Psychology 301: Theories of Personality

Using __________ __________, a scientific investigator can derive testable hypotheses from a useful theory and then test these hypotheses.

deductive reasoning

In contrast to theory, philosophy __________.

deals with what ought to be

Going from general to specific is called __________ __________.

deductive reasoning

Going form specific to general is called __________ __________.

inductive reasoning

Using __________ __________, an investigator alters a theory to reflect the results obtained from testing a hypothesis.

inductive reasoning

True or False: The psychology of science investigates, solely, the biological bases of behavior.

False

__________ is an educated guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested through the use of the scientific method.

Hypothesis

__________ is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behavior.

Personality

__________ is closely tied to empirically gathered data and to science.

Speculation

__________ is the branch of study concerned with observation and classification of data and with the verification of general laws through the testing of hypotheses.

Science

__________ contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency in behavior over time, and stability of behavior across situations.

Traits

The unique qualities of an individual that include attributes such as temperament, physique, and intelligence are known as __________.

characteristics

Taxonomies contribute to the development of science by __________ __________.

classifying data

The extent to which an instrument measures some hypothetical construct is referred to as __________ __________.

construct validity

A measuring instrument has __________ construct validity to the extent that scores on that instrument correlate highly with scores on a variety of valid measures of that same construct.

convergent

A study of extraversion will have __________ construct validity if the scores obtained from the study are high for known extroverts and low for known introverts.

discriminant

An inventory has __________ construct validity if it has low or insignificant correlations with other inventories that do not measure that construct.

divergent

Observations are colored by an individual observer's frame of reference and therefore there may be many __________ theories.

diverse

__________, or the nature of knowledge, is a branch of philosophy.

epistemology

A theory must also be evaluated on its ability to be confirmed or disconfirmed; that is, it must be __________.

falsifiable

An educated guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested through the use of the scientific method is known as a(n) _________.

hypothesis

A(n) __________ is one that defines units in terms of observable events or behaviors that can be measured.

operational definition

When psychologists use the term __________, they are referring to something more than the role people play.

personality

A good theory provides structure for finding workable answers to many questions that __________ have.

practitioners

To permit scientists to deduce clearly stated hypotheses, the tenets of a theory must be stated with sufficient __________ and __________ __________.

precision, logical consistency

A second dimension of __________ __________, or the extent that a test predicts some future behavior.

predictive validity

A useful theory generates __________.

research

The two essential cornerstones of theory building are __________ and __________ __________.

speculation, empirical observation

Moe conducted a study on animals and classified them into separate categories. The classification in this scenario is an example of a(n) __________.

taxonomy

A(n) __________ is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses.

theory

Collin, a personality psychologist, developed a scale that measures emotional stability. On testing the scale with another measure of emotional stability, he obtained results that revealed a high degree of correlation between the two scales. This means that the scale developed by Collin is indeed a measure of emotional stability and thus has a high degree of __________.

validity