Personality Ch.2.: The Scientific Study of Personality

Personality Assessment

Any standardized procedure for learning about an individual’s personality or measuring differences in personality among ppl in a population

Idiographic Method

Focuses on the individual aiming to understand the unique aspects of a single personality.

• Often uses qualitative methods such as case studies and interviews

Nonmeothetic Method

Focuses on general laws and principles that apply across ppl

L-Data

Info obtained from a person’s life history or life record

O-data

Info provided by knowledgeable observers such as parents, friends, or teachers

T-data

Info obtained from experimental procedures or standardized tests

S-Data

Info provided by the subject himself or or herself, typically in the form of responses to questionnaires

Reliability

Extent to which observations can be replicated; whether measures are dependable to stables

Factors Affecting Reliability

• Psychological state of ppl being observed

• Aspects of the test

• Carelessness in scoring a test

• Ambiguous roles

Internal Consistency

Do different items on the test correlative w/one another as one would expect if each is a reflection of a common psychological construct?

Test-retest Reliability

If ppl take the test at two different times, do their scores correlate with one another?

Corss-Sectional

Participants take part on one occasion, participants as “a slice in time”

Correlational Coefficent

The statistic used to guage the degree to which two variables and measure are lineraly related.