exam 1 personality psych

Definition of Personality

A system of enduring inner characteristics that contributes to consistency in thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Inner characteristics

• traits

• goals

• motives

• needs

Consistency

acting the same in many different situations

why is personality research important

• Personality predicts important outcomes

• Personality research helps us to shape our environments in positive ways

• assumptions about personality and behavior are often wrong

experiments

Researchers change/manipulate 1 variable and see whether the change affects the other variable.

independent variable

variable that experimenter manipulates

dependent variable

variable experimenter thinks might be affected

hypothesis

Educated guess about what will happen in an experiment. Must be testable.

Confounds

Variables besides the IV that may explain study results. random assignments ensures that subjects in different groups balance each other out.

Correlation Studies

• no manipulation of variables

• examines relationship between variables as it occurs in nature

• useful when you can’t actively manipulate an IV or randomly assign people to a group

positive correlation

when one variable goes up so foes the other

negative correlation

when one variable goes up the other goes down

correlation coefficient

numbers that range from -1 to 1 that represent the direction and strength of a correlation.

• close to one or negative one- strong

• close to zero- weak

advantages of correlation

Useful when you can’t actively manipulate your Independent Variable or randomly assign.

disadvantages of correlational studies

• no random assignment which leads to confounds

• dont know about cause and effect

• correlation NEVER equals causation

Case studies

Type of research in which a single person is studied in great detail

• especially valuable for studying rare phenomena

• limitation: hard to draw firm conclusions/ cant generalize data

Self report measures

people report on aspects of their own personality

• interviews

• questionnaires

Experience Sample

people answer questions about themselves multiple times per day for an extended period of time

advantages of ES

• allows researchers to detect changing patterns of behavior over time

• doesn't rely on memory

advantages of self report measures

• convenient

• cheap

• doesn’t use a lot of resources

• we have information about ourselves that no one else has

disadvantages of self-report measures

• we lack self-knowledge in certain areas

• biased

• possible leading questions

• sometimes people are dishonest on self-reporting measures

• social desirability bias

retrospective bias

when participants remember or interpret past events in an inaccurate way

observer reports

collecting info, about a subjects personality from other people

some observers know subject well, others don’t

The taylor agression paradigm (tap)

Participating against someone: sit in front of a computer and hit the space bar. If faster than the opponent, they administer a loud noise burst; they get to choose how loud

• measures aggression and how they react to other person

The Bridge Building Test

2 assistance, wood, rope, tools. The job is to tell the assistants how to build a bridge, but they are part of a research team and instructed to be very difficult to work with.

• measures leadership and creativity

The Ballon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

In front of the computer, a balloon inflates when you hit the space bar, and you get more money, but eventually it pops, and you lose all your money.

• measures risk taking tendencies

The Marshmallow Task

Usually given to kids if you want to eat it, you can have it now, but if you wait till I come back you can have two

• measure delayed gratificatation

physiological measures

• heart rate

• skin conductance response

• EEG- brain waves

Psychopaths and skin conductance

countdown to skin shock, most people would perspirate, psychopaths fear response not as active so not seen on monitors

Children of parents with alcohol use disorder

• hyper reactive to stress

• may be more prone to alcoholism.

projective tests

subject “projects” unconscious thoughts, motives, desires onto ambiguous stimuli

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• most common

• 10 inkblots, one at a time

• subject asked “what do you see”

• interprets your personality

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• people are presented with 31 different cards depicting people interacting

• they then ask:

• what’s happening in the picture

• what led up to this happening

• what will happen in the future

• what are the characters thinking or feeling

Sentence Completion Test

• subjects are asked to fill in a serious of incomplete sentences

• many versions of this

Outcome data

• marriage

• parenthood

• criminal behavior

• education

• employment

• hospitalization

Reliability

the degree to which a measure is consistent

test-retest reliability

the degree to which the same test, taken repeatedly, yields the same scores

inter-rater reliability

the degree to which multiple raters assign the same score to the same person

Validity

the degree to which something measures what it’s designed to measure

predictive validity

how well an assessment predicts what’s going to happen in the future

concurrent validity

the degree to which a test yields the same results as the better-known, well-established tests

A measure that is not reliable cannot be valid

true

a measure that is reliable can be either valid or invalid

true

The Institutional Review board (IRB)

• reviews research proposals at an institution

• contains at least 5 members with differing expertise

• at least one member not associated with institution

• can accept, can reject, or change a study

exempt review

study poses no known risks and does not involve vulnerable constituents (chair)

expedited review

study poses minimal risk and does not involve vulnerable population (chair + 1 person)

full board review

study poses greater than minimal risk or involves vulnerable populations

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

• makes sure researchers labs are inspected every six months

• makes sure animals have proper housing, food, care, etc.

• must have at least 5 members including a vet and a scientist experienced in animal research

informed consent

• subjects must understand nature of research being conducted

• why they are eligible

• risks and benefits of the study

• how confidentiality is protected

• compensation they’ll receive

• they can leave at any time without penalty

deception when necessary

when research is deemed important and there is absolutely no there way to conduct it without deception

• full debrief necessary

• safety plan in place for when assessing risk behavior (reactions to new medicines, suicidal ideations)

• physician or nurse on call

• clinic on campus referral numbers

carelessness

participants filling out questionnaires may not be motivated to answer carefully

solution to carelessness

• duplicate questions

• include infrequency items

infrequency items

questions that everyone answers the same (e.g. the sky is blue)

Faking good

faking to make it seem like they are better off than they actually are

faking bad

faking to make it seem like they are worse off than they actually are

solutions to faking good

• social desirability items (e.g. I am always willing to admit io made a mistake).

solutions to faking bad

questions on faking bad symptoms (e.g. I see things that aren’t really there. visual hallucinations are incredibly rare)

response set

tendency to answer questions on a survey in a way that’s unrelated to the question content (e.g. nay saying, yea saying, extreme responses).

solution to response sets

reverse coded items

reverse coded items

questions in which disagreeing with a statement means you have more of that quality

Barnum Statements

so broad and general that it could apply to anyone

locus of control (LOC)

how much control a person thinks they have over what happens in their lives.

external LOC

belief that events in their lives are controlled by external factors like luck, chance, and fate.

internal LOC

belief that events in life are controlled by internal factors such as the work you do

illusory correlation

when people perceive an association between two rare events, when that doesn’t actually happen. (sipping coke and tigers scoring)

base rates

the odds that members of certain populations will have a particular characteristic or outcome. most people ignore these when predicting personality traits

traits

aspects of an individual’s personality that are stable over time and across situations

single trait approach

• researchers study a single personality trait and its consequences for behavior

• what do people high on this trait act vs how people low on this trait act.

many trait approach

• researchers choose an outcome and look at the many traits that predict it

• many researchers who use the MTA (Big 5) utilize questionnaires that assess multiple personality traits at once.

Essential trait approach

• researchers try to identify traits that are the most important

• hard to do

theoretical approach

• begin with a theory

• assess traits that relate to that theory

lexical approach

all important individual differences have become a part of our language

factor analysis

statistical method used to group correlated trait inro distinct clusters or factors that are strongly correlated with one anothoer and uncorrelated with other factors

Factor analysis process

• calculate correlations between traits

• use stats to determine whether certain traits cluster together into distinct categories

• when using FA we never know how many factors we will end up with

• Diff pyschologists have used fa to divide personality traits in different numbers

Cattell

used factor analysis to divide personality traits into 16 basic factors, developed 16 personality factor test

neuroticism

emotional distress moodiness upset over daily stressors, mood id unstable

extraversion

sociable, energetic, optimistic, friendly, assertive, if you’re low in this you are reserved and independent

openness

imaginative, intentionally curious, willing to try new things, independent thinkers.

low- -conventional, prefer old things to new things

Conscientiousness

organized, plan-oriented, determined, self-disciplined

OCEAN

• openness

• conscientiousness

• extraversion

• agreeableness

• neuroticism