Unit 1.1 Flashcards

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1
Q

What are psychological traits and what do they do?

A

Characteristics that describe ways people are different from each other
Describe average trends

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2
Q

Why are traits useful?

A

to describe, explain and predict behaviour

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3
Q

What are psychological mechanisms?

A

Processes of personality

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4
Q

What are the key ingredients of psychological mechanisms?

A

Input: makes people more sensitive to certain types of environmental information
Decision rule: makes people think about concrete options
Output: guides behaviour toward certain actions

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5
Q

Psychological traits and mechanisms are within the individual. What does “within the individual” mean and what does that imply?

A

It’s something the person carries withing him/herself over time and situations
-> very influenced by environment, however somewhat stable over time and consistent across situations
-> we typically feel as the same person despite change

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6
Q

What are psychological traits not?

A

Random set of elements
-> organized

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7
Q

Trait vs State

A

Main difference: consistency between situations
Trait as tendency to act a certain way

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8
Q

What do traits have, allowing them to affect people’s lives?

A

Influential strength

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9
Q

What does the interaction between person and environment include?

A

Perceptions: how situations are interpreted
Selection: choosing situations to get involved in
Evocations: Reactions we generate in others
Manipulations: intentionally influencing others

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10
Q

What is human behaviour and what kind of function can we thus assign to personality?

A

Functional, purpose driven (including seemingly maladaptive and non-functional behaviours)
-> adaptive function/adjustment

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11
Q

Intrapsychic, Physical and social environments

A

Intrapsychic: memories, dreams, fantasies
->own inner reality
Physical: can pose challanges for people
-> generates adaptions
Social: builds personality determining whats important to us

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12
Q

Human nature

A

traits and mechanisms typical of human species

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13
Q

Individual and group differences

A

traits and mechanisms differentiate people from others or make them similar
e.g. individual: variance in extroversion
e.g. group: men more physically aggressive than women

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14
Q

Uniqueness of individuals

A

personal qualities we dont share with others

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15
Q

Where is a large gap in research concerning personality?

A

Grand theories of personality (analysis of human nature)
Contemporary research in personality (analysis of group and individual differences)

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16
Q

What do grand theories of personality try to do?

A

give universal explanations to psychological processes and characteristics from specific approach

17
Q

What is contemporary research in personality often criticized for?

A

hosting many independent areas of research

18
Q

What will a good theory of personality do?

A

Provide guidance for researchers
Organize and explain results
Make predictions

19
Q

What are the standards for evalutating personality theories?

A

Comprehensiveness: does it explain all/ many facts and observations (the more the better)
Heuristic value: does it provide a guide to new discoveries
Testability: does it provide predictions that can be tested empirically
Parsimony: does it contain few assumptions and premises (ockhams razor)
Compatibility and integration across domains and levels: does it violate laws in other domains and levels