Week 04: Chapters 5 and 7 Flashcards
accuracy
Refers to how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value. Precision refers to how close measurements of the same item are to each other.
expectancy effect
The tendency for someone to become the kind of person others expect him or her to be; also known as a self-fulfill- ing prophecy and behavioral confirmation.
four-factor theory
Robert Rosenthal identified climate, input, output and feedback were the four factors that led to teacher’s expectation of their students impacting those students’ behavior.
* Climate referred to the fact that if a teacher has high expectations for their students, they may create a warm socio-economic environment. They feel positively towards their students and the classroom would reflect this attitude.
* Input suggested that teachers will give students they believe are intelligent more and better-quality materials.
* Output meant that teachers will give those students more opportunities to respond and engage in the classroom.
* The last factor was feedback, that referred to the likelihood that better performing students may receive more detailed feedback from their teachers on how to improve.
constructivism
The philosophical view that reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist and that only ideas (“constructions”) of reality exist.
critical realism
The philosophical view that the absence of perfect, infallible criteria for determining the truth does not imply that all interpretations of reality are equally valid; instead, one can use empirical evidence to determine which views of reality are more or less likely to be valid.
convergent validation
The process of assembling diverse pieces of information that converge on a common conclusion.
interjudge agreement
The degree to which two or more people making judgments about the same person provide the same description of that person’s personality.
behavioral prediction
The degree to which a judgment or measurement can predict the behavior of the person in question.
predictive validity
The degree to which one measure can be used to predict another.
moderator variable
A variable that affects the relationship between two other variables.
judgability
The extent to which an individual’s personality can be judged accurately by others.
rank-order consistency
The maintenance of individual differences in behavior or personality over time or across situations.
temperament
The term often used for the “personality” of very young, pre-verbal children. Aspects of temperament include basic attributes such as activity level, emo- tional reactivity, and cheerfulness.
heterotypic continuity
The reflection of the consistency of fundamental differences in personality that changes with age; e.g., the emotionally fragile child will act differently than the emotionally fragile adult, but the underlying trait is the same.
person-environment transactions
The processes by which people respond to, seek out and create environments that are compatible with, and may magnify, their personality traits.
active person-environment transaction
The process by which people seek out situations that are compatible with their personalities, or avoid situations that they perceive as incompatible.
reactive person-environment transaction
The process by which people with different personalities may react differently to the same situation.
evocative person-environment transaction
The process by which a people may change situations they encounter through behaviors that express their
personality.
cumulative continuity principle
The idea that personality becomes more stable and unchanging as a person gets older.
personality development
Change in personality over time, including the development of adult personality from its origins in in- fancy and childhood, and changes in personality over the life span.
cross-sectional study
A study of personality development in which people of different ages are assessed at the same time.
cohort effect
The tendency for a research finding to be limited to one group, or cohort, of people, such as people all living during a particular era or in a particular location.
longitudinal study
A study of personality development in which the same people are assessed repeatedly over extended periods of time, sometimes many years.
maturity principle
The idea that traits associated with effective functioning increase with age.
social clock
The traditional expectations of society for when a person is expected to have achieved certain goals such as starting a family or getting settled into a career.
narrative identity
The story one tells oneself about who one is.
social investment principle
The social investment principle states that investing in social institutions, such as age-graded social roles, is one of the driving mechanisms of personality development.
