Introductory Concepts, Research Methods, and Personality Assessment

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

Personality is a dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings

• Responsive to situations
• Enable us to be adaptive and responsive to environmental demands

Question 2

Psychological processes are intertwined with…

Answer 2

…our biological processes
* Tackles the nature/nurture debate

Question 3

Why study personality?

3 distinct goals of personality psychologists:

Answer 3

• 1: descriptive
• 2: explanatory (how do we come to exhibit those patterns of behaviour)
• 3: predictive (e.g., in clinical, forensic, military, corporate settings)
• Emphasis on describing and explaining - once achieved, can look into predictive

Question 4

What methods do psychologists use to study personality?

Answer 4

The scientific method

Question 5

The scientific method

Answer 5

characterized by systematic and objective observation

Question 6

Components of the scientific method

The scientific method

Answer 6

1. Theory
2. Hypothesis
3. Operationalization
4. Research
5. Observation

Question 7

Theory

The scientific method

Answer 7

a proposed explanation or interpretation of the relations among constructs

Question 8

Construct

The scientific method

Answer 8

a conceptual or hypothetical variable that cannot be directly observed
* Personality - NOT A CONSTRUCT!

Question 9

Operationalization

The scientific method

Answer 9

translation of a construct into a variable that can be observed and measured

Question 10

Research methods include (3 TYPES):

Answer 10

• Experimental
• Correlational
• Case studies

Question 11

3 key components of Experimental studies:

Research methods

Answer 11

• Causal inferences
• Random assignment
• Manipulation of an independent variable

Question 12

Researcher in an experiment - 3 steps

Research methods

Answer 12

1. Randomly assigns participants to groups that will receive different levels of the hypothesized “causal” or independent variable (to prevent systematic error)
2. Administers a distinct treatment
3. Measures the hypothesized “effect” or depended variable for each group

Question 13

What to conduct when experiments aren’t ideal?

Research methods

Answer 13

Correlational studies: examine the extent to which 2 naturally-occurring variables covary

Question 14

The degree to which variables covary is typically quantified by…

+ what are its small, moderate, and large correlations?

Research methods

Answer 14

the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient r

• r = +/- 0.20 is a small correlation
• r = +/- 0.40 is a moderate correlation
• r = +/- 0.60 is a large correlation

Question 15

Coefficient of determination:

Research methods

Answer 15

• r^2 = coefficient of determination
• Reflects the proportion of variance in one variable that is “accounted for” by a second variable - EX: self-esteem and depression, r = -0.35 (as self-esteem goes up, depression goes down, between small/moderate correlation)
• r^2 = 0.12 = 0.12, 12% of variance in depression scores is accounted for by scores on self-esteem

Question 16

Case studies

Research methods

Answer 16

…generate theory, illustrate theory, or examine rare phenomena through in-depth analysis of one person or a small group of people

Question 17

READINGS

Question 18

Personality Psyc - when did it start? Why? What’s a potential issue?

Answer 18

• Important to show that personality traits predict important life outcomes, such as health and longevity, marital success, and educational and occupational attainment.
• But simply showing that personality traits are related to health, love, and attainment is not a stringent test of the utility of personality traits. These associations could be the result of “third” variables, such as socioeconomic status

Question 19

The person–situation debate

Answer 19

• Often at the root of the perspective that personality traits do not predict outcomes well, if at all

Question 20

What was Mischel’s argument in the person-situation debate?

Answer 20

• Specifically, **Mischel argued that personality traits had limited utility in predicting behavior **because their correlational upper limit appeared to be about .30

Question 21

What did the correlational upper limit of .30 become known as?

Answer 21

The “personality coefficient”

Question 22

Two conclusions made from Mischel’s arguments

Answer 22

• First, personality traits have little predictive validity
• Second, if personality traits do not predict much, then other factors, such as the situation, must be responsible for the vast amounts of variance that are left unaccounted for (shared variance)

Question 23

How have researchers addressed/solved the situational third-variable issue in personality psychology research?

Answer 23

• Researchers have directly addressed the claim that situations have a stronger influence on behavior than they do on personality traits.
• Social psychological research on the effects of situations typically involves experimental manipulation of the situation, and the results are analyzed to establish whether the situational manipulation has yielded a statistically significant difference in the outcome.
• Regardless, when the effects of situations are converted into the same metric as that used in personality research, the effects of personality traits are generally as strong as the effects of situations

Question 24

General finding from paper:

Answer 24

• Specific personality traits predict important life outcomes, such as mortality, divorce, and success in work.
• Depending on the sample, trait, and outcome, people with specific personality characteristics are more likely to experience important life outcomes even after controlling for other factors.

Question 25

Limitations/considerations in research findings

Answer 25

* Cognitive abilities * These are only modest predictors of occupational attainment when “all other factors are controlled,” but they play a much more important, indirect role through their effect on educational attainment.

Question 26

Difficulties/recommendations from the study:

Answer 26

* Because most personality inventories include many items, researchers may be pressed either to eliminate them from their studies. One solution is to pay attention to previous research and **focus on those traits that have been found to be related to the specific outcomes under study** instead of using an omnibus personality inventory. * If researchers are truly interested in assessing personality traits, they should invest the time necessary for the task. This entails more in-depth assessments. * Finally, if one truly wants to assess personality traits well, then researchers should use multiple methods for this purpose and should not rely solely on self-reports

Question 27

Researchers need to turn their attention to several issues:

Answer 27

* First, we need to know more about the **processes** **through which personality traits shape individuals' functioning over time.** * Second, we need a **greater understanding of the relationship between personality and the social environmental** factors already known to affect health and development. * Third, we need to know much more about **the development of personality traits at all stages in the life course. ** * Fourth, results raise fundamental questions about **how personality should be addressed in prevention and intervention efforts.**

Question 28

LECTURE 2

Question 29

What methods do psychologists use to study personality?

Answer 29

Meta-analytic studies: combine the results of multiple studies

Question 30

The researcher (3) ## Footnote Meta-analytic studies

Answer 30

1. Obtains all published studies on the phenomenon of interest 2. Calculates an effect size for each study 3. Averages the effect sizes across all studies 4. Typically quantified by the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r) or Cohen's d (d) (reviewed last class) * In contrast to r, d may exceed +/- 1.00

Question 31

How are personality variables measured? (3)

Answer 31

* **Observer ratings** (e.g. interviews, behavioural observations, informant data) * **Implicit assessments** (e.g. Ink Blot Test) * **Self-reports** (e.g., the 20 Statements Test, True/False items, Adjective Checklists, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale)

Question 32

In order to accurately assess a personality variable, the measure must be...

Answer 32

reliable and valid

Question 33

Internal consistency ## Footnote 3 forms of reliability

Answer 33

* Relevant for **multi-item** measures * Reflects the degree to which the items in a measure produce similar responses * Involves calculating the average **inter-item correlation** (Cronbach's Alpha, acceptable at .75)

Question 34

Inter-rater reliability ## Footnote 3 forms of reliability

Answer 34

* Relevant for observer ratings with two or more observers * Reflects the degree to which the scores provided by different observers are consistent with one another * Involves calculating the correlation between the scores provided by different observers

Question 35

Test-retest ## Footnote 3 forms of reliability

Answer 35

* Relevant for all types of measures * Reflects the degree to which participants scores on a measure at time 1 are consistent with their scores on the measure at time 2 * Involves calculating the correlation between participants scores on successive test administrations

Question 36

4 forms of validity

Answer 36

* Face: the degree to which a measure appears to tap the construct of interest * Predictive/criterion * Convergent * Discriminant

Question 37

Face validity

Answer 37

the degree to which a measure appears to tap the construct of interest

Question 38

Predictive/criterion validity

Answer 38

the degree to which a measure correlates with behaviours that are theoretically related to the construct of interest EX: self-esteem measure should be correlate with: alcohol and drug use (lower levels of)

Question 39

Convergent validity

Answer 39

the degree to which a measure correlates with measures that assess conceptually-related constructs * A self-esteem measure should be correlated with measures of: depression

Question 40

Discriminant validity

Answer 40

the degree to which a measure does not correlate with measures that assess conceptually unrelated constructs * EX: A self-esteem measure should not be correlated with measures of agreeableness, need for cognition, and political attitudes