (3) Faking
- Some traits are seen as more favourable => Ps may not answer honestly
- Deceptive intent (when stakes are much higher)
- Particular concern in occupational/forensic settings
- Solution: include ‘Lie Detector’ items (may be untrue - account for general population)
=> OR making all the item socially-undesirable (Mach V scale - decide item MOST or LEAST like views)
12
Q
What are some alternatives to self-reported measure of personality?
A
- Behavioural measure:
- Argued that self-report personality + controlled behaviours don’t always represent who we truly are
- Develop measures of trait-relevant ‘spontaneous’ behaviours (e.g. for OCEAN traits)
- Issues: Low correlation between behaviours and self-report measures for most traits
+ Low concurrent validity
+ Inadequacy of either or both measures - Implicit measure:
- Used a modified IAT to measure people’s automatic associations to stimuli
- HOW?
+ E.g. categorise words to into SELF/conscientious vs. OTHERS/unconscientious
+ Counterbalance: half of trials paired congruently with traits and vice versa
+ Calculate RT for congruent and incongruent trials
=> Greater difference = more extreme values - Issues of implicit measures:
- Some correlations between self-report and behavioural measures (but not high)
- Still fairly low convergent validity - seem to measure different things
=> Suggestions: maybe some measures may be better suited to certain traits?
13
Q
What are the ‘Other Reports’ of measuring personality?
A
- Other Report:
- Someone else rating your personality (vice versa)
- Dependent on: external expression of feelings and thoughts + no. of situations observer has access to
- How it works:
Produce trait-relevant behaviour (available) -> Rater detects + correctly interprets behaviour - Effectiveness evaluation:
- Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry (SOKA) Model
- Both Self and Other rating can be valid predictors of behaviours, but can show asymmetrics in validity of Self vs. Other knowledge
- Evidence: self more accurate than others when rating low observability traits or vice versa (e.g. N and interllect, respectively)
=> Stronger effects for ‘Others’ who are less close
14
Q
What are the Projective methods of measuring personality?
A
- Projective Tests of Personality:
- Ps describe/tell a story about ambiguous/meaningless stimuli
- Projection or personality
- Personality is then measured by observer ratings on: Content AND Focus
=> Benefits:
- Less dependent on introspection
- Less prone to bias and faking
=> Issues:
- Subjective, complex, unreliable score
- NOT based on mainstream personality theories - The Apperceptive Personality Test:
- Ps hear a make up story about each picture
- Complete a structured questionnaire rating “how …. the character appears”
- Argued that Ps personality show through their responses
=> Personality has some influence on interpretation of pictures
