Week 1 - Introduction to individual differences

Question 1

What are the three types of realism?

Answer 1

Naive realism, Empiricism, and Epistemic/structural realism.

Question 2

What is naïve realism?

Answer 2

focus on physical evidence, which is rare to find in life.

Question 3

What is Empiricism?

Answer 3

what I can see I believe, knowledge is the process of scientific observation of truths.

Question 4

What is Epistemic/structural realism?

Answer 4

science can detect reaction and reactivity but cannot know underlying truths.

Question 5

What are the two types of pragmatism?

Answer 5

Jamesian pragmatism and instrumentalism.

Question 6

What is Jamesian pragmatism?

Answer 6

the world only makes sense to the individuals that are ready to experience it. context around it.

Question 7

What is Instrumentalism?

Answer 7

a form of pragmatism, attempts at measurement do not/may not reflect underlying/latent/core truths but they are measuring something.

Question 8

What are the three types of constructivism?

Answer 8

social constructivism, postmodernism, and new metamodernism.

Question 9

What is social constructivism?

Answer 9

meaning exists between people, individuals are defined by relations with each other.

Question 10

What is postmodernism?

Answer 10

truth exists in time and context alone.

Question 11

What is new metamodernism?

Answer 11

personal reaction to truths and understanding that reaction, emotional reactions, etc.

Question 12

What is typical testing?

Answer 12

Used for personality traits, most of the population are middling with few outliers, no value judgement to scores, personality, tastes, and customer reviews.

Question 13

What is maximal testing?

Answer 13

Used for performance/ability, population may be normally distributed, clear “better” outcome anchors, things like IQ, agility, driving skills, exams.

Question 14

Reliability is?

Answer 14

Repeatability, Is the consensus in measurement/ theory?

Question 15

Validity is?

Answer 15

Accuracy, are we measuring/assessing anything real or in a realistic way?

Question 16

Generalisability is?

Answer 16

Representativeness, is the research/concept WEIRD? Is it useful to all?

Question 17

What does the psychoanalytic approach (Sigmund & Ana Freud) cover?

Answer 17

drives, impulses, sex, defenses, pre/subconscious divide.

Question 18

What do the Humanistic Approaches (Maslow, Csikszentmihalyi) cover?

Answer 18

Describing individuals needs, motivations, self-actualisation.

Question 19

What do the lexical approaches (Allport, Cattell, McCrae & Costa) cover?

Answer 19

Understanding individuals by how they describe themselves/described by others.

Question 20

What do the biopsychosocial approaches (Eysenck and Gray) cover?

Answer 20

Understanding individuals from biology-up and sociality-down.

Question 21

Explain realism.

Answer 21

I can measure your psychology directly. You are your physics and biology, we just have to find the best way to get to it.

Question 22

Explain pragmatism.

Answer 22

I can measure something but is it your psychology? Psychology is complex – it could only to be measurable with holistic practices.

Question 23

Explain constructivism.

Answer 23

Measurement itself is putting someone into a box defined by the psychologist. People have complex personal lives – we should get to know people and their narratives.