Theories of Personality: Exam 1

beliefs

personally useful and crucially important to some people, but are based on faith, not on reliable facts and systematic observations

convergent validity

refers to whether a test correlates with other measures that it should correlate with

factor analysis

identifies groups of items that go together but tend not to go together with other groups of items

Wiggins

started with lexical assumption-- the idea that all important individual differences are encoded within the natural language. concerned with interpersonal traits

combinations of big five variables

many life outcomes are better predicted by combinations of personality dispositions than by single personality dispositions

situational selection

the tendency to choose the situations in which one finds one-self

Griggs vs Duke Power

Duke power company used clear discriminatory practices in hiring and work assignment

Price Waterhouse vs Hopkins

Supreme Court accepted the argument that gender stereotyping does exist and that it can create a bias against women in the workplace that is not permissible

mean level change

when the average degree of political orientation changes

stability coefficients

the correlations between the same measures obtained at two different points in time

eugenics

the notion that it is possible to design the future of the human species by fostering the reproduction of persons with certain traits and by discouraging the reproduction of persons without those traits

heretibility

"the proportion of phenotypic variance that is attributable to genotypic variance": statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance in group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance

family studies

the degree of genetic relatedness among family members with the degree of personality similarity (typically share the same environment; provide heritability estimates BUT violate equal environments assumption)

Trait Descriptive Adjectives (TDA)

adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people

personality

set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments

psychological traits

characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other

average tendencies

Traits describe the ____ of a person

psychological mechanisms

like traits, except that the term 'mechanisms' refers more to the processes of personality

inputs, outputs, and decision rules

three essential ingredients of psychological mechanisms

within the individual

personality is something a person carries with themselves over time and from one situation to the next

organized

psychological traits and mechanisms for a given person are not a random collection of elements

influential forces

personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on people's lives

perceptions

refers to how people 'see' or interpret an environment

selections

describes the manner in which we choose situations to enter--how people choose their friends, partners, hobbies, college classes, and careers

evocations

reactions people produce in others (unintentional)

manipulations

the ways in which we intentionally attempt to influence others

adaptation

central feature of personality; goal accomplishing, coping, adjusting, and dealing with challenges/problems we face through life

Human Nature, Individual and Group Differences, and Individual Uniqueness

the three levels of personality analysis

individual differences

the ways in which each person is like some other people (extroverts, sensation seekers)

differences among groups

people in one group may have certain personality features in common, and these common features make that group of people different from other groups (cultural differences, different age groups, different political parties, different SES backgrounds)

nomothetic (nomos=law)

research that typically involves statistical comparisons of individuals or groups, requiring samples of participants on which to conduct research; typically applied to identify universal human characteristics and dimensions of individual or group differences

ideographic (idios=own/private)

research that typically focuses on a single person, trying to observe general principles that are manifest in a single life over time; often results in case studies or the psychological biography of a single person

Dispositional, biological, intrapsychic, cognitive-experiential, social and cultural, and adjustment

The six domains of knowledge about human nature

domain of knowledge

specialty area of science and scholarship in which psychologists have focused on learning about some specific and limited aspects of human nature

theories and empirical research

two key elements that the six domains of personality focus on

dispositional domain

deals centrally with the ways in which individuals differ from one another, cuts across other domains, identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals differ, interest in the origins of the important individual differences and in how they develop and are maintained

biological domain

assumed that humans are collections of biological systems which provide the building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion; first area of research in the biological approach consists of the genetics of personality, second is as the psychophysiology of personality, and the third concerns how evolution may have shaped human psychological functioning

intrapsychic domain

deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside of conscious awareness, predominant theory is Freud's, and also includes defense mechanisms, such as repression, denial and projection.

cognitive-experiential domain

focuses on thought processes and subjective experience (conscious ideas, feelings, beliefs, and desires about oneself/others), self and self-concept are very important to our experience, different aspect pertains to goals we strive for, and people's emotions are also important.

social and cultural domain

assumes that personality affects and is affected by social and cultural context, different cultures bring out different facets of people's personalities in manifest behavior, personality plays itself out in the social sphere at the level of individual differences, and at the level of differences between the genders, personality may operate differently for men than women.

adjustment domain

refers to the fact that personality plays a key role in how people cope, and adapt to the ebb and flow of event in their day-to-day lives. research evidence shoes that personality links with important health outcomes and with health-related behaviors (smoking/drinking)

A good theory...

provides a guide for researchers, organizes known findings, and makes predictions.

comprehensiveness, heuristic value, testability, parsimony, compatibility and integration across domains and levels

scientific standards for evaluating personality theories

comprehensiveness

Explains most or all known facts: does the theory do a good job of explaining all of the facts and observations within its domain?

Psychoanalytic Perspective

childhood experiences and the unconscious mind: Freud, Erikson, and Jung

structured personality tests

forced-choice true/false questions

O-Data (Observer-Report Data)

capitalizes on sources (friends, families, and teachers) for gathering information about a person's personality

T-Data (Test-Data)

common source of personality-relevant information comes from standardized tests

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

technique used to identify the areas of the brain that "light up" when performing certain tasks such as verbal problems or spatial navigation problems

response sets/noncontent responding

the tendency of some people to respond to the questions on a basis that is unrelated to the question content

acquiescence

yea saying

social desirability

tendency to answer items in such a way as to come across as socially attractive or likable.

face validity

refers to whether the test, on the surface, appears to measure what it is supposed to measure

predictive validity (criterion validity)

refers to whether the test predicts criteria external to the test

correlational method

a statistical procedure is used for determining whether there is a relationship between two variables

correlation coefficient

most common statistical procedure for gauging relationships between variables

directionality problem

does a cause b or vice versa?

third variable problem

does a cause b, or is there a third underlying variable

case study method

examining the life of one person in-depth

act frequency

involves act nomination, prototypicality judgments, and recording act performance as key elements

act nomination

procedure designed to identify which acts belong in which trait categories

prototypicality judgments

involves identifying which acts are most central to each trait category

recording act performance

consists of securing information on the actual performance of individuals in their daily lives

theoretical approach

identifies important dimensions of individual differences start with a theory that determines which variables are important

interpersonal traits

one kind of individual difference pertains to what people do to and with each other

situationism

if behavior differs from situation to situation, then it must be situational differences rather than underlying personality traits that determine behavior.

infrequency scale

contains items that all or most people will answer in a particular way. if answered 'wrong' the their test is flagged as sus

false negative

conclude that a truthful person was faking and reject that person's data

Barnum Statements

generalities--statements that can apply to anyone--tho often appear to the readers of astrology advice columns to apply specifically to them

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

required employers to provide equal employment opportunities to all persons

uniform guidelines on employee selection procedures

provides a set of principles for employee selection that meet the requirements of all federal laws, especially those that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

states that an employer cannot conduct a medical examination, or even make inquiries as to whether an applicant has a disability, during the selection process

Jung's theory of psychological types

the theory on which MBTI is based. Not widely endorsed by academic or research-oriented psychologists

Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

questionnaire measure of personality that measures aspects of the Big Five traits that are relevant to the above three motives important to business

personality change

internal: not changes to external surroundings, relatively enduring over time

longitudinal studies

examine the same groups of individuals over time, are costly and difficult to conduct

Kelly and Conly

studied a sample of 300 couples from their engagements in the 1930s all the way through till 1980s; found that strong predictors of marital dissatisfaction and divorce: neuroticism of the husband, lack of impulse control of the husband, and neuroticism of the wife.

environmentality

percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to environmental differences

phenotypic variance

observed individual differences: height, weight, personality

twin studies

estimate heritability by gauging whether identical twins (share 100%) are more similar to each other than fraternal twins (share 50%) (provide both heritability and environmentality estimates BUT sometimes violate equal environments assumption)

monozygotic twins (MZ)

identical twins: come from single egg

equal environments assumption

assumes that environments experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than environments experienced by fraternal twins

adoption studies

can examine correlations between adopted children and their adoptive parents. positive correlation = evidence for environmental influences on questioned personality traits (provide both heritability and environmentality estimates and avoids equal environments assumption BUT adoptive kids might not be representative of population--problem of selective placement)

Minnesota Twin Study

showed that traditionalism showed a heritability of .59

shared environmental influences

siblings share some features of their environment

heuristic value

Guides researchers to important new discoveries: does the theory provide a guide to important new discoveries about personality that were not known before

testability

Makes precise predictions that can be empirically tested: does the theory provide precise predictions that can be tested empirically

parsimony

Contains few premises or assumptions: does the theory contain few premises and assumptions (has this) or many premises and assumptions (lack of this)

compatibility and integration across domains and levels

Consistent with what is known in other domains; can be coordinated with other branches of scientific knowledge: a personality theory in one domain that violated well-established principles in another domain would be judged highly problematic

human nature

the first level of personality analysis; the traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and are possessed by everyone or nearly everyone

theories

tested by systematic observations that can be repeated by others and that yield similar conclusions

Humanistic Perspecitve

psychological growth, free will, and personal awareness: Maslow and Rogers

Trait Perspective

identifying, describing, and measuring personality traits: Eysenck, Cattell, McCrae, and Costa

Social Cognitive Perspective

observational learning, self-efficacy, and situational influences: Bandura

S-Data (Self-Report Data)

information a person reveals

unstructured personality tests

open-ended "fill in the blank" questions

Likert rating Scale

complex method involves requesting participants to indicate in numerical form the degree to which each trait term characterizes them (1-7)

experience sampling

people answer questions every day for several weeks or longer (questions about moods/symptoms/etc.)

inter-rater reliability

the use of multiple observers allows investigators to evaluate the degree of agreement among observers

multiple social personalities

our manifest personalities vary from one social setting to another, depending on the nature of the relationship