Week 2: Personality Psyc

Question 1

the 3 levels of Personality

Answer 1

lvls:

1) dispositional traits
2) characteristic Adaptations
3) life narratives

they are hierarchical (3 is the highest)

Question 2

1) Dispositional traits

Answer 2

• broad descriptions of patterns of behavior and experience

-relatively decontextualised
as it arises from v. broad classes of stimuli and situations

Question 3

Dispositional traits:

Allport and Odbert (1936)

Answer 3

they have a Lexical Hypothesis:
impt chars coded in language.
18k descriptors

Prob: v. unwieldy, a list rather than a system

Question 4

Cattell (1943):
reduced Odbert’s list to Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors (traits)
Precedure

Answer 4

1) 18,000 descriptors
2) Sorted into 160 clusters of synonyms/antonyms
3) Discarding near-identical descriptors
4) Final list of 171 descriptors
5) 100 participants rate 1-2 friends on the 171 descriptors
6) Factor Analysis
7) 16 Personality Factors

Question 5

Dispositional Traits:
content
strengths
limitations

Answer 5

content) Broad, coherent patterns of behaviour and experience
strength) Universal structure, high predictive value
limitation) Lowest resolution description of a person

Question 6

Problems with Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors

Answer 6

1) Subjectivity
2) Poor Replicability / Reproducibility
3) Redundancy

Question 7

Problems with Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors

1) Subjectivity &
2) Poor Replicability / Reproducibility

Answer 7

Different people reach a different reduced set of Allport
& Odbert’s descriptors
cannot obtain the same set

Question 8

Problems with Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors

3) Redundancy

Answer 8

Many of his factors correlated too highly for them to really be ‘different’ traits

Question 9

Digman, 1990 created:

The Big Five

Answer 9

1) Extraversion
2) agreeableness
3) conscientiousness
4) Neuroticism
5) openness

Question 10

Hierarchical Structure of Traits

Answer 10

1) Nuances (very narrow: liking something)
2) Facets (energy lvl. + emotions)
3) Aspects (enthusiasm)
4) Domains (big 5)
5) Meta-traits (stability, plasticity: v. broad)

Question 11

Big 5 themes are?

3

Answer 11

1) Interpersonal responses
2) Responses to achievement settings
3) Emotional responses

Question 12

Interpersonal responses

Answer 12

An extraverted person is
— Bold and assertive
— Talkative and sociable

An agreeable person is
— Kind, warmhearted, caring
— Cooperative and trusting

Question 13

Responses to achievement settings

Answer 13

A conscientious person…
— finishing things, doing things properly, being thorough, precise and careful

A neurotic person…
— reflect anxiety,
worry about getting things wrong, messing things up

Question 14

Emotional responses

Answer 14

An extraverted person…
— Experiences positive affect and energy

A more neurotic person…
— Experiences worry and mood swings

An open person…
— Experiences interest and curiosity

Question 15

Measurements of B5:
Questionnaires:
3 methods used to Estimate Reliability

Answer 15

Temporal stability
1) Test-retest reliability
(Correlation between T1 score and T2 score)

Internal consistency
2) Split-half reliability 
(Correlation between scores: half & half)
3) Cronbach's Alpha
(Average of all possible split halves)

Question 16

Measurements of B5:
Questionnaires:
3 methods used to for validity

Answer 16

1) Face validity
(appear valid)
2) Content validity
(relevant content: judge by experts)
3) Criterion-related validity
(sensible correlations with other valid measures)

Question 17

Test-retest reliability:

rationale and caveat

Answer 17

R: repeated measure: easy to verify the score

C: not applicable to all psychological phenomena (eg: states: changes more)

Question 18

Cronbach’s Alpha:

Answer 18

widely reported measure of reliability

> 0.6 to be considered reliable

Question 19

Criterion-related validity:

1.Concurrent validity

Answer 19

Concurrent validity:
2 aspects:
Convergent validity: correlate significantly with related measures?
Divergent validity: weak or zero correlations with unrelated measures

Question 20

Criterion-related validity:

2.Predictive validity

Answer 20

predict expected outcomes, or behaviours

Question 21

Caveat of validity of B5

Answer 21

Big Five were empirically derived (i.e., without a guiding theory)

Stronger emphasis on predictive validity

but not for the the new BFI-2

Question 22

The scope and limits of traits

Answer 22

its not all aspects of personality

Traits are generic descriptors, and relatively decontextualised

personality can be v. contextualised.

Question 23

Characteristic Adaptations’ conceptualizations

Answer 23

Both are specific to an individual
McAdams & Pals, 2006:
time - stages of life
place - Specific Situations
Role - Function / Duty

DeYoung, 2015:
stable goals - Desired future states
interpretations - appraised current states
strategies - plans and actions to move between states

Question 24

Life Narratives:
content
strengths
limitations

Answer 24

content) Personal Story, unity and purpose of self
strength) Highest resolution description of a person

Limitation) no predictive value

Question 25

To study life narratives using interview focus on:

Answer 25

1) 8 key events in your life
2) Significant people
3) The future script
4) Stresses and problems
5) Personal ideology
6) Life theme

Question 26

when we study life narratives, the focus of content analyses are ______, _________ and ______.

Answer 26

Tone (+/-)
Themes and (preoccupations w certain prob)
Form (stability/change, slow/fast)

Question 27

Characteristic Adaptations:
content
strengths
limitations

Answer 27

content) Goals, interpretations, strategies
strength) Captures individual circumstances

Limitation) Unclear scope and structure