Blue content from the lectures and PowerPoint Red supplemental content from the book Chapter 1 Learning Objectives Know the definition of personality The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with and adaptions to the intrapsychic physical and social environments Same in the lecture Know what a personality trait is What is the difference between a trait and a state Personality Trait Personality Traits are characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other Ex Someone that is shy is one way in which they are different from someone who is more outgoing Traits also define way sin which people are similar to some others Ex People who are shy are similar to each other in that they are anxious in social situations particularly when there is an audience focusing attention on them Traits describe the average tendencies of a person Ex On average a high talkative person starts more conversations than a low talkative person A unique set of consistent emotional cognitive and behavioral dispositions or tendencies It s how you typically feel think and act Broad patterns over time The WHAT of personality They are useful because they can Describe people Explain behavior Predict future behavior A state on the other hand is a temporary change in one s personality Examples of states might be angry depressed fearful or anxious We typically use states to describe a person s reaction to something Be able to identify and describe the three components of personality mechanisms Inputs or Attention Becoming more sensitive to certain information Decision rules or Available Options More likely to think about specific options Outputs or Actual Behavior Guide their behavior to certain kinds of actions A psychological mechanism may make people more sensitive to certain kinds of information from the environment input may make them more likely to think about specific options decision rules and may guide their behavior toward certain categories of action outputs Ex An extraverted person may look for opportunities to be with other people input may consider in each situation the possibilities for human contact and interaction decision rules and may encourage others to interact with him or her output Be able to identify and describe the three levels of personality analysis 3 Levels of Personality Analysis Human Nature Individual Group Differences belong to social groups How we are like all others Personality traits mechanisms possessed by nearly everyone The traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and are possessed by everyone or nearly everyone Ex nearly every human has language skills which allow him or her to learn and use a language Ex the human desire to live with others and Individual differences are ways in which each person is alike different from some other people Ex being high low in sensation seeking Ex Some people are gregarious and love parties others prefer quiet evenings reading Some people take great physical risks by jumping out of airplanes riding motorcycles and driving fast cars others shun physical risks Group differences are how people differ across groups Ex cultural and age differences Ex Certain cultures value individual uniqueness while others value collectivism Ex Differences between men and women Men are responsible for most of the violence in the world How we are like no others Everyone has unique qualities not shared by any other person Nomothetic research typically involves statistical comparisons of individuals or groups It is typically applied to identify universal human characteristics and dimensions of individual or group differences Individual Uniqueness Idiographic the description of one research that typically focuses on a single subject trying to observe general principles that are manifest in a single life over time Ex Case studies or psychological biographies of Know the five personality dimensions measured by the TIPI a single person Personality TIPI Openness Conscientiousness Agreeableness Neuroticism opposite of Emotional Stability Extraversion Use OCEAN Acronym Know how to reverse code a personality scale item and understand why reverse coding is important to personality research Reverse Coding To reverse score Add 1 to the maximum point on the scale 7 1 8 Then subtract the initial score from that number 8 minus the initial score reverse score 1 7 2 6 3 5 4 4 5 3 6 2 7 1 Reverse coding is typically used to reduce or eliminate response sets The concept of response sets refers to the tendency of some people to respond to the questions on a basis that is unrelated to the question content Ex Acquiescence or yea saying this is the tendency to simply agree with the questionnaire items regardless of the content of those items Psychologists counteract acquiescence by intentionally reverse scoring some of the questionnaire items such as an extraversion item that states I frequently prefer to be alone Be able to recognize a bell curve normal distribution and know the percentage of people that fall within each standard deviation Bell curve Chapter 2 Learning Objectives Know the four different ways to measure personality Ways to measure Ask them self report data S data Ex Twenty Statements Test Adjective Checklists Questionnaires Experience Sampling Ex a beeper would go off throughout the day and ask you questions experience sampling Self report data is either structured or unstructured see next learning objective Ask their friends observer report data O data Types of Observers Professional personality assessors Trained and experienced in assessment Friends family of Person More naturalistic Can assess across social situations Observer may be biased The use of multiple observers allows investigators to evaluate the degree of agreement among observers also known as inter rater reliability Different kinds of tests test data T data Situational tests Do people behave differently in Naturalistic Observation observers witness and record events that occur in the normal course of the lives of the participants Ex a child might be followed throughout an entire day or an observer may sit in a participant s home Artificial Observation observers can instruct participants to perform a task such as participation in a group discussion and then observe how individuals behave in these constructed settings Ex researchers had married
View Full Document
Unlocking...