PSY 222 chapter 1-4 glossary

Personality

someone’s usual pattern of behaviour, feelings, and thoughts.

Extraversion

Enjoys being outgoing and experiencing positive emotions; the opposite of introversion.

Introversion

Enjoys time alone and can be reserved in social settings; the opposite of extraversion.

Situation 

The other people and the physical environment surrounding a person. 

Person-situtation debate

The view that stable personality traits predict behaviour versus the view that personality doesn’t really exist and the situation is much more important.

Nature-nurture debate

the view that genetics cause personality traits versus the view that the environment causes personality traits. 

Conscientiousness 

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

Person-situation interaction

When the person and situation work together to determine behaviour.

Personality assessment

the way we measure and capture personality, using a variety of methods.

Self-report measure

Questionnaires asking peopole to report on their own personalities, usually through rating themselves on a list of adjectives or statements. 

Socially desirable responding

The tendency of people to make themselves look better than they actually are. 

Reverse-scored items 

Items scored in the opposite direction from the responses. 

Acquiescence response set

The tendency if some respondents to agree with many items on a questionnaire. 

Likert Scale

A range of numbers that correspond to how much someone agrees or disagrees with an item.

Correlation

The statistical relationship between two variables.

Positive Correlations

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

Negative correlations

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

Null correlations

When two variables are not related to each other. 

Statistically significant 

Having a probability of less than 5% that the results are due to random chance. 

Reliability

Consistency, either within a scale or overtime.

Internal reliability

When all of the items on a questionnaire measure the same thing.

Cronbach’s alpha

A statistical measure of internal reliability.

Test-retest reliability

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

Intercoder reliability

Occurs when people coding stories or written material agree, using a set of rules, that it meets certain criteria. 

Validity 

When a scale measures what it’s supposed to measure.

Face validity.

When scale items appear, at face value, to measure what they are supposed to measure.

Predictive validity

When a scale is related to a concrete outcome or behaviour.

Convergent validity

When a scale correlated with other scales measuring the same construct.

Discriminant validity

When a scale does not correlate with unrelated scales.

Barnum effect

The tendency for people to believe vague, positive statements about themselves. 

Descriptive statistics

Numbers such as the mean, median, and mode.

Mean

The average score on a scale, calculated by adding everyone’s scores and dividing by the number of scores.

Median

The score falls in the middle of all the scores on the test (also called the 50th percentile). 

Mode 

The most frequent score.

Normal distribution

A distribution of scores in which most people score in the middle and fewer score at the extremes; also known as a “bell curve”

Standard Deviation (SD)

A measure of spread around the mean; in a normal distribution, two-thirds of the data will lie within one standard deviation of the mean.

Percentile score

The percentage of people someone scores higher than on a scale or test; a score at the 90th percentile means someone scores higher than 90% of the people who took the scale.

Informant reports 

When the people close to someone (roommates, family, friends) report on that person’s personality.

Projective tests

Measures designed to elicit personality characteristics without directly asking.

Physiological measures

Measurements assessing physical reactions such as heart rate or sweating.

Repressive copers

People who deny their anxiety even when they’re feeling very worried; they score high on social desirability and low on self-report measures of anxiety. 

fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, a type of brain scanning.

Triangulation

using different research methods to answer the same question, in order to be more certain of the answer.

Correlational

Studies that examine the relationship between two or more characteristics of people.

Cofounding variables

In a correlational study, an outside variable related to the primary variables; also known as the third variables.

Longitudinal study 

A study that collects data on the same people at two or more time points as they age. 

Experiment

A study in which people are randomly assigned to conditions.

Independent variable

The experimental or control conditions in an experiment.

Random assignment

Participants are equally likely to experience the experimental or control conditions. 

Dependent Variable

The outcome the researcher is interested in measuring.

Informed consent

The procedure in which potential research participants are told about the purpose of the research, what they will do in the study, and its potential risks.

Debriefing

A procedure at the end of an experiment in which participants are informed of any deception in the research and told about the true purpose of the research.

Research ethic boards (REBs)

Committees tasked with ensuring that researchers follow ethical guidelines for the treatment of research participants.

Sufficiently large samples 

Having enough observations or people in a study to reliably detect an effect. 

Replicate 

When the same or a very similar study is conducted again, the results are similar.

Meta-analysis

A study that statistically analyzes the results of many studies on the same topic.

Many labs approach

When different groups of researchers do the exact same study at the same time.

Open practices

Scientific that result in a high level of transparency, such as making data or research materials available to other researchers. 

Traits 

Relatively stable tendencies of Individuals 

Lexical hypothesis

That important traits became embedded in our language, with the most important traits represented by the largest number of words.

Factor analysis

Analyzing correlations among items to see which form related clusters.

Big Five

Five comprehensive personality domains: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience ( OCEAN). 

Extraversion

Enjoys being outgoing and experiencing positive emotions; the opposite of introversion.

Agreeableness

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

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 playing with new ideas, beliefs, and value systems; 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.

Genetics

The DNA from one’s biological mother and biological father.

Shared environment

The effects of growing up with the same parents; also known as family environment. 

Non-shared environments

Experiences not shared by siblings, such as certain friends, personal injuries, or participating in different activities. 

Biology

Everything that appears in the body and brain, whatever its origin.

Twin studies

A study examining twins raised apart and together, usually to explore whether characteristics are caused by genetics or environment.

Monozygotic twins

Identical twins sharing the same genetic profile.

Percentage of variance

Explained by genetics or environment; this number refers to the variation among a group of people and not within one individual.

Impulsivity

The tendency to take risks, not plan, and be high in sensation seeking; roughly equivalent to low conscientiousness. 

Contrast effect 

when one sibling consciously tries to be different from the other. 

Gene-environment interaction

When genetics and environment work together to shape personality.

Genotype

An organism’s genetic predisposition

Phenotype

Observable characteristics of an organism resulting from the interaction of the genotype and the environment.

Epigenetics

The idea that some environements can influence how much genetics will matter

Gene expression 

How much a gene influences traits or outcomes. 

Frontal Lobe

The front part of teh brain, which makes plans and considers decisions.

Amygdala

The part of the brain responsible for processing reactions to fear.

Discepency detection

Noticing something that is different in the environment.

Neurotransmitter

Carcadian rhythm

Morningness-eveningness 

Evolutionary psychology

The field of research exploring how evolution shaped hu7man psychology. 

Sociosexuality

Testostterone

2D:4D ratio

The length of someone’s index finger divided by the length of their ring finger; a low ratio is linked to high testosterone.