Personality Psychology: Data Types, Tests, and Research Methods

Definition of personality

An individual's unique, enduring, and long-standing patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions that determine how they interact with their environment.

Advantages of personality psychology

Increased job performance, higher job satisfaction, higher affective commitment, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

S-data

Self data, which refers to information provided by the individual about themselves.

I-data

Informant data, which refers to information provided by others about the individual.

L-data

Logistics/data from documents, which refers to objective and verifiable information.

B-data

Behavior data, which refers to information collected from a range of contexts.

Experience sampling

A longitudinal research method that collects real-time data on people's behaviors, emotions, and thoughts as they occur in their natural environments.

Multideterminism

The concept that a single event, behavior, or phenomenon is caused by multiple, interconnected factors rather than a single, linear cause.

Projective test

A test that requires participants to interpret a meaningless or ambiguous stimulus.

Objective test

A test that consists of a list of questions with answers like yes, no, true, false, or responding with a number on a number line.

Psychometrics

Technology used for psychological measurement.

Reliability

The tendency of an instrument to provide the same comparative information on repeated occasions.

Validity

The degree to which measurement measures what it is supposed to.

Generalizability

The degree to which a measurement can be found under diverse circumstances.

Type I error

When a psychologist makes a claim that is untrue.

Type II error

When a psychologist rejects a claim that is true.