14.2
What is the trait approach to personality
According to the trait approach to personality, people have consistent characteristics in their behavior
What is conscientious
Conscientiousness is a tendency to show self- discipline, to be dutiful, and to strive for achieve- ment and competence. People high in conscien- tiousness work hard and complete their tasks on time (Judge & ilies, 2002). They exercise, eat a healthy diet, and in general act to advance their health and longevity
Does personality change from one generation to the next
On the children's manifest anxiety scale, the mean score for all children in the 1980s was higher than the mean for mentally hospitalized children in the 1950s! . The general point here is that the era in which you live exerts a major influence on personality development.
-What are the two ways psychologists study personalities
Psychologists study personalities in two ways, called the nomothetic and the idiographic approaches.
What is the idea behind the bif five personality traits
. The case for these five traits is that (1) each correlates with many personality dimensions for which our language has a word and (2) none of these traits correlates highly with any of the other four, so they are not measuring the same thing
What behavior do both the implicit association test and the affective priming paradigm measure
. They both measure the delay of a person's response after presentation of some stimulus
How does the Myers-Brigg test classify people
. Unlike the MMPI, which gives people scores ranging continuously from zero upward on each scale, the mBti classifies people as types. in ad- addition to being either extrovert or introvert, each person is classed as sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving.
10. Accident victims often respond, "It could have been worse." How might this reaction relate to a belief in a just world
10. It seems unjust for an innocent person to sustain an injury. Minimizing the damage makes the injustice seem less.
11. If someone's questionnaire results indicate "low self- esteem," what else might the results actually mean other than low self-esteem
11. Depending on the questionnaire items, what appears to be low self-esteem might indicate high goals and therefore lack of satisfaction with one's current performance. It could also mean modesty (reluctance to brag).
16. For what purposes might the NEO PI-R be more suitable, and for what purposes might the MMPI be more suitable
16. The NEO PI-R is designed to measure normal personality. The MMPI is set up to detect possible abnormalities
15. Suppose a person thinks"Black is my favorite color"would be a good true-false item for the depression scale of the MMPI. How would a researcher decide whether to include this item
5. Researchers would determine whether people with depression are more likely than other people to answer true. If so, the item could be included.
What is the implicit affective priming paradigm test
A participant sees first a picture (such as a butterfly or a spider) and then a word (such as happy or awful). in one version of the task, all the participant has to do is to say the word aloud. The idea is that someone afraid of spiders will be quick to say awful after seeing a spider, but slower to say happy. The delay of response might measure the strength of someone's dislike of spiders, filthiness, loneliness, or anything else.
What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory test
A widely used personality test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (mercifully abbreviated MMPI), consists of true-false questions intended to measure certain personality dimensions, especially for identify- ing clinical conditions.
What is agreeableness
Agreeableness is a tendency to be compassionate- ate toward others. it implies a concern for the welfare of other people and is closely related to adler's concept of social interest. People high in agreeableness trust other people and ex- pect other people to trust them.
What is an implicit personality test
An implicit personality test measures some aspect of your personality without your awareness.
What is the theory of handwriting as a projective technique
Based on the theory that your personality affects everything you do, some psychologists (and oth- ers) have tried analyzing people's handwriting.a dash— in i are energetic and people who draw large loops above the line—as in —are highly idealistic.
Both traits and states are what of behavior
Both traits and states are descriptions of behav- ior, not explanations.
Who influenced criminal profiling
Brussel who was not successful in profiling. He inspired criminal profiling
Explain criminal profiling
Criminal profiling is not impossible. people who commit certain crimes tend to resemble each other in certain ways that research can identify (cole & Brown, 2014; Fujita et al., 2013). However, the accu- racy is analogous to predicting the weather a week or more in advance: someone can say that one out- come is more likely than another, but the certainty is never high. research can no doubt improve the fu- ture accuracy of criminal profiling, but police should beware of putting more confidence in a profile than it merits.
What is emotional stability
Emotional stability is a tendency to minimize unpleasant emotions.Emotional stability correlates with self-control, good rela- tions with others, and mental health.
What is extraversion
Extraversion is a tendency to seek stimulation and to enjoy the company of other people. Extraversion is associated with warmth, gregariousness, as- sertiveness, impulsiveness, and a need for ex- citement. The unpleasant side of extraversion is an increased chance of alcohol abuse and other risky behaviors
People who have a high score on the NEO PI-R have what
For example, students who score high on consci- entiousness tend to spend much time studying. People who score high on openness are more likely than others to visit an art gallery.
What can influence a personality
Hereditary (through genes) and environment. Age, culture, and cohort
Higher points on MMPI indicate what
Higher scores indicate greater probability of psychological distress. How does the MMPI detect deception?if you take the mmpi, could you lie to make yourself look mentally healthier than you really are? yes. could someone catch your lies? Probably. The designers of the mmpi and mmpi-2 included items designed to iden- tify lying. For example, consider the items "i like every person i have ever met" and "occasionally i get angry at someone." If you answer true to the first question and false to the second, you are either a saint or a liar. On the theory that liars outnumber saints, the test counts such answers on a "lie" scale. if you get too many points on the lie scale, a psychologist distrusts your answers to the other items.
What are some examples of an implicit personality test
Implicit association and affective priming paradigm
What is the unshared environment
In addition to the role of genetics, much of the variation among people's personalities relates to the unshared environment, the aspects of environ- ment that differ from one individual to another, even within a family. unshared environment includes the effects of a particular playmate, a particular teacher, an injury or illness, or any other isolated experience
Who gives the most accurate assessment of a person's personality
In many cases, your close friends would probably pro- vide a more accurate assessment of your personality than you would yourself
How was the Rorscach administered
In the Rorschach inkblot technique, people examine an abstract pattern and say what it looks like.
What is the intent of measuring for NEO PI-R and of the MMPI
It is intended mainly to measure normal personality, as contrasted to the mmpi, which is used mainly to identify possible clinical problems.
What are projective techniques
Rather than discouraging projection, psycholo- gists make use of it with projective techniques, which are designed to encourage people to project their personality characteristics onto ambiguous stimuli.
What are the two well known projective techniques
Rorschach Inkblots and Thematic Apperception test (TAT)
What is self-esteem
Self-esteem is the evaluation of one's own abilities, performance, and worth.
9. Suppose someone becomes nervous as soon as he sits down in a dentist's chair. Is this experience "trait anxiety" or "state anxiety"
State anxiety
What was the MMPI devised on
The MMPI was devised empirically—that is, based on evidence rather than theory . The authors wrote hundreds of questions that they thought might relate to personality. They put these questions to people with various psychological disorders and to a group of hospital visitors, who were assumed to be psychologically normal. The research- ers selected the items that most people in any clinical group answered differently term-2from most normal peo- ple. They assumed, for example, that if your answers resemble those of people with depression, you probably are depressed also. The mmpi includes scales for depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, and others.
What is the NEO PI-R (NEO personality inventory revised) test
The NEO PI-R (NEO personality inventory-revised) includes 240 items to measure neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
What is the thematic apperception test (TAT)
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of pictures similar to the one shown in. The person is asked to make up a story for each picture, describing what events led up to this scene, what is happening now, and what will happen in the future.
What is the assumption of the thematic apperception test (TAT)
The assumption is that when you tell a story about someone in the drawing, you probably identify with that person, and so the story is really about yourself. you might describe events and concerns that you might be reluctant to discuss openly.
17. When a psychologist administers the Rorschach, why does he or she give only vague instructions
The belief is that you reveal the most about your personality in an ill-defined, unstructured situation.
What is the best way to compare personalities across cultures
The best way to compare personalities across cultures is to observe actual behavior
What is the idiographic approach
The idiographic approach concentrates on intensive studies of individu- als, looking for what makes someone special. For example, a psy- chologist might study one person's goals, moods, and reactions. The conclusions would apply to this person and possibly no one else.
What do correlations say between adopted children and their adopted parents
The low correlations between adopted children and adoptive parents imply that children learn rather little of their personalities by imitating their parents.
What do the MMPI, NEO PI-R, and Myers Briggs Type Indicator all have in common
The mmpi, neo pi-r, and myers-Briggs type indicator analyze someone's personality based on self-reports.
What is the nomothetic approach
The nomothetic approach seeks broad, general principles of personality based
What does the Rorschach detect
The rorschach does detect thought disorders (as are common in schizophrenia), has moderate validity for detecting risk of suicide, and identifies certain other personality characteristics with low to moderate accuracy
they call ambition and sociability—changing the Big Five into six factors. How should psycholo- gists determine whether to do so
They should determine whether measures of ambition correlate strongly with measures of sociability. If so, then ambition and sociability can be considered two aspects of a single trait, extraversion. If not, then they are indeed separate personality traits.
What is the Barnum effect
This tendency to accept vague de- scriptions of our personality is known as the Barnum effect, named after p. t. Barnum, the circus owner who specialized in fooling people out of their money.
What is the implicit association test
This test could be used to measure prejudices that people do not want to admit. It can also detect other emotional reactions. For example, someone who is nervous around other people might pair social words (party, friend, companion) more readily with unpleasant words than with pleasant words.
19. Note the use of a control group who knew nothing about the crime. Why was this group necessary
We already knew how many answers someone would get right by random guessing? No one would guess randomly. Some guesses are more likely than others.
What is a trait
What is a state?A consistent tendency in behavior, such as shy- ness, hostility, or talkativeness, is a trait. In contrast, a state is a temporary activation of a particular behav- ior. For example, being nervous most of the time is a trait, but being afraid right now is a state. Being quiet habitually is a trait, but being quiet in the library is a state.
What is the Myers Briggs type indicator
What is it based on? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a test of normal personality, loosely based on Carl Jung's theories. Jung emphasized the distinction between extraversion, which he defined as attending to the outside world, and introversion, concentrating on one's inner world.
What is the opposite of emotional stability
What is it? The op- posite term is neuroticism. neuroticism correlates positively with anxiety, hostility, self-consciousness, frequent conflicts with other people, and many physical and men- tal illness
What are the Rorschach inkblots
Who created the test? The Rorschach inkblots, a projective technique based on people's interpretations of 10 ambiguous inkblots, is the most famous, most widely used, and most con- troversial projective personality technique. it was created by hermann rorschach (roar-shock), a swiss psychiatrist, who showed people inkblots and asked them to say whatever came to mind
What is a strong belief in just a world
belief in a just world maintains that life is fair and peo- ple usually get what they deserve .People usually get the rewards and punish- ments they deserve.Most people who meet with misfortune did something to bring it on themselves. Most of the lucky breaks I get are earned. Promotions go to the people who work hardest. People who have no job or no money have only themselves to blame. Only rarely does an innocent person go to prison.
What do implicit association test and affective priming paradigm test
e affective priming paradigm can dis- tinguish moderately well between groups who differ in their personality. However, at least at present they are not accurate enough to say anything with con- fidence about an individual
What is openness to experience
is a tendency to enjoy new intellectual experiences and new ideas. People high in this trait enjoy modern art, unusual music, and thought-provoking films and books. They enjoy meeting unusual people and explor- ing new ideas
What are some uses of personality tests
personality tests serve several functions. researchers use them to investigate how personality develops. Some businesses use them to help select which job applicants to hire. clinicians use them to help identify disorders and to measure improvement during therapy.
What personality tests are accurate
personality traits are moderately accurate predictors of people's behavior in cer- tain situations. Although you might not have thought of it this way, criminal profiling is an application of personality testing. It assumes that people who commit similar crimes have similar personalities or backgrounds
How was the MMPI revised
to bring the mmpi up to date, psychologists eliminated obsolete items and added new ones to deal with drug abuse, suicidal thoughts, and other issues. They also removed most of the items that made little sense theoretically, such as the one about teasing animals. Then they standardized the new mmpi-2 on a large representative sample of the u.s. population.
What is the Big five personality traits
using this approach, researchers found what they call the Big Five personality traits or five-factor model: emotional stability, extraversion, agreeableness, conscien- tiousness, and openness to new experience
