M1 Flashcards
What is personality psychology?
The individual characteristic patterns of thought, emotions, and behaviour together with the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not – behind those patterns
When thinking of personality, we tend to think of it as:
- individualized
- consistent
- core of the person (not situation-based)
Psychological triad
how people feel, think, and behave
Goals of Personality Psychology
- primary: assemble an integrated view of whole functioning individuals in their daily environments (impossible goal)
- ‘basic approaches’
Basic approaches in Personality Psychology
- Trait approach: conceptualization of indiv. difference, measurement/consequences of indiv. differences, personality development/change
- Biological approach: anatomy/physiology, genetics, evolution
- Psychoanalytic approach: unconscious minds, internal mental conflict
- Phenomenological approach: free will, humanistic psychology, cross-cultural psychology
- Learning and cognitive approaches: behaviourism, social learning theory, cognitive personality psychology
S Data
Self-report
- easiest method; simply ask someone about themselves
- usually done through questionnaires
- high face validity (know what it’s measuring on the surface)
- most common basis for assessment
Advantages of S data
- large amount of info
- access to thoughts, feelings, intentions
- definitional truth
- causal force (self-verification)
- simple and easy
Disadvantages of S data
- maybe they won’t tell you
- maybe they can’t tell you (fish-and-water effect)
- too simple and too easy
I Data
Informant-Report
- gathering info from other people
- judgemental, subjectively, and irreducibly human
- used in many everyday situations, not just psychology
Advantages of I Data
- large amount of info
- real-world basis
- common sense
- some I data are true by definition
- causal force (expectancy/behavioural confirmation)
Disadvantages of I Data
- limited behavioural info (people are limited to the experiences they have with target person)
- lack of access to private experience
- error (memory)
- bias
L Data
Life Outcomes
- verifiable, concrete, real-life facts that may hold psychological significance
- can be collected in numerous ways
- can be considered ‘residue’ of personality
Advantages of L Data
- objective and verifiable
- intrinsic importance
- psychological relevance
Disadvantages of L Data
- multiple determination
- possible lack of psychological relevance
B Data
Behavioural Observations
- info recorded from direct observation
- participants are found, or put in some sort of situation (testing situation) and directly observed
- 2 Types: Natural and Laboratory
Natural B Data
- diary, experience-sampling methods, and EAR
- natural observations
- realistic but costly
- some behaviours don’t occur in daily situations
Laboratory B Data
- experiments
- physiological measures
- certain personality tests (MMPI, Projective tests like Rorschach and TAT)
Distinction between B and S Data (with regards to personality tests)
S data - want to know the answer; direct
B data - want to know how you will answer; must be interpreted
Advantages and Disadvantage of B Data
Advantage:
- wide range of contexts (real and contrived)
- appearance of objetivity
Disadvantage:
- uncertain interpretation
Behaviouroid
- actual data is a hybrid
- a measure that has participants report what they think they would do under various circumstances
Implicit assessments
measuring associations between the sense of self and aspects of personality that are implicit
- hard to introspect about
- less susceptible to explicit biases
- Implicit Asosciation Test (IAT)
Subjective vs Objective
- subjective requires interpretation
- objective points to a clear understanding
**There is some sort of interpretation in every data; 80 000$ objective yes but we can label as low, average, or high
Studying a particular phenomenon or individual in depth both to understand the particular case and in hopes of discovering general lessons or scientific laws
Case study
- provided foundation for many psychologists (especially personality psych)
Advantages of Case Study
- does the topic justice (allows for depth and complexity)
- can be a source of ideas
- sometimes is absolutely necessary