Exam 1 Psychology of Personality

psychological triad

combination of how people feel, think, and behave

humanistic psychology

the approach to personality that emphasizes aspects of psychology that are distinctly human

self report data

a person's evaluation of his or her personality

informant data

judgements made by knowledgeable informants about general attributes of an individual's personality

behavioral observation data

Behavioral data, or direct observations of another's behavior that are translated directly or nearly directly into numerical form

life outcome data

life data, or more or less verifiable, concrete, real life outcomes, which are possible psychological significance

judgements

based on observing people in whatever context they are from

expectancy effect

result that occurs when a researcher or observer subtly communicates to participants the kind of behavior he or she expects to find, thereby creating that expected reaction

behavioral confirmation

the self fulfilling prophecy tendency for a person to become the kind of person others expect them to be

measurement error

the variation of a number around its true mean data due to uncontrolled, essentially random influences; also called error variance

state

a temporary psychological event, such as an emotion, thought, or perception

trait

more stable and enduring characteristic or pattern of behavior

aggregation

the combining together of different measurements, such as by averaging them

spearman-brown formula

a mathematical formula that predicts the degree to which the reliability of a test can be improved by adding more items

psychometrics

the technology of psychological measurement

generalizability

the degree to which you can apply the results of your study to a broader context

type 1 error

false positive

type 2 error

false negative

effect size

the magnitude, or strength, of a relationship between two or more variables

factor analysis

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

P-hacking

hacking around in one's data until one finds the necessary degree of statistical significance that allows one's findings to be published

open science

a set of practices intended to move research closer to the ideals on which science was founded

replication

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

interactionism

the idea that situations and personality interact to determine behavior

constructivism

reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist. all that does are human ideas, or constructions, of reality

critical realism

people gather all the information that might help them determine if the judgement is valid

interjudge agreement

the degree to which two or more people making judgments about the same person provide the same description of that person's personality

behavioral prediction

the degree to which a judgement or measurement can predict the behavior of the person in question

predictive validity

the degree to which one measure can be used to predict another

moderator variable

a variable that affects the relationship between two other variables

judgability

the extent to which an individual's personality can be judged accurately by others

single-trait approach

examines behaviors associated with a particular trait

many-trait approach

looks for traits associated with a particular behavior

essential-trait approach

looks for traits associated with a particular behavior

typological approach

focuses on the patterns of traits that characterize a person

lexical hypothesis

important aspects of life will be labeled with words, and if something is truly important and universal there will be many words for it

rank-order consistency

people tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from people of the same age

temperament

personality in infants, mostly determined by genetics

heterotypic continuity

the effects of fundamental temperamental tendencies change with age, but temperament and personality stay the same - behaviors associated with traits change

person-environment transactions

people tend to respond to, seek out, and create environments they are compatible with and may magnify their personality traits

reactive person environment transactions

people respond differently to the same situation

evocative person environment transactions

people change the situation

cumulative continuity principle

personality traits are relatively stable across the life span, and become more stable as a person matures

personality development

change in the mean level of a personality trait over time

cross-sectional study

people of different ages are assessed at the same time

longitudinal study

the same people are measured from childhood to adulthood

cohort effect

people of different ages may differ because they grew up in different enviornments

maturity principle

the idea that traits associated with effective functioning increase with age

social clock

the traditional expectations of society for when a person is expected to have achieved certain goals such as starting a family or getting settled into a career

narrative identity

the story you tell about your life