exam 1 define Flashcards
(211 cards)
Core components of personality
traits, states, acts
Traits
characters, values, temperament;
generally consistent, stable, and have internal cues
States
feelings, experiences, thoughts in reaction to external situations; private, short-term
Acts
behaviors, activities, habits;
observable, have internal/intentional causes
Related components to personality
physical appearance, social effects/evaluations (effect you have on others), talents/skills
Personality
characteristics of a person that describe and account for consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving
Freud’s philosophical view of the person
people are driven by unconscious processes (sex & aggression, anxiety & defense mechanisms)
Rogers’ philosophical view of the person
people are driven by conscious thoughts like self-actualization, congruence between self + experience, incongruence & defensive mechanisms (denial + distortion)
Comprehensiveness
theory fully explains and accounts for a wide variety of aspects in a phenomena
Parsimony
theory explains the phenomena in the simplest way so that it is understandable and can be generalized to many situations
5 areas personality theories should address
(1) structure, (2) process, (3) growth & development, (4) psychopathology, (5) change
Structure
how is a personality is organized and how are its basic, enduring parts are connected and interact with each other?
Process
what motivates someone to do something?
Growth & development
how does personality develop?
Psychopathology
how do people cope with stress/anxiety?
Change
can personality change over time?
Bandwidth & example
theory explains a wide range of phenomena
(ex. A radio has a bunch of channels)
Fidelity & example
theory explains the specifics of the phenomena
(ex. When you try to listen to a channel within a radio, it is clear and easy to hear)
Bandwidth-fidelity trade-off
sometimes, you can’t have both strong bandwidth and fidelity in a theory, so theorists will have to choose which one they want their theory to be stronger in
What does the Prof John and traffic cop scenario show?
the traffic cop’s speed monitor is reliable because it shows Prof John speeding at 90 mph every time he speeds BUT it may not be a valid measurement for safety because Prof John claims that he is safe whilst driving 90 mph
How is the amniotic fluid test a fallible measurement?
you can’t actually measure exactly how much fluid is in the amniotic sac (unreliable);
if you measure it multiple times, the amount will vary
Principle of aggregation & example
get a bunch of items/observations and average them to get a single aggregate/overall score
(ex. Instead of taking an exam with 1 question, where the only possible scores are 0% or 100%, it’s better to take an exam with 20 questions to get an accurate sense of how much a student has learned)
Example of the principle of aggregation
chicken oviduct story; single observations do not always capture the same results (unreliable), so you need to use 100 test tubes and average the results to account for those that are overestimations and underestimations
Reliability
how well the measurements/observations are stable across time, dependable, and replicable