Week 6 Flashcards
Why aren’t personality tests perfect predictors of behaviour?
How do we measure traits?
Mostly measured using self-report inventories that may assess both (1) whole personality and (2) single personality traits/constructs
Gordon Allport used Webster’s Dictionary to find how many words that could be used to distinguish one person from another?
18000
How many factors did Cattel reduce Gordon Allport’s 18000 list to?
Cattell used factor analysis to reduce this list to 16 traits
What ratio of genetic and environmental impacts did Cattel conclude about contributing to personality?
1/3 genetic
2/3 environmental
What is personality?
Personality are traits and behaviours about a person that remain stable and enduring over time and situations.
What is the difference between personality and social psychology?
Personality psychology studies those things
about a person that remain somewhat stable
across different situations
Social psychology examines effects whereby
the effect of a situation on a person remains
stable across different types of people
What is the difference between the nomothetic and idiographic approach
Nomothetic - about a general approach when comparing a person’s score to those on a standard deviation graph
Idiographic - more specific approach that looks at a specific individual holistically
What are some issues with self-report issues?
Brain state of the person at the time of testing, people generally do not have very good self awareness, environment, and motivation of the person at the time of testing example - job interview etc.
