Psychology of Personality Test 1

Chapter 1, 2, 3

psychological triad

the combination of how people think, feel, and behave

solving personality disorders

when do clinical and personality psychology overlap?

personality

an individuals characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, integrated view of the whole

1. open area

2. blind spot

3. hidden area

4. unknown

what are the four parts of the Johari Window?

trait approach

• type of basic approach

• focuses on how differences might be conceptualized, measured, and followed over time

• how are people different from one another?

biological approach

• type of basic approach

• includes anatomy and physiology, genetics, and evolution

psychoanalytic approach

• type of basic approach

• the unconscious mind and the nature and resolution of internal medical conflict

phenomenological approach

• type of basic approach

• approach that focuses on people’s conscious experience of the world

• what is the nature of the human experience?

humanistic

• type of phenomenological approach

• conscious awareness produces uniquely human attributes; understand meaning and basis of happiness

cross-cultural

• type of phenomenological approach

• the experience of reality might be different across cultures

learning

• type of phenomenological approach

• approach that focuses on how behavior changes due to regards, punishments, and other life experiences

classic behaviorism

• type of learning approach

• focuses on overt behavior

social learning

• type of learning approach

• how observation and self-evaluation determine behavior

cognitive personality

• type of learning approach

• focuses on cognitive processes, including perception, memory, and thought

• great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and the opposite is also true

• too broad

• traits can go both ways

funder’s first law, advantage/disadvantage

research

emphasizes creative thinking over memorizing because it entails seeking new knowledge, not cataloging known facts

technical training

teaches how to use what is already known, scientific training teaches how to explore the unknown (medical education, for example)

there are no perfect indicators of personality, there are only ambiguous clues

Funder’s second law

something beats nothing two times out of three

funder’s third law

S-data

• type of data

• person’s self eval of their own personlity

face validity

the degree to which an assessment instrument appears to measure what it is intended to measure

• large amounts of data

• access to thoughts, feeling, intentions

• definitional truth

• casual force

• simple and easy

advantages of S data

self efficacy

what you think you are capable of and the kind of person you think you are

self verification

people work to convince others to treat them in a manner that confirms their self conceptions

• bias

• error

• too simple and easy

disadvantages of S data

I data

• type of data

• judgements by those around you (informants)

• large amount of info

• real-world basis

• common sense

• definitional truth

• casual force

advantages of I data

• limited behavioral information

• lack of access to private experiences

• error

• bias

disadvantages of I data

L data

• type of data

• verifiable, concrete, real-life facts that may hold psychological significance

• can be obtained from archive records

• can be thought of as residue of personality

• objective and verifiable

• intrinsic importance

• psychological relevance

advantages of L data

• multi determination (can be influenced by more that personality)

disadvantage of L data

B data

• type of data

• gathered by observing a person, or by having a person record themselves

• diaries

• social media

• ambulatory assessment

1. behavioral experiments

2. physiological measures

2 varieties of observational data

• range of contexts

• appearance of objectivity

advantages of B data

• difficult and expensive

• uncertain interpretation

disadvantages of B data

behavioroid

participants report what they think they would do

mix of S and B data

S data, B data

most personality tests test what kind of data? what about other tests?

B data

IQ tests are what kind of data?

projective tests

the person may or may not be aware of the inner processes

rorschach inkblot test

• type of projective test

• thoughts revealed by interpreting inkblots

draw a person test

• type of projective test

• interpreted based on what kind of person is drawn

thematic apperception test

• type of projective test

• tell stories about ambiguous drawings

objective tests

questions seem more objective and less open to interpretation

rational method

write items that seem directly related to what is measured

1. items must mean the same thing to test taker and maker

2. capability for accurate self assessment

3. willingness to make an accurate report

4. items must be valid indicators of what is being measured

four conditions for validity

face validity

rational tests seek to measure exactly what they seem to be measuring, on their “face”

factor analysis

statistical technique that identifies groups of things that seem to have something in common

empirical method

identify items based on how people in preidentified groups respond

cross-validation

determine whether the test can predict behavior, diagnosis, or category membership in a new sample

factor analysis

statistical technique that identifies groups

empirical method

identify items based on how people in preidentified groups respond

cross-validation

determine whether the test can predict behavior, diagnosis, or category membership in a new sample

psychometrics

regards two questions:
is it reliable?
is it valid?

is the data generalizable?

measurement error

the less error, the more reliable the measurement

1. low precision

2. state or participant

3. state of experimenter

4. state of environment

what are four factors that affect measurement?

spearmen-brown formula

predicts the increase in reliability you get when you add equivalent items to a test

validity

the degree to which a measurement measures what it is supposed to

constructs

cannot be directly seen, but affect and help explain things that are visible

construct validation

developing a group of different measurements that yield more or less the same result

reliability

the degree to which a test yields consistent results

generalizability

the degree to which results can be applied

case method

closely studying a particular event or person to find out as much as possible

describes the whole phenomenon

can prevent bad things

advantages of case studies

unknown generalizability

disadvantage of case studies

experimental study

test differences between two groups

independent variable

imposed by the experimenter and not affected by participants

dependent variable

the variable or change that is observed

correlational study

research technique that establishes the relationship between two variables

the experimental method manipulates the presumed casual variable, the correlational method measures it

why does correlation NOT equal causation?

• uncertainty about what was really manipulated

• can create unlikely or impossible levels of a variable

• often require deception

• not always possible

complications with experiments

no

are experiments always better?

• logic is difficult to describe

• criterion for significance is an arbitrary rule of thumb

• nonsignificant results are sometimes labeled as “no results”

problems with no hypothesis theory

there is no correlation but you think there is

type 1 error

there is a correlation but you think there is not

type 2 error

effect size

index of the magnitude or strength of the relationship between variables

correlation coefficient

between +1 and -1, if 0 there is no relationship

replication

finding the same result repeatedly, with different participants and in different labs

publication bias

studies with stronger results are more likely to get published

the more we understand about people, the more we understand about God

why do we study personality psychology? Christian view

• government wants to know

• we want to help

why do we study personality?

• may be violated when collecting certain data

• becomes concerning with social media

privacy concerns

western

educated

industrialized

rich

democratic

WEIRD

why am i doing this?

are they good reasons?

what two questions should we ask for personality research?