Perosnality Exam 1

What are some defining characteristics of personality

• enduring

• organized

• interacts with our environment

• adaptation

Components of a good/useful theory

• testable

• provides heuristic value

• reasonably parsimonious

• is not objective in nature

• comprehensive

Reliability

whether a test is consistent and free of error

Validity

whether a test is measuring what its uspposed to measure

generalizability

whether a test works across a variety of contexts and examples

convergent validity

does the assessment relate to something it should relate to

sources of error

• social desirability

• acquiesence

• non-effortful responding

• extreme responding

• central tendency

temperament factors

• soothability

• activity level

• smile and laughter

• fear

• distress to limitations

• duration of orienting

when is personality most flexible/least stable

childhood

environemntality

the degree to which environment influences variance in behaviors and traits

Double barreled items

Personality questions that require people to agree to 2 potentially different statements

genotypic variance

differences in genetic makeup

types of behavior genetic research methods

famility studies, twin studies, selective breeding, adoption studies

personality trait

smaller chunks of personality that help us define individuals in a more digestible way

Psychological mechanisms

1. Input (enviornmental cue or experience)

2. Decision rules )personality helps us pick a course of action)

3. Output (our response to the inital input based on decision rules)

Levels of personality study

• Human nature

• Individual/group level

• Individual uniqueness level

Domains of knowledge

• Dispositonal

• Biological

• Intrapsychic

• Cognitive-experiential

• Social and cultural

• Adjustment

Types of data

• Self-report data

• Observer report data

• Test data

Types of validity

• face validity

• predictive validity

• convergent validity

• divergent validity

• content validity

face validity

does the assessment appear to measure what it is actually measuring just by peoples opinions

predictive validity

does the assessment predict something that it theoretically should

divergent validity

does an assessment display no meaningful realtionship with something it shouldnt relate to

content validity

does an assessment cover the whole content area of a concept being measured

research methodologies

• experiments

• correlational designs

• case studies

types of trait taxonomies

• lexical - word based

• statistical - factor analysis

• theoretical

PEN model

• bioligically/heritability drvien

• psychoticism, exrtraversion, neuroticism

• hierarchical structure

Circumplex model

• Two axis approach

• Perpendicular and adjacent trait meanings

5 factor model/OCEAN

• openness to new experiences

• conscientiousness

• extraversion

• agreeableness

• neuroticism

Hexaco model

Keeps ocean model, adds honesty-humility

Strong situations

Things that overpower your individual personality traits

Random error

influences peoples response in various ways

Systematic error

influences peoples response in the same way

assessment properties measurement issues

• double barreled items

• barnum statements

• prior knowledge requirements

• socially desirable statements

human genome

collection of genetics that make up who we are

Heritability

the percentage of variance in a trait that is driven by genetics

Tyes of genotype-enviornemtn correlations

• passive - genetics lead you to be in specific enivronments

• reactive - how genetics lead you to situations that influence your environment

• active - you actively choose an enivornment that correlates with your genetics