Ch. 1-3 Personality of Psychology study guide

Flashcards and Practice Problems

Personality Psychology

The “scientific” study of individuals usual pattern of behavior, thoughts, feelings, and motives. (How someone acts, thinks, or feels across time or across situations).

Behaviors

• Exercising

• Emotional responses

• Talking (lying/gossiping)

• Dieting

Thoughts/Cognition

• Self beliefs (assessments of skills + abilities)

• Beliefs/World Views

• Attributions

Feelings (Emotion, Mood)

• Basic emotions

• Self-conscious emotions

• Mood (longer in duration and more diffuse than emotions)

Personality Assessment

The way we measure and capture personality

Self-Report Measure

Questionnaires asking people to report their own personality (rating themselves on a list of adjectives or statements)

Lickert scale

A range of numbers that correspond to how much someone agrees or disagrees with something. (Ex: rating something 1-5)

Correlation

Measures the relationship between two things

Positive Correlation

When one variable is high, the other variable tends to be high as well

Negative Correlation

When one variable is high,the other variable tends to be low

No Correlation

When two variables are not related to each other

Correlations in Psychology

• .10 = small correlation

• between .20 and .40 = moderate correlation

• over .40 = large correlation

Internal Reliability

When all of the items on a questionnaire measure the same thing (Ex: People that take a questionnaire on cats should all agree to liking/disliking the same things about cats)

Cronbach’s alpha

A statistical measure of internal reliability

Test-retest reliability

Taking the test at two different times produces roughly the same result

Validity

When a scale measures what it’s supposed to measure

Face Validity

The extent to which a test or measurement appears to measure what it claims to measure on the surface

Predictive Validity

When a scale is related to a concrete outcome or behavior

Convergent Validity

Occurs when a scale correlates with similar scales

Discriminant Validity

The scale shouldn’t correlate with unrelated scales

Standard deviation (SD)

A measure of how far a score is from the average

Imformant reports

When the people close to someone report on their personality

Protective Tests

Used to draw out personality characteristics without directly asking

Triangulation

Using different research methods to answer the same question to be more certain of the answer

Independent Variable

The variable that the researchers manipulate in an experiment

Dependent Variable

The outcome the researcher is interested in measuring (whether or not question)

Traits

Relatively stable tendencies people have

Factor analysis

Researchers analyze which words correlate with each other and make groups of adjectives.

• Ex: Detail-oriented, neat, hardworking

Lexical hypothesis

Important traits that become embedded in our language

Extroversion

Being outgoing and experiencing positive emotions; opposite: introversion or shyness

Agreeableness

Caring for others and getting along with other people; opposite: being antagonistic, combative, and self-centered

Conscientiousness

Organized, ambitious, and self-controlled; opposite: being messy, unmotivated, and impulsive

Neuroticism

Negative emotions such as worry and anger; opposite: calmness and emotional stability

Openness to Experience

Being interested in trying new activities and ideas/beliefs; opposite: being conventional and less comfortable with change

Facets

More specific components of the Big Five, subcategories of Big Five traits

hostile attribution bias

The tendency to see others as hostile and aggressive

Practice Question:

What is the lexical hypothesis?

Important traits embedded in a language as single words

Practice Question:

How does factor analysis contribute to the identification of basic traits?

Patterns of correlations among responses to questionnaire items can identify traits that cluster together.

Practice Question:

The term ___ refers to how personality psychologists conceptualize more specific components of the Big Five dimensions of personality.

Facets

Practice Question:

Sympathy is considered a facet of ___

Agreeableness