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98 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
3 goals of psychological theories |
describe explain predict |
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WHAT IS PERSONALITY |
Set of psychological traits and mechanisms within an individual organized and relatively enduring that influence peoples interactions and adaptations to the environment |
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3 levels of personality assessment |
Human nature individual and group differences individual uniqueness |
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Human nature (1 of 3 levels of personality assessment) |
How we are like all others |
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Group differences (1 of 3 levels of personality assessments) |
how we are like some others |
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individual uniqueness (1 of 3 levels of personality assessment) |
how we are like no others |
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4 interactions with the environment |
perception selection evocation manipulation |
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2 approaches to research |
- nomothetic -ideographic |
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Nomothetic approach to research |
focussing on many people |
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ideographic approach to research |
focussing on a single person |
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*A fissure in the field* study |
Bunch of blind peeps felt a diff part of an elephant and all thought it was something different cause they didn't understand it as a whole |
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6 domains of knowledge |
dispositional biological intrapsychic cognitive-experimental social+cultural adjustment |
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traits describe: |
average tendencies of a person |
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intrapsychic |
within the mind |
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domain of knowledge |
limited aspects of human nature that psychologists focus on |
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dispositional domain |
deals with ways in which individuals differ from one another |
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biological domain |
says humans are collections of biological systems and these provide building blocks for thoughts, behaviors, and emotions |
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intrapsychic domain |
mental mechanisms of personality - operate outside of conscious awareness |
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cognitive experimental domain |
focuses on cognition and subjective experience (thoughts, feelings, desires) |
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social and cultural domain |
personality comes from society and culture |
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adjustment domain |
how personality plays a key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to flow of events in our day to day lives |
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3 aspects of a good theory |
-provides guide for research -organizes known findings - makes predicitons |
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5 standards for evaluating personality theories: |
- comprehensiveness (does the theory do a good job of explaining all facts in the domain? - heuristic value - (does the theory provide a guide to important new discoveries?) - testability - (does the theory give precise predictions that can be tested through observation?) - parsimony - does theory contain few or many assumptions? - compatibility + integration across domains |
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types of data (LOTS) |
life outcome data observer report data test data self-report data |
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projective tests/techniques |
person is given a standard stimulus and asked what they see |
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generalizability |
degree a measure retains its validity across various contexts |
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Life outcome data |
information from events - for public scrutiny Advantages- predictions and relevance Disadvantages- influenced by multiple other factors |
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Observer report data |
info provided by someone else about another person Advantages- seeing target in many contexts, can use multiple observers Disadvantages- limited into- don't know your inner thoughts, personal biases, error with unusual events |
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Test Data |
info provided by standardized testing |
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Self Report Data |
person shares personal info ex) survey |
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How to have strong confidence in findings (RGV) |
Real Great Value Reliability Validity Generalizability |
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reliability |
degree to which the measure represents a true level of the trait being measured |
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3 types of reliability |
test-retest inter-rater interconsistancy |
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test-retest |
test the same test different times and compare the persons scores |
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inter-rater reliability |
test agreement between two raters |
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interconsistancy |
test participants one time with items that probe the same question |
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validity |
degree to which a test measures what it claims to measure |
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difference between reliability and validity |
reliability measures how consistently an experiment produces the same results while validity sees if a test is measuring what it claims to measure |
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5 types of validity |
face validity predictive validity convergent validity discriminant validity construct validity |
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act nomination |
procedure meant to identify which acts belong to which trait category |
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prototypicality judgement |
identifying which acts are most central to each trait category |
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3 approaches to trait identification |
1. lexical approach 2. statistical approach 3. theoretical |
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lexical approach |
all important individual differences have become encoded within natural language over time -The more words there are to describe it, the more important it is -synonym frequency - cross-cultural universality |
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statistical approach (factor analysis) |
identifies groups of items that covary with each other but tend to not covary with other groups of items |
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theoretical approach |
starts with a theory that then determines which variables are important - strengths coincide with strengths of a theory |
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2 taxonomies of personality |
Eysencks hierarchical model of personality 5 factor model (big 5) |
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eysencks hierarchical model |
biological basis to traits heritable 3 main traits: extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-emotional stability, psychoticism |
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extraversion-introversion (eysenck) |
.6 heritability introverts have higher resting arousal level introverts show larger and faster response to moderate stimuli |
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neuroticism- emotional stability |
.54 heritability differences in brain circuits involved in perception of and cognitive control over negative stimuli |
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psychoticism |
high levels of testosterone low MAO |
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5 Factor model |
Openness conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness neuroticism |
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openness |
open to experience intellectually curious, nonconforming, daring, appreciative of art, aware of feelings |
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conscientiousness |
tendency to show preference for planned behavior influences control, regulation, and direction of impulses dependable, productive, purposeful, high achieving |
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extraversion |
positive emotions and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others |
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agreeableness |
tendency to be compassionate and cooperative desire to maintain positive interpersonal relationships sympathetic, warm, trusting generous helpful optimistic |
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neuroticism |
tendency to experience negative emotions - emotional instability emotionally reactive, vulnerable to stress, interpret situations as threatening, anxious and insecure |
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acquiescence |
wanting to sound good |
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social desirability |
answering in a way to come across as socially acceptable or likable |
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integrity testing |
surveys designed to assess whether person is honest or dishonest |
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integrity |
high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, and low neuroticism |
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Restriction (measurement issue) |
affects correlations between scales range restricted smaller correlation (pic of graph only including small clump of x values so you can't see the whole trend |
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barnum statement |
generally could apply to anyone, many double barreled questions. uses phrases like "at times" |
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myers briggs |
4 scores combined to yield 16 types of personalities |
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development |
formal education, job experience, relationships, assessments of personalities and abilities that help employees perform effectively in their current and future jobs |
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training |
planned effort by a company to facilitate employees learning of job related competence |
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selection |
assessment to discriminate and select higher quality applicants in a pool |
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job analysis |
developing discription of job and specifications employee must have to perform it |
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human genome |
complete set of genes that an organism possesses |
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behavioral genetics |
trying to predict the percent of variance in personality due to genetics and environmental differences |
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shared environment vs unshared |
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phenotype |
what a gene is actually expressed as |
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heritability |
proportion of observed variance in group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance |
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genetic similarity to parent and child |
50% |
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genetic similarity between siblings |
50% |
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genetic similarity between grandparent and child |
25% |
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genetic similarity between identical twins vs fraternal |
100%....50% |
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thickness of gray matter influences personality |
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3 types of exposure of people with different genotypes to different environments |
passive active reactive |
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Passive (genotype stuff) |
you can have parents with verbal abilities and they can pass that down to you and also have many books in the house so it continues |
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reactive (genotype stuff) |
child evokes verbal environment ex) starting to talk early so their parents talk back to them |
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active (genotype stuff) |
selecting into environments like going into theatre or debate |
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molecular genetics |
techniques designed to identify specific genes associated with personality traits |
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genotype- environment interaction |
the effect of exposure to an environmental factor depends on a person's genotype - but doesn't necessarily always have to do with genotype |
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physiological approach psych |
personality is considered stable hard wired in our biology |
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Nervous system |
CNS (Brain) PNS (autonomic and sympathetic) Psychopharmacology (neurotransmitters) |
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Physiological measures |
-electrodermal activity - cardiovascular activity - brain activity - other (biochemical analysis of blood and saliva) |
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biochemical analysis |
body's chemical measures travels in blood stream to tissues or organs |
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testosterone |
male hormone aggression anxiety assertiveness impulsivity |
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cortisol |
stress hormone prepares boy for fight or flight |
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neurotransmitters |
chemicals in the nerve cells that are responsible for the transmission of a nerve impulse from one cell to another |
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dopamine |
associated with pleasure |
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serotonin |
mood disorders, anxiety, depression |
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norepinephrine |
activates the sympathetic nervous system for fight or flight |
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Jeffrey Grey Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory |
describes personality traits as a function of individual differences in the sensitivities of BIS and BAS |
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BAS (Behavioral approach system) |
responsive to cues of reward |
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BIS (behavioral inhibition system) |
responsive to cues of punishment, frustration, and uncertainty. avoidance behavior |
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Sensation seeking : Zuckerman |
people who are high sensation seeking have low levels of MAO |
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Frontal Brain Asymmetry |
left hemisphere= happier right hemisphere= more emotional |