Week 4 Lecture 6 - measuring personality Flashcards
What are self report scales/inventories typically?
- introspective
- subjective
- structured
- contain more than one item per construct
What is a scale?
measures one dimension of personality
What is an inventory?
several scales that, together, measure multiple dimensions of personality
What is measurement error?
random error + systematic error
What is a score on a scale made up on?
true score + random error + systematic error
What is random error?
- non-systematic variation in the test score
- equally likely to score slightly higher vs. slightly lower than true score
- increasing the number of items helps
What is systematic error?
- test score always slightly higher or lower than true score
- increasing the number of items does not help
common sources of systematic error in self-report scales include:
- response set bias
- socially-desirable responding
- faking
What is straightlining?
a type of insufficient effort responding
What is acquiescence bias?
tendency to agree
What is nay saying?
tendency to disagree
What is midpoint responding?
saying neither agree nor disagree
How can we remove midpoint responding?
- remove midpoint option
- but not always appropriate
How can we remove acquiesce and nay saying bias?
- include reverse-scored items
- but this can be confusing for ppt if not done well (disagree with a negative)
What is socially-desirable response bias?
responding in a manner that would be deemed socially desirable
What is faking?
- deceptive intent
- particular concern in occupational / forensic settings
How can we control for socially-desirable response bias and faking?
- include lie detector items –> but maybe people give responses to these that account for the fact that everyone does this sometimes
- make all options socially undesirable
What is the Mach V scale?
- answer which option is most and least like your views
- the response to the socially-desirable buffer option is ignored
- option not selected as Least is taken as being more like their actual views
Steffans and Schulze König (2006): used behavioural measures as part of a broader validation study.
What did they argue and develop?
- Argued that self-reported personality and controlled, deliberate behaviour does not always represent who we truly are.
- Developed measures of trait-relevant ‘spontaneous behaviours’.
Steffans and Schulze König (2006): used behavioural measures as part of a broader validation study.
What did they find?
- Low concurrent validity between behavioural measures and self-report measures
- Inadequacy of behavioural OR self-report measure?
- Maybe implicit measures are better than explicit (self-report) measures…
Steffans and Schulze König (2006)
Modification of the Implicit Association Test (‘IAT’): used to measure people’s automatic associations to stimuli.
How did this IAT work?
Categorise words into:
- self vs others
- conscientious vs unconscientious
- half of trails pairs congruently with trait (self and conscientious)
- half of trails paired incongruently with trait (self and unconscientious)
- calculate RT for congruent and incongruent trails
- greater difference = more extreme value
For each Big 5 trait, Steffans and Schulze König (2006) measured:
- Reaction time difference on IAT task.
- NEO-FFI scores (self-report)
- Behavioural measure(s)
What did they find?
- Some correlation between IAT scores and self-report scores.
- For some traits, IAT score correlated more strongly with behaviour than self-report scores did.
- But, still fairly low convergent validity – seem to measure different things.
- Some measures may be better suited to certain traits..?
How did Steffans and Schulze König (2006) behaviourally measure agreeableness?
Participants turning up to take part in the study (for course credit) were (falsely) told that their name wasn’t on the list, and they might not be able to take part. Their responses were rated as an indicator of: AGREEABLENESS
How did Steffans and Schulze König (2006) behaviourally measure neuroticism?
Participants did a ‘horrendously demanding’ working memory task. When they made mistakes, they received ‘scolding’ messages. Stress-related reactions that they made were rated as a measure of: NEUROTICISM
How did Steffans and Schulze König (2006) behaviourally measure conscientiousness?
Participants were given an untimed computer task that required accuracy. Speed of completion was taken as a measure of: CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
