1: Course introduction and core personality methods Flashcards

1
Q

Adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people are called … ?

A

Trait-descriptive adjectives

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2
Q

What is psychological traits?

A

Psychological traits are characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other.

Traits can be descibed as:
Internal = causal properties
External = descriptive summaries or act frequencies

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3
Q

What does the psychological traits describe?

A

They describe the average tendencies of a person

Traits are probabilistic - and will be observed at different levels (man kan svinge ml. hvor extrovert man er)

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4
Q

What is psychological machanisms?

A

They are like traits, except that the term mechanisms refers more to the processes of personality.

For example, most psychological mechanisms involve cognitive processes that entail an information-processing activity.

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5
Q

What are the 3 essential ingredients in most psychological mechanisms?

A
  • inputs (fx fare)
  • decision rules (fx hvis jeg er modig prøver jeg at bekæmpe, er jeg bange flygter jeg)
  • outputs (den handling man foretager sig pba. ovenstående)
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6
Q

What does “within the individual” mean?

A

It means that personality is something a person carries with him or herself over time and from one situation to the next

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7
Q

What does “organized” mean?

A

It means that the psychological traits and mechanisms, for a given person, are not simply a random collection of elements. Rather, personality is organized because the mechanisms and traits are linked to one another in a coherent fashion

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8
Q

How does psychological traits evolve during life?

A

Psychological traits are relatively enduring/permanent over time, particularly in adulthood, and are somewhat consistent over situations

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9
Q

What does influential forces of personality mean?

A

It means that personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on people’s lives

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10
Q

What does perception refer to?

A

It refers to how we see, or interpret, an environment

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11
Q

What does selection describe?

A

It describes the manner in which we choose situations to enter – how we choose our friends, hobbies, university classes and careers

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12
Q

What are Evocations?

A

they are the reactions we produce in others, often quite unintentionally.
To some extent, we create the social environment that we inhabit/live in

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13
Q

What are manipulations?

A

Manipulations are the ways in which we intentionally attempt to influence others

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14
Q

What is perception, selection, evocations and manipulations part of?

A

The person–environment interaction

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15
Q

What is adaptation / adaptive functioning?

A

adaptive functioning – accomplishing goals, coping, adjusting and dealing with the challenges and problems we face as we go through life

(fx ved at vise at man bekymrer sig, opnår man støtte fra andre. På den måde går man fra noget ukonstruktivt “at bekymre sig” til noget mere konstruktivt “støtte”)

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16
Q

What is the intrapsychic environment?

A

Intrapsychic means ‘within the mind’.

We all have memories, dreams, desires, fantasies and a collection of private experiences that we live with each day.

This intrapsychic environment, although not as objectively verifiable as our social or physical environment, is nevertheless real to each of us and makes up an important part of our psychological reality

(fx har selvværd stor betydning på de personlighedstræk som kommer til udtryk)

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17
Q

Personality can be analysed at three different levels (Kluckhohn & Murray, 1948), which?

A
  1. like all others (the human nature level);
    - the traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and are possessed by everyone or nearly everyone. For example, nearly every human has language skills, which allow him or her to learn and use a language.
  2. like some others (the level of individual and group differences);
    • Individual level = ways in which each person is like some other people (e.g. extraverts, sensation seekers).
    • Group differences = people in one group may have certain personality features in common, and these common features make that group of people different from other groups. (fx aldersgrupper, socioøkonomisk status mv.)
  3. like no others (the individual uniqueness level).
    • No two individuals, not even identical twins raised by the same parents in the same home in the same culture, have exactly the same personalities. Every individual has personal qualities not shared by any other person in the world
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18
Q

In which ways could individuals be studied?

A

nomothetically – that is, as individual instances of general characteristics that are distributed in the population

idiographically - as single, unique cases

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19
Q

What is a domain of knowledge?

A

It is a speciality area of science and scholarship, in which psychologists have focused on learning about some specific and limited aspects of human nature.

A domain of knowledge delineates the boundaries of researchers’ knowledge, expertise and interests

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20
Q

Name the six distinct domains of knowledge about human nature…

A
Dispositional domain 
Biological domain 
intrapsychic domain 
cognitive-experiential domain 
social and cultural domain 
adjustment domain
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21
Q

What is central in the dispositional domain?

A

personality is influenced by traits the person is born with or develops

The central goal of personality psychologists working in the dispositional domain is to identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals differ from one another. They are also interested in the origin of the important individual differences and in how they develop and are maintained

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22
Q

What is central in the biological domain?

A

The core assumption within the biological domain is that humans are, first and foremost, collections of biological systems, and these systems provide the building blocks for behaviour, thought and emotion.

As personality psychologists use the term, biological approaches typically refers to three areas of research within this general domain: genetics, psychophysiology and evolution

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23
Q

What is central in Psychophysiology (area under the biological domain)?

A

Within this domain, researchers summarize what is known about the basis of personality in terms of nervous system functioning.

(fx hormoner, søvnrytme mv.)

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24
Q

What is central in evolution (area under the biological domain)?

A

how evolution may have shaped human psychological functioning. This approach assumes that the psychological mechanisms that constitute human personality have evolved over thousands of years because they were effective in solving adaptive problems.

An evolutionary perspective sheds light on the functional aspects of personality

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25
Q

What is central in the intrapsychic domain?

A

Personality is shaped through conflicts within the person’s own mind.

deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside of conscious awareness. The predominant theory in this domain is Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis

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26
Q

What is central in the cognitive-experiential domain?

A

Personality is shaped by personal and private thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs and other subjective experiences.

Focuses on cognition and subjective experience, such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs and desires about oneself and others

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27
Q

What is central in the social and cultural domain?

A

different cultures may bring out different facets of our personalities in manifest behaviour. Everyone may have the capacity to be peaceful as well as the capacity for violence. Which one of these capacities we display may depend on what is acceptable in and encouraged by the culture

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28
Q

What is central in the adjustment domain?

A

Personality is formed by the adjustments that the person must make to the inevitable challenges of life

refers to the fact that personality plays a key role in how we cope with, adapt and adjust to the ebb and flow of events in our day-to-day lives

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29
Q

What characterize a good theory?

A

A good theory is one that fulfils three purposes in science:
provides a guide for researchers;
organizes known findings; and
makes predictions

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30
Q

Which (5) standards should one consider for evaluation of theories of personality?

A
  • comprehensiveness (does the theory do a good job of explaining all of the facts and observations?)
  • heuristic value (does the theory provide a guide to important new discoveries?)
  • testability (does the theory render precise enough predictions so that one can test them empirically?)
  • parsimony (does the theory contain few premises and assumptions?)
  • compatibility and integration across domains and levels
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31
Q

What is comprehensiveness?

A

does the theory do a good job of explaining all of the facts and observations within its domain?

Theories that explain more empirical data within their domains are generally superior to those that explain fewer findings

32
Q

What is heuristic value?

A

does the theory provide a guide to important new discoveries about personality that were not known before?

Theories that steer scientists to making these discoveries are generally superior to theories that fail to provide this guidance

33
Q

What is testability?

A

does the theory render precise enough predictions that personality psychologists can test them empirically?

Some theories – for example, certain aspects of Freud’s theory of intrapsychic conflict – have been criticized on the grounds that they are difficult or impossible to test

34
Q

What is parsimony?

A

does the theory contain few premises and assumptions (parsimony) or many premises and assumptions (lack of parsimony)?

As a general rule, theories that require many premises and assumptions to explain a given set of findings are judged to be poorer than theories that can explain the same findings with fewer premises and assumptions.

(OBS! Betyder dog ikke nødvendigvis at simple teorier er bedre end komplekse)

35
Q

Give examples of low compatibility and integration across domains and levels?

A

A theory of cosmology in astronomy that violated known laws of physics, for example, would be incompatible across levels and hence judged to be fundamentally flawed.

A theory of biology that violated known principles of chemistry similarly would be judged to be fatally flawed.

In the same way, a personality theory in one domain that violated well-established principles in another domain would be judged highly problematic.

36
Q

what is the most obvious source of information about a person?

A

self-report data (S-data)

37
Q

What is self-report-data (S-data)?

A

Data which can be obtained through a variety of means, including interviews that pose questions to a person, periodic reports by a person to record the events as they happen, and questionnaires.

The person gives information about themselves.

38
Q

What is the reason to use self-report data?

A

The most obvious reason is that individuals have access to a wealth of information about themselves that is inaccessible to anyone else

39
Q

What is central in the “Twenty statements test”?

A

20 statements like “I am ….. “

One should fill in the rest by themselves

40
Q

What is the Likert rating scale?

A

A scale where you mark how much you agree/disagree

41
Q

What is the limitations with self-report?

A

For the self-report method to be effective, respondents must be both willing and able to answer the questions put to them. Yet people are not always honest, especially when asked about unconventional experiences, such as unusual desires, their deepest secrets, unconventional sexual practices and undesirable traits.
Some people may lack accurate self-knowledge

42
Q

What is experience sampling?

A

A method where people answer some questions, perhaps about their moods or physical symptoms, every day for several weeks or longer.

43
Q

What is observer data (O-data)?

A

Our friends, families, teachers and casual acquaintances are all potential sources of information about our personalities.

Observer-report data (O-data) capitalize on these sources for gathering information about a person’s personality

44
Q

What is the advantages of observer data (O-data)?

A
  • observers may have access to information not attainable through other sources. For example, observers can report about the impressions a person makes on others, his or her social reputation stc.
  • multiple observers can be used to assess each individual, whereas in self-report only one person provides information
45
Q

What is inter-rater reliability?

A

the use of multiple observers allows investigators to evaluate the degree of agreement among observers

Øget reliabilitet

46
Q

Which stategies does reseachers use for selecting observers?

A
  1. to use professional personality assessors who do not know the participant in advance.
  2. to use individuals who actually know the target participants

Sikrer et objektivt perspektiv som kan sammenholdes med de øvrige observatører som kender vedkommende.

47
Q

What characterize a naturalistic observation?

A

observers witness and record events that occur in the normal course of the lives of their participants. For example, a child might be followed throughout an entire day, or an observer may sit in a participant’s home

48
Q

What characterize a artificial observation?

A

An observation in contrived or artificial settings. Experimenters can instruct participants to perform a task (for instance, participate in a group discussion), and then observe how individuals behave in these constructed settings

49
Q

What is test data (T-data)?

A

personality-relevant information comes from standardized tests

participants are placed in a standardized testing situation. The idea is to see if different people react differently to an identical situation. The situation is designed to elicit behaviours that serve as indicators of personality variables

50
Q

What are the limitations of T-data?

A
  • Some participants might try to guess what trait is being measured and then alter their responses to create a specific impression of themselves

○ difficulty in verifying that the research participants define the testing situation in the same manner as the experimenter

○ these situations are inherently interpersonal, and a researcher may inadvertently influence how the participants behave

51
Q

What are the advantages of T-data?

A

T-data remain a valuable and irreplaceable source of personality information.

Procedures used to obtain T-data can be designed to elicit behaviour that would be difficult to observe in everyday life.

They allow investigators to control the context and to eliminate extraneous sources of influence. And they enable experimenters to test specific hypotheses by exerting control over the variables that are presumed to have causal influence

52
Q

How could T-data be collected?

A

By mechanical recording devices (e.g. actigraphs - watch - about activity level)

By psychological data - via fMRI

By projective techniques in which the person is given a standard stimulus and asked what he or she sees. The most famous projective technique for assessing personality is the set of inkblots developed by Hermann Rorschach (what people describe says something about their personality)

53
Q

What is Life-outcome data (L-data)?

A

Life-outcome data (L-data) refers to information that can be gleaned from the events, activities and outcomes in a person’s life that are available to public scrutiny (fx antal bøder, karakterer gennem folkeskolen mv.)

54
Q

There are several ways to estimate reliability, which - and what are they called?

A
  • to repeat a measurement over time (Test-retest reliability)
  • to examine the relationships among the items themselves at a single point in time (internal consistency reliability)
  • to obtain measurements from multiple observers (applicable only to the use of observer-based personality measures) (inter-rater reliability)
55
Q

What does response sets refer to?

A

response sets refers to the tendency of some people to respond to the questions on a basis that is unrelated to the question content

fx bare svare ja, svare forkert el. lign.

56
Q

There are several kinds of response sets, which?

A
  • acquiescence, or yea saying (man erkærer sig bare enig uanset hvad der står)
  • extreme responding (the tendency to give endpoint responses, such as ‘strongly agree’ or ‘strongly disagree’)
  • social desirability (the tendency to answer items in such a way as to come across as socially attractive or likeable)
57
Q

How do you minimize acquiscence?

A

By intentionally reverse-scoring some of the questionnaire items, such as an extraversion item that states, ‘I frequently prefer to be alone’

58
Q

How do you minimize social desirability?

A

By using a forced-choice questionnaire format.

In this format, test takers are confronted with pairs of statements and are asked to indicate which statement in each pair is more true of them. Each statement in the pair is selected to be similar to the other in social desirability, forcing participants to choose between statements that are equivalently socially desirable (or undesirable)

59
Q

What is face validity?

A

The simplest facet of validity, which refers to whether the test, on the surface, appears to measure what it is supposed to measure

60
Q

What is predictive validity?

A

How well your measure relates to something it should relate to/whether the test predicts criteria external to the test (thus it is sometimes called criterion validity)

Concurrent – at the same time
Predictive – at a later time

61
Q

What is convergent validity?

A

whether a test correlates with other measures that it should correlate with

62
Q

What is discriminant validity?

A

It is often evaluated simultaneously with convergent validity.

Whereas convergent validity refers to what a measure should correlate with, discriminant validity refers to what a measure should not correlate with

63
Q

What is construct validity?

A

construct validity is the broadest type of validity, subsuming face, predictive, convergent and discriminant validity.

This form of validity is called construct validity because it is based on the notion that personality variables are theoretical constructs

64
Q

What is Generalizability?

A

It is the degree to which the measure retains its validity across various contexts

65
Q

What is the correlational method?

A

a statistical procedure is used for determining whether or not there is a relationship between two variables

66
Q

Which problems with causality occurs within the correlational method?

A

There are at least two reasons correlations can never prove causality.

One is called the directionality problem.
- If A and B are correlated, we do not know if A is the cause of B or if B is the cause of A.

The second reason that correlations can never prove causality is the third variable problem.
- Two variables might be correlated because a third, unknown, variable is causing both

67
Q

What is aggregation?

A

The process of adding up, or averaging, several single observations, resulting in a better (i.e. more reliable) measure of a personality trait than a single observation of behaviour

68
Q

Why is aggregation so important?

A

It usually provides psychologists with a better measure of a personality trait than does using a single observation. Because what matters is how a person behaves over the long run, and not just on one specific moment in time.

69
Q

McAdams (1995) describes 3 levels for knowing a person, which?

A
  1. Trait descriptions “psychology of the stranger” (De første bidder af info man får af en person når man skal vurdere om man vil interagere med vedkommende, og hvordan denne interaktion vil blive. De mest basic informationer.)
    - Vurderes ud fra fx objekter eller hvilke karakterer man får
  2. Goals, motives, plans (Hvad man sætter pris på, værdier og prioriteringer)
    - Kan tilgås ret nemt ved at tale med folk - dog kræver det mere arbejde i selve forskningen (tidskrævende)
  3. Personal narrative (Hvorfor en person gør som de gør)
    - Meget begrænset tilgang - kan tilgås i fx terapi eller i dybe venskaber (hvor man taler om hvorfor nogen gør som de gør).

McAdams beskæftiger sig mest med de 2 første niveauer i hans forskning.

70
Q

Describe Meehls clinical vs. mechanical predictions?

A

○ Mechanical prediction:
Tre former:
1) Statistical prediction - explicit equations
2) Actuarial prediction - ofte baseret på forsikringsselskaber (man forventer at unge har flere biluheld)
3) Algorithmic prediction - via computerprogrammer som laver forudsigelser

The mechanical prediction står i kontrast til den kliniske (menneskelige) måde at lave forudsigelser på.

Meehl så at den mekaniske dominerer den kliniske (altså er bedre)

71
Q

What are the limitations and benefits of self-report?

A

+ Easy to access
+Who knows better than you?
+“Causal force” (kan forudsige noget om fremtidig adfærd)
+Can cover anything/everything (såfremt folk vil svare)

  • May lie
  • May have poor self-understanding
72
Q

What are the limitations and benefits of informant/observer data?

A

+Based on real-world behaviors (ses i virkelig kontekst)
+Allows for context in interpretation (Kender man vedkommende kan man observere mere korrekt fordi man har kontekstuel viden om vedkommende (man ved om det er et særtilfælde eller om det afspejler virkeligheden))
+“Causal force”
+Can cover many traits from many situations (man agerer forskelligt omkring forskellige mennesker, hvilket kan tydeliggøres)

  • Don’t witness all relevant behaviors (man har et bestemt fokus når man observerer)
  • Filtered through their lenses (Man har fx en forestilling om ens vens personlighed når man observerer = bias)
  • May lie (fx grundet social desirability)
73
Q

What are the limitations and benefits of life outcome data?

A

+Objective
+Complete (dækker store tidsspænd)

-“Multidetermination” – many routes to the same life events (svært at sige noget om kontekst/sammenhæng)

74
Q

What are the limitations and benefits of behavioral/test data?

A

+Objective
+Able to control the environment
1) Eliminate confounds
2) Provide novel stimuli

  • Artificial environments (kan påvirke adfærd)
  • Uncertainty over interpretation
  • expensive
75
Q

What is factor analysis?

A

is a statistical method that looks at how lots of different observations correlate and determines how many theoretical constructs could most simply explain what you see.

Måde at identificere hvilke ord der repræsenterer et bestemt tema og hvilke der ikke gør
Ord som minder om hinanden grupperes som en “factor”

Når man laver en factor analysis ser man på factor loadings (korrelationer)