exam 1 (midterm)

Question 1

the three components of the “psychological triad”

Answer 1

think, feel, and behave

Question 2

The unique goal of personality psychologists (hint: mission impossible)

Answer 2

Explain whole persons

But if you try to understand everything about a person at once, you will be overwhelmed.

Question 3

trait approach

Answer 3

how people differ psychologically

Question 4

psychoanalytic approach

Answer 4

focus on the unconscious mind and internal mental conflict

Question 5

biological approach

Answer 5

understand the mind in terms of the body

Question 6

learning and cognitive processes approach

Answer 6

Learning, classic behaviorism, social learning, cognitive personality

Question 7

phenomenological approach

Answer 7

focus on people’s conscious experience of the world

Has humanistic and cross cultural aspects

Question 8

What is the “One Big Theory”? What’s the disadvantage of using the OBT?

Answer 8

The OBT explains everything that the trait, biological, psychoanalytic, humanistic, and learning/cognitive approaches account for separately

Unlikely to be able to explain all aspects of personality well, which is why personality psychologists use multiple approaches to gain a fuller idea.

Question 9

self reports data

Answer 9

participants simply tell the psychologist (usually via questionnaire)

Question 10

informant’s data

Answer 10

to gather info about one’s personality, ask the people that know them the best

Question 11

life data

Answer 11

verifiable, concrete, real-life facts that hold psychological significance

Such as age, gender, income, GPA, etc.

Question 12

behavior data

Answer 12

observations of behavior in daily life or in a lab

*Natural B data vs lab B data

*Physiological measures: blood pressure, galvanic skin response, heart rate, etc.

Question 13

out of SIBL- which is more frequently used

Answer 13

Most personality tests provide S-data, others use B-data

Question 14

Be familiar with what “causal force” looks like in S data.

Answer 14

An advantage of S data

S data tends to create reality: if you see yourself as friendly, you will make extra effort to come across that way

Question 15

Definition of “omnibus” in terms of personality inventories

Answer 15

Omnibus inventories aim to assess a broad range of personality traits

such as the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)

Question 16

projective tests

Answer 16

ask someone to interpret a meaningless/ambiguous stimulus

Rorschach inkblot, thematic apperception test, etc.

All projective tests provide B-data: they are specific, directly observed responses to a particular stimulus

All the disadvantages of B data apply

Question 17

objective tests

Answer 17

tests that consists of a list of questions to be answered Yes/No, True/False, numeric scale, or computer scored sheet

Much less open to interpretation and more objective

3 methods used for constructing objective tests: rational method, factor analytic method, and empirical method

Question 18

limitations of projective tests

Answer 18

o Expensive, timely

o Psychologist cannot be sure what they mean

o Less expensive techniques work as well or even better

Question 19

Be familiar with what happens to “reliability” in objective tests that involve a large number of questions.

Answer 19

The principle of aggregation: Averaging measurements, allowing random influences to cancel each other out

Spearman-brown formula: Measures degree to which reliability increases with more items

Question 20

reliability

Answer 20

provides same results repeatedly

Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity

Question 21

validity

Answer 21

degree to which a measurement actually measure what it is supposed to

Question 22

generalizability

Answer 22

the degree to which a measurement or results applies to other tests, situations, or people

Question 23

open science

Answer 23

A set of practices intended to move research closer to the ideals on which science as founded

Include fully describing all aspects of all studies, reporting studies that failed as well as those that succeeded, and freely sharing data with other scientist

Question 24

trait approach uses what type of research design?

Answer 24

correlational designs

Question 25

primary focus of the trait approach.

Answer 25

Focuses exclusively on individual differences, focus on comparisons The trait approach seeks to measure the degree to which a person might be more or less dominant, sociable, or nervous than someone else -Made on ordinal rather than ratio scales

Question 26

The main tenets of the “situationist” position (in other words, what would a situationist believe to be true in terms of personality?)

Answer 26

There is an upper limit to how well one can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of their personality. This upper limit is a low upper limit Situations re more important than personality traits The professional practice of personality assessment is a waste of time, and also everyday intuitions about people are wrong, because we see others as being more consistent across situations than they really are. The fundamental attribution error is to believe that behavior is importantly influenced by personality

Question 27

person situation debate

Answer 27

Which is more important for determining what people do: the person or the situation?

Question 28

how personality judgement affects the Opportunities and Expectancies of a person.

Answer 28

Opportunities: employment, friendships -Example: shyness Expectancies -Intellectual expectancy effects: climate, feedback, input, output -Social expectancy effects: perceptions of attractiveness influence behavior

Question 29

Definition of the expectancy effect (sometimes known as “self-fulfilling prophecies”)

Answer 29

tendency for someone to be the kind of person they are expected to be

Question 30

Review graph of group consensus and accuracy. What does the research say about this? (What doesn’t change as much while the other significantly increases?)

Answer 30

Consensus (agreement among judges) was almost as good at the beginning as ti became by the end, did not change significantly Accuracy (agreement between their descriptions and the targets’ own self descriptions) did improve significantly Why? Judges’ first impressions of their target agree with each other because they are based on stereotypes and other misleading cues. After observing for a period of time, judges begin to discard stereotypes and see the person as they really are

Question 31

Be able to identify the four moderators of accuracy.

Answer 31

1. The Good Judge: socially skilled, agreeable, adjusted, high empathic concern 2. The Good target: judgability, extraverted, agreeable, etc. 3. The good trait 4. The good information (larger amount, better quality)

Question 32

Important aspect of the “good trait”

Answer 32

Easy to observe, highly visible Evidence against the idea that peer judgements are socially constructed and agreement is based on communication

Question 33

The Big Five: 1) Know which one tends to describe negative emotionality. 2) Which one is most difficult to grasp of the five?

Answer 33

Neuroticism: negative emotionality Openness: least replicable across samples and cultures ???

Question 34

single trait approach

Answer 34

examine correlations between 1 trait and many behaviors What do people with a certain personality trait do?

Question 35

many trait approach

Answer 35

examines correlations between 1 behavior and many traits Do people with certain traits do one important behavior?

Question 36

Know which traits you scored highest on in the “Big Five Personality Project” assessment and be able to explain why you agree (or disagree) with the results.

Answer 36

Conscientiousness and agreeableness were my highest scores Conscientious: rule-abiding, ambitious, considerate, avoid risk, feel guilty when I don’t meet expectations Agreeableness: compassionately, modest, cooperative, team player, rate others positively

Question 37

Definition of “personality stability” and how it is evidenced in terms of correlation (.60 to .90)

Answer 37

Rank-order consistency: people tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people of the same age R = 0.60-0.90 for 10-year span

Question 38

What is “heterotypic continuity”? Provide an example.

Answer 38

Fundamental behavioral and emotional tendencies stem from that very early root and persist throughout life and develop into adult personality. The expression of these tendencies change with age, but underlying trait is the same Fragile child acts differently than fragile adult, but trait is the same

Question 39

According to the "Steps to Personality change" model, there are the two primary steps that need to take place for personality change to occur. What are these two steps?

Answer 39

Want to change (desirable or necessary) , and believe change is possible (feasible)

Question 40

function of frontal cortex

Answer 40

Cognitive functioning, such as planning, foresight, and understanding Crucial for unique human aspects of cognitions like planning and anticipating consequences (central to conscientiousness, empathy, moral reasoning)

Question 41

function of amygdala

Answer 41

Links perceptions and thoughts with emotional meaning Role in negative and positive emotions Assessing whether a stimulus is threatening or rewardin

Question 42

Definition of Neural context effect

Answer 42

It is important to look at more than one area of the brain to understand complex processes

Question 43

Frontal lobes and emotion: What is the evidence that emotions are intertwined with frontal lobe functioning? (hint: left vs right frontal lobes)

Answer 43

Pleasant emotions (left) and unpleasant emotions (right) Approach (left) and withdrawal (right)

Question 44

What are neurotransmitters?

Answer 44

Biological substances that affect the body in locations different from where they were produced Critical for communication across the synapses between neurons

Question 45

function of dopamine

Answer 45

o Responding to rewards and approaching attractive objects and people

Question 46

* Name the hormone associate with “fight or flight” responses

Answer 46

epinephrine and norepinephrine

Question 47

Name the field of study under the biological approach that attempts to explain individual differences in behavior.

Answer 47

o Behavioral genetics: addresses how personality traits that differ among individuals are passed from parent to child and shared by biological relatives o Molecular genetics: determine whether differences in traits correlate with differences in a particular gene

Question 48

Know what is meant by “evolutionary personality psychology.”

Answer 48

Addresses how patterns of behavior that characterize all humans may have originated in the survival value of these characteristics

Question 49

What is the “evolutionary mismatch?”

Answer 49

Idea that certain traits that have evolved in the past may not be useful or may even be detrimental to survival today

Question 50

Describe two key points relating to gene-environment interactions.

Answer 50

 Shared environment does not seem to matter very much  Propensities to behave in certain ways  Alleles and cultural differences: prevalence of alleles may vary across cultural groups  Genes are not causal. There must be an environment for there to be behavior

Question 51

Thoroughly answer the following points: Be able to describe the purpose of the MEP in relation to this course (1pt) Be able to describe three concepts learned in class that apply and/or inform you of your current mentorship experience (3 pts).