Psych 403 Exam 1
Projective tests
- All provide B-data -Rorschach Inkblot Test -Thematic Apperception Test -Draw-a-person test -Mostly used by clinical psychologists
B data
- Behavioral - Most visible indication of an individual's personality
Natural B data
- Diary/experience-sampling methods, private investigators, social media etc. -Wearable cameras, social media, EAR, etc.
Theoretical approaches to reducing the many to a few
- Murray: 20 needs -the Blocks: ego-control and ego-resiliency (over-controlled people--> high in ego control; under-controlled people--> low in ego control)
Other arguments against situationism
- a correlation of .40 is not small
Techniques to improve reliability
- be careful - use a constant, scripted procedure - measure something that is important and engages participants -aggregation (Spearman Brown)(allows for random influences to cancel each other out)
Problems with NHST
- logic is difficult to describe and understand - criterion is just a rule of thumb - nonsignificant results are commonly mistaken for meaning "no result" -only provides info. about the probability of one type of error
Why are most published research findings false?
- many small studies with weak effects -reporting of selected analyses -researchers are rewarded for interesting results -publication bias
Reasons for Myers-Briggs popularity
- offers rich and intriguing descriptions of each personality type - looks insightful and all types are explained positively - people think learning their type is fun
Reasons for not knowing causality in correlational studies
- third-variable problem (possible confounds) - unknown direction of cause
Responses to the situationist argument
- unfair, selective literature review by Mischel (poor methodology)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
-A personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types - Four opposing tendencies: -Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I) -Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N) -Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F) -Judgment (J) vs. Perception (P)
Evocative P-E transactions
-Aspect of an individual's personality leads to behavior that changes the situations he or she experiences -Refers to the process in which different individuals evoke different reactions from others
The empirical method of objective test construction
-Attempts to allow reality to speak for itself -"dust bowl empiricism" bc its dry and boring and also derived in the midwest
Personality's view of human nature
-Behavior is partly determined by personality -Every individual is unique -People can develop consistent identities and styles that allow them to be themselves across situations
Psychotherapy
-Carl Rogers & unconditional positive regard - can produce long-term changes -might have a downside -often combined with psychiatric drugs
Factor analytic approaches to reducing the many to a few
-Cattell: 16 essential traits (made correlational matrices) -Hans Eysenck: extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism -Tellegen: positive emotionality, negative emotionality, constraint (3 superfactors)
Laboratory B Data
-Experiments -Represents real life contexts that are difficult to observe directly -Physiological measures (sweat, heart rate, etc.)
Eysenck's view of extraversion
-Extraverts react less to sensory stimuli (lemon juice test) - Crave extreme levels of stimulation
Advantages of Projective tests
-Good for breaking the ice -Some skilled clinicians may be able to use them to get information not captured in other types of tests
GLAD Technique
-Grateful, Learned, Accomplished, Delight -Is an acronym for ways of finding joy and balance. It works by paying attention to certain positive aspects of life that are around you all the time, but which frequently go unnoticed.
The factor analytic method of objective test construction
-Identifies a group of things that seem to have something in common -has been used to decide how many fundamental traits exist
TAT
-Implicit motives -Now measured with Picture Story exercise (shorter)
The rational method of objective test construction
-Includes items that seem directly and obviously related to what the test developer wishes to measure -Based on theory, but sometimes less systematic -Provides S data Woodsworth Personality Data Sheet in WWI (WPDS) -Most common form of test construction
I data
-Informant reports -May be more accurate than self-judgements for either extremely good or bad traits -Based on use of judgements -Used frequently in daily life (gossip, etc); no training needed
L data
-Life outcomes - From archival records
Effect size
-Looking at the strength of a relationship (like correlation coefficient) - Look at the actual size; r^2 is a terrible way to evaluate effect size
Social expectancy effects
-Mark Snyder phone call experiment - attractive woman spoke in a warmer way when the man thought he was speaking to an attractive woman
Criticisms of Myers-Briggs
-Not useful for selection or predicting life outcomes -Based on normally distributed scores -Measurement is not reliable -No evidence that different types follow, persist in, or succeed in different lines of work
Situationism's view of human nature
-People are free to do whatever they want -Everybody is equal, and differences are a function of the situation
PDNOS
-Personality disorder not specified -Diagnose individuals with several features from more than one personality disorder -Diagnose a specific disorder that is not included in the classification system
Objective tests
-Questions seem more objective and less open to interpretation -Shows the elusiveness of objectivity (items are still not absolutely objective)
S data
-Self-reports -Usually questionnaires or surveys, most frequent -High face validity -Often matches I data
Situationism
-The belief that behavior is largely driven by the situation, and that personality is relatively unimportant -Personality does not exist
Validity
-The degree to which a test actually measures what it's supposed to measure (accuracy) - Invokes the idea of the ultimate truth, but personality constructs cannot be seen directly ++For data to be valid, it must be reliable
Null-Hypothesis Significance Testing
-The traditional method of statistical data analysis that determines the chance of getting the result if nothing were really going on
Typology
-To typify all individuals , one must "carve nature at its joints" (CAPSI) -Well-adjusted person, maladjusted overcontrolling person (too uptight, denies themselves pleasure, hard to deal with on an interpersonal level), and maladjusted undercontrolling person (too impulsive, more likely to engage in crime etc.)
Improving RAM
-Training -attend to relevant cues -create the right interpersonal environment -be attentive
Problems in Self-report
-Validity -Disclosure (self-revealing v. secretive) -Desirability (results affected by how people want to portray themselves ie. socially appealing, morally virtuous, etc.) -Debasement (Inclination to devalue oneself, present more troubling difficulties) -Negative impression management
Disadvantages of Projective tests
-Validity evidence is scarce -Expensive and time-consuming -A psychologist cannot be sure about what they mean -Other, less expensive tests work as well or better -Sometimes used inappropriately
Implications of RAM
-accurate personality judgement is difficult -moderators of accuracy might be the result of somthing that happens that one of the 4 stages
The good information
-acquaintanceship effect (judgments by people who have known or observed the target for longer are more accurate) - quality of information -amount of information
Targeted interventions
-address certain personality traits -includes writing self-affirmations, teaching parents about the general nature of anxiety that their child may have -"imagine how they feel"
beyond the big 5
-central objection: there are more than 5 personality traits -people say honesty-humility should be added
Generalizability over participants
-college students vs. others -gender bias -shows vs. no-shows -ethnic and cultural diversity
The good judge
-communion -scores high in attributional complexity -cardiac vagal flexibility -dispositional intelligence
criteria for accuracy of personality judgement
-convergent validation -interjudge agreement -behavioral prediction -predictive validity
High self-monitors
-different inner and outer selves; perform differently in different settings -carefully survey the room and act accordingly
The good trait
-easy to observe, highly visible - possible evolutionary basis (sociosexuality) - •Evidence against the idea that peer judgments are socially constructed and agreement is based on communication
Validity based on first impressions of the face
-extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience -dominant v. submissive and sexuality
Trait approach
-focuses on individuals differences in personality and behavior and the psychological processes behind them -This is the largest and most dominant approach b/c individual differences are central to most everything - focuses on how "every man is in certain respects like some other men"
The good target
-high in judgability -stable, well-organized, consistent behavior -psychologically well-adjusted
The Big Five view of extraversion
-how I normally think of extraverts; active, outgoing, dominant, positive etc. -disadvantage: mate poaching, argumentative, need to be in control, poor time management, at risk for becoming overweight, can be argumentative, controlling, bad at managing their time
maturity principle
-increase of positive traits and decrease of negative traits with time (studies show that there is a decline after age 50, but not for everyone)
How to improve self-knowledge
-introspection -seek feedback -observe your own behavior
Low self-monitors
-largely the same inside and out and do not vary based on the situation -more tru to their inner personality
Factors that undermine reliability
-low precision -state of the participant -state of the experimenter -variation in the environment
California Q-set
-many-trait approach -100 personality descriptions -sort into a forced choice, symmetrical, and normal distribution
Obstacles to change
-not seeing a reason to -takes effort -people blame negative experiences on external forces -people like consistency and predictability
Power of the situation
-personality traits do not determine behavior, situations do -used to do total variance minus variance explained by personality but that doesn't make sense -now we convert statistical significance tests to effect sizes
Problems in clinical interviewing
-persuasiveness -state v. trait - comorbidity (ascertaining which category the symptom belongs to)
Causes of personality development
-physical development and changes in strength -increases in IQ -hormone-level changes -changes in social roles and responsibilities (Erikson)
All causes of personality stability
-temperament -physical and environmental factors - birth order (mixed research support...) -early experience (neg. and pos.) - person-environment transactions -cumulative continuity principle
How to make research more dependable:
-use more participants - disclose all methods - share data - report studies that don't work - never regard done study as conclusive proof of anything
Rorschach test
-used by 82% of clinical psych. -4th most used test -2 scoring methods (Exner's Comprehensive system and Klopfer's technique)
2 main questions to help evaluate personality judgements
1) do the judgements agree with each other? 2) can they predict behavior?
4 required conditions for a rationally constructed objective test
1) each item must mean the same thing to everyone 2) person taking it must be able to make an accurate self-assessment 3) person taking it must report accurately 4) all items on the test must be indicators of what the tester is trying to meaure
Steps for using empirical testing method
1) gather lots of items 2) have a sample of people already divided into groups 3) administer the test 4) compare the answers of the different groups- cross-validation
Steps for using factor analysis
1) generate a long list of objective items 2) administer to a large # of people 3) analyze with factor analysis 4) consider what the items that group together have in common and name the factor
Sociogenomic trait intervention model
1) identify what the person wants to change 2) do things outside of your comfort zone until they become automatic
4 potential methods of personality change
1) psychotherapy 2) general interventions 3) targeted interventions 4) life experiences
Overcoming obstacles to change
1) the person must think the change is desirable AND feasible 2) person must follow up by beginning to change her relevant behaviors, one by one 3) she will find that her trait of conscientiousness has stabilized at a higher level than it was before!
3 main issues with the person-situation debate
1. Does the personality of an individual transcend the immediate context and provide a consistent guide to actions, or is what a person does utterly dependent on the situation at the time? 2. Are common, ordinary intuitions about people fundamentally flawed or basically correct? 3. Why do psychologists continue to argue about the consistency of personality?
Advantages of I data
1. Large amount of information (everyone has acquaintances) 2. Real-world basis (not from constructed tests or controlled environments) 3. Common sense (takes context into account) 4. Definitional truth 5. Causal force (expectancy effects)
Advantages of L data
1. Objective and verifiable 2. Intrinsic importance 3. Psychological relevance
Advantages of Natural B data
1. Realistic
Disadvantages of case methods
1. Unknown generalizabililty
Disadvantages of S data
1. bias (desire for privacy; faking) 2. error (distortion or memory; carelessness) 3. too simple and easy
Advantages of case methods
1. describes the whole phenomenon 2. source for ideas 3. sometimes necessary for understanding an individual
Disadvantages of Natural B data
1. difficult 2. desired contexts seldomly occur
Disadvantages of Laboratory B data
1. difficult and expensive 2. uncertain interpretation
Advantages of S data
1. large amount of information 2. access to thoughts, feelings, and emotions 3. some S data are true by definition (self-esteem, etc) 4. Causal force (have a way of creating own reality) 5. Simple and easy
Disadvantages of I data
1. limited behavioral information 2. lack of access to private experience 3. error (more likely to remember extreme/unusual behaviors 4. Bias
Disadvantages of L data
1. multidetermination (outcome has many different causes) (to get a PhD, need many different factors/traits) 2. possible lack of psychological relevance
Advantages of Laboratory B data
1. range of contexts 2. appearance of objectivity (but subjective judgements must still be made)
Psychology Triad
3 essential topics of psych; how people think, feel, and behave
Case method
A procedure for gathering scientific info by studying a single individual in order to understand a particular case and discover general lessons or scientific laws
Experimental method
A research technique that establishes the causal relationship between an independent variable (x) and a dependent variable (y) by randomly assigning participants to experimental groups characterized by differing levels of x, and measuring the average behavior y that results in each group
Statistical significance
A result that would only occur by chance less than 5 percent of the time
Basic approach or paradigm
A theoretical view of personality that focuses on some phenomena and ignores others
Humanistic psychology
A type of phenomenological approach HOW conscious awareness produces uniquely human attributes (like creativity, free will, and existential anxiety); understand meaning and basis of happiness
What criteria do critical realists' think can be used to assess accuracy?
All information that might be helpful
Personality
An individual's characteristic pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior
Projective hypothesis
Answers reveal inner psychological needs, feelings, experiences, thought processes, or other hidden aspects of the mind
"Attributional Complexity" Scale
Asks about the levels of complexity in your thinking about the causes of behavior
SILB
Clues that we gather to determine one's personality Ideally, we use as many clues as we can
Binomial Effect Size Display (BESD)
Concrete display of what a correlation means in terms of specific outcomes -Assume you have 200 participants, with 100 in each of two groups, and 100 with each of two outcomes.
Open science
Emerging principles intended to improve transparency of scientific research; encouragement of full reports on all variables between scientists
Narcissism
Excessive self-love and self-absorption
One Big Theory (OBT)
Explains everything about personality It's too difficult to do everything well
Research
Exploration of the unknown
Generalizability
Extent to which research results apply to a range of individuals not included in the study
Cognitive personality
Focuses on cognitive processes, including perception, memory, and thought
Single-trait approach
Focuses on one particular trait of interest and learning as much as possible about its behavioral correlates -focuses on self-monitoring and narcissism
Classic behaviorism
Focuses on overt behaviors
Phenomenological approach
Focuses on people's conscious experience of the world -Emphasizes experience, free will, and the meaning of life
Psychoanalytic approach
Focuses on the unconscious mind and internal mental conflict (Freud)
Biological approach
Focuses on the way behavior and personality are influenced in terms of the body
Reliability
In measurement, the tendency of an instrument to provide the same comparative information on repeated occasions (consistency)
Spearman-Brown Formula
In psychometrics, a mathematical formula that predicts the degree to which the reliability of a test can be improved by adding more items.
Construct validation
Is the tool really measuring what its supposed to?
Advantages of accounting for the whole person and real-life concerns
It is inclusive, interesting, and important
Moderators of Accuracy
Judge, Target, Trait, Information
The acquaintanceship effect
Judgements by people who have known or observed the target for a long time are more accurate
Dispositional intelligence
Knowledge about how personality is relevant to behavior
Type I error
Mistake of thinking that one variable has an effect on another variable when it really does not (false positive)
Pigeonholing vs. Appreciation of Individual Differences
Negative: Pigeonholing (an idea is too exclusive or "labeling"; some people are uncomfy with being categorized b/c they find it to be undignified and/or implausible) Positive: leads to sensitivity and respect for individual differences
Resolution to the person-situation debate
People are psychologically different, and these differences matter; People maintain their personalities even as they adapt their behavior to particular situations
Fish-and-water effect
People may be so used to the way they characteristically react and behave that their own actions stop seeming remarkable (error of S data)
Active P-E transactions
Person seeks out compatible environments and avoids incompatible ones
Disadvantages of basic approaches
Poor at addressing other topics or ignores them
p-level
Probability level of obtaining a result from a statistical test if there really is no difference between groups or no relationship between variables
4 Stages of Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM)
Relevancy, availability, detection, utilization
Intellectual expectancy effects
Rosenthal and Jacobson 1) Climate (the way teachers are warmer towards the kid they expect to do well) 2) feedback (the way teachers give feedback that is more differentiated) 3) input (the way teachers attempt to teach more and harder material) 4) output (teachers give extra opportunities for the better kid to show what they've learned
Funder's Third Law
Something beats nothing, two times out of three
Emotional intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
Type II error
The mistake of thinking that one variable does not effect another when it really does (false negative)
Constructivism
The philosophical view that reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist and that only ideas or "constructions" of reality exist
Critical realism
The philosophical view that the absence of perfect, infallible criteria for truth does not imply that all interpretations of reality are equally correct
Null hypothesis
The possibility of a zero result
Psychometrics
The technology of psychological measurement
Publication bias
The tendency for journals to publish positive findings but not negative or ambiguous ones
Measurement error/error variance
The variation of a number around its true meaning due to uncontrolled influences -State or trait -All measurements include some error
Funder's Second Law
There are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous
The situationist arguments (Mischel)
There is an upper limit to how well one can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of that person's personality, and this upper limit is low (.40) - correlations rarely exceeded .30 (--> we can do better)
What is the goal of research in this field?
To continuously improve on tentative answer to questions
Convergent validity
Tool gives similar scores as other tools on the same subjects (the duck test)
Cross-cultural personality research
Type of phenomenological approach emphasizes how the experience of reality might be different across cultures
Orthogonal
Unrelated; getting a high score in one trait should not have anything to do with what you get on another
Self-verification
When people try to bring others to treat them in a manner that confirms their self-conceptions (ex. of causal force of S data) (if you think you are smart, you make an extra effort to make other people think you're smart)
Expectancy effects/behavioral confirmation/self-fulfilling prophecy
When someone becomes the kind of person people expect them to be (causal force of I-data)
moderator variable
a variable that affects the relationship between two other variables
why are there so many items on objective personality tests?
aggregation and spearman-brown formula
"Self-Monitoring" Scale
asks how much/how closely you watch other people for cues as to how you should act
The trait approach strengths
assesses and attempts to understand how people differ
The essential-trait approach
attempts to reduce the "many" to "a few"
Meta-accuracy
being able to tell who can and cannot judge accurately
social investment principle
changing social roles at different stages of life can cause personality to change
content validity
does it really represent all of the things it needs to? ex. are we measuring all aspects of depression?
Correlational method
established a relationship between 2 variables by measuring both in a sample (scatter plot&correlation coefficient)
general interventions
focused on important outcomes, like completing school, etc.
Learning
how behavior changes as a result of rewards, punishments, and other life experiences
Comparison to a relative standard
how well situations predict behavior
The trait approach weaknesses
neglects aspects of personality common to all people and how each person is unique
What criteria do constructivists' think can be used to assess accuracy?
none; personality is a social construction
Comparison to an absolute standard
number of correct and incorrect predictions
role continuity principle
older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors, relationships as they did in their earlier years of life
identity development principle
people seek to develop a stable sense of who they are, and then strive to act consistently with this self-view
Rank-order consistency
people tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people of the same age
person-environment transactions
people tend to respond to, seek out, and create environments that are compatible with, and may magnify, their personality traits
corresponsive principle
person-environment transactions can cause personality traits to remain consistent or even magnify over time
plasticity principle
personality can change at any time (but such change may not be easy)
Omnibus
personality tests that measure a wide range of personality traits
Social clock
places pressure on people to accomplish certain things by certain ages; traditional expectations of society for when a person is expected to achieve certain steps in life
3 basic aspects of childhood temperament
positive emotionality, negative emotionality, effortful control
longitudinal study
similar findings to those of cross-sectional studies; people become more socially dominant, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable
Higher-order factors of personality
stability and plasticity
cross-sectional study
surveys people at different ages; good way to chart personality development
discriminant validity
tests whether concepts or measurements that are not supposed to be related are actually unrelated
heterotypic continuity
the effects of temperamental tendencies change with age, but temperament and personality stay the same; behaviors associated with traits change.
cumulative continuity principle
the idea that personality becomes more stable and unchanging as a person gets older (psychological maturity)
Temperament
the personality one begins with; partially determined by genetics
Population value
the real value
Narrative identity
the story one tells oneself about who one is; actor, agent, and author
cohort effects
the tendency for a research finding to be limited to one group, or people, such as people living in a particular era or location
Reactive P-E transactions
Different people respond differently to the same situation
Criterion validity
Does the criteria of the tool match other tools?
The whole person
How all other areas of psychology come together
Social Learning Theory
How observation and self-evaluation determine behavior
Learning and cognitive approaches
How people change their behaviors as a result of rewards, punishments, and life experiences -Behaviorism, social learning theory, cognitive personality psychology
Performance-based assessment
IAT, MMPI, IQ (these all yield B-data)
General arousal theory of criminality
Idea that people who crave extra stimuli (extroverts) are more likely to be criminals/dangerous
General Factor of Personality
Idea that there is only one underlying trait--> emotional intelligence
Lexical hypothesis
Important aspects of life will be labeled with words, and if something is truly important and universal, there will be many words for it in all languages. This aided the development of the Big 5
personality development
Change in personality over time, including the development of adult personality from its origins in infancy and childhood, and changes in personality over the life span.
Predictive validity
Degree to which one measure can be used to predict another
Advantages of basic approaches
Good at addressing certain topics
Funder's First Law
Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well There is no one real answer!
p-hacking
Hacking around one's data in various ways until one finds the desired result
Disadvantages of accounting for the whole person and real-life concerns
Over-inclusiveness or unfocused research
Letter of recommendation effect
Participants tend to nominate informants who think well of them, leading to a more positive picture (Bias for I-data)
Behavioral prediction
The degree to which a judgment or measurement can predict the behavior of the person in question
Self-monitoring
The degree to which inner and outer selves and behaviors are the same or different across situations
Face validity
The degree to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring
Interjudge agreement
The degree to which two or more people making judgments about the same person provide the same description of that person's personality
Interactionism
The effect of a personality variable may depend on the situation, or vise versa -certain types of people go to or find themselves in different types of situations (situations are not randomly populated)
Judgability
The extent to which an individual's personality can be judged accurately by others
