Week 1

Question 1

What is the ABC Triad?

Answer 1

Affect, Behaviour, Cognition

Question 2

Why are people interested in personality?

Answer 2

1) It helps in predicting and understanding behaviour.
2) It captures a sense of personal distinctiveness.

Question 3

What is Attribution Theory?

Answer 3

It explains why people behave in a certain way.

Question 4

Heider (1958) Attribution theory? 2 categories?

Answer 4

1) Personal attributions
2) Situational attributions

Question 5

Personal Attributions definition

Answer 5

You attribute a persons actions to something internal to that person.

Question 6

Situational Attributions definition

Answer 6

You attribute a persons actions to factors that are external to that person.

Question 7

Kelley’s Covariation Theory

Answer 7

• interested in which attribution people make.
• covaration principle

Question 8

Covariation Principle

Answer 8

Tendency to attribute behaviour to factors that are present when the behaviour occurs, and absent when it does not occur.

Question 9

What are the three types of covariation?

Answer 9

1) consensus - do other people react to the same stimulus in the same way?
2) distinctiveness - does the person react to other stimuli in the same way?
3) consistency - is the person’s behaviour towards the same stimulus consistent over time?

Question 10

S+D in Social v.s Personality Psychology

Answer 10

+ research interests - both types are interested in thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals.
- social is interested in cross-situational variability. Personality is interested in stable traits and cross-situational consistency.

Question 11

S+D Personality v.s. Common Sense or Intuition

Answer 11

+ topics or focus of interest (e.g. behaviour, relationships etc).
- personality psychology tests are common sense or intuition using the scientific method.

Question 12

4 Limitations to Common Sense

Answer 12

• wrong
• contradictory
• too simple
• not so common

Question 13

What did McFarland (1989) find out about PMS?

Answer 13

• people perceive a correlation between a negative mood and menstruation.
• BUT women’s self-related emotions do not change during the menstrual cycle.

Question 14

Illusory Correlations definition

Answer 14

An overestimate of the association between factors that are not strongly correlated. e.g. PMS and moodiness.

Question 15

Why are results perceived to be common sense?

Answer 15

Hindsight Bias:
- people spontaneously come up with reasons for the finding - psychological or physics.
- rationalising - can come up with valid reasons for almost anything.

Question 16

Difference between individual differences and personality differences:

Answer 16

Individual - more physical things e.g. finance, gender.
Personality - overarching collection of things.

Question 17

What is the purpose of a theory?

Answer 17

• explain what is known.
• predict new information or events.

Question 18

What characterises a good theory?

Answer 18

• explains what is known.
• is based on multiple sources of information.
• testable.
• is frugal in assumptions - parsimony.
• has personal and intuitive appeal.
• is interesting and proactive.

Question 19

What is needed as evidence in personality research?

Answer 19

• ratings by others (e.g. direct report by observer, peer ratings).
• self-reports (e.g. scales, inventories).

Question 20

What is an indirect way to determine what a person is like?

Answer 20

• Implicit/Indirect Assessment (e.g. Implicit Association Test).

Question 21

Issues with Personality Evidence:

Answer 21

• reliability (consistency or repeatability of measurement).

Question 22

2 Methods to ensure internal consistency?

Answer 22

1) Split-half reliability.
2) Cronbach’s Alpha

Question 23

What is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 23

Observations are used it is ideal to have multiple judges to avoid biases.

Question 24

What is construct validity?

Answer 24

It indicates a match between operational and conceptual definitions.

Question 25

What are the 4 types of construct validity?

Answer 25

1) Criterion
2) Convergent
3) Discriminant
4) Face

Question 26

Criterion (Predictive) Validity

Answer 26

• examines how well a measure correlates with a standard of comparison.
• examines how well a measure predicts an appropriate outcome.

Question 27

Convergent Validity

Answer 27

Indicates appropriate correlation with assessment devices presumed to measure conceptually similar constructs.

Question 28

Discriminant Validity

Answer 28

Indicates that scale does NOT correlate with other assessment devices presumed to measure conceptually dissimilar constructs.

Question 29

Face Validitiy

Answer 29

Indicates that the item or scale measures what you think it is supposed to measure.

Question 30

What are the 2 approaches to the development of assessment devices?

Answer 30

1) Rational (theoretical) approach - conceptualisation, select items to fit, and then test validity and reliability.
2) Empirical (data-based) approach - empirically driven from many items.

Question 31

Three fundamental dimensions for the empirical approach:

Answer 31

1) Evaluation: Good-Bad
2) Potency: Strong-Weak
3) Activity: Active-Passive