contemporary perspectives on personality Flashcards
trait
a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.
personality inventory
a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.
minnesota multiphastic personality inventory
the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.
empirically derived test
a test (such as the MMPI) created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups.
big five factors
researchers identified five factors—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—that describe personality. (Also called the five-factor model.)
social cognitive perspective
a view of behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context.
recoprocal determinism
the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
self
in contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
spotlight effect
overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).
self esteem
one’s feelings of high or low self-worth.
self efficacy
one’s sense of competence and effectiveness.
self serving bias
a readiness to perceive ourselves favorably.
narcissism
excessive self-love and self-absorption.
idividualism
a cultural pattern that emphasizes people’s own goals over group goals and defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal attributes.
collectivism
