Exam 2 Learning Objectives Personality Assessment Lecture 4 1 Know the four ways to measure personality and be able to recognize examples Self report Observer report ask other people Situational test e g put them in a situation where they could act vampiric Biological test 2 Know the advantages and disadvantages of self report data Things people know about themselves that no one else does Advantages Disadvantages People can lie There are things people don t know about themselves 3 Know the advantages and disadvantages of other report data Advantages Things people don t know about themselves Trained and experienced in assessment when from professional personality assessors More naturalistic when from friends and family Can assess across social situations Disadvantages Observer may be biased 4 Know the advantages and disadvantages of situational test Advantages Disadvantages Elicit behaviors that serve as indicators of personality Scored by independent raters Participant might guess what is being measured and then alter their behavior Might interpret testing situation differently than intended Researcher might influence behavior 5 Understand the difference between reliability and validity Reliability consistency Validity a test is valid if it measures what it claims to measure 6 Define four types of validity and be able to recognize examples of each Face a test can be said to have face validity if it looks like it is going to measure what it is supposed to measure Predictive the extent to which a score on a scale or test predicts scores on some criterion measure e g the validity of a cognitive test for job performance is the correlation between test scores and supervisor performance ratings Such a cognitive test would have predictive validity if the observed correlation were statistically significant Convergent refers to the degree to which two measures two different tests of constructs that theoretically should be related are in fact related e g to show the convergent validity of a test of mathematics skills the scores on the test can be correlated with scores on other tests that are also designed to measure basic mathematics ability Discriminant tests whether concepts or measurements that are supposed to be unrelated are in fact unrelated A successful evaluation of discriminant validity shows that a test of a concept is not highly correlated with other tests designed to measure theoretically different concepts 7 Define two types of reliability and be able to recognize examples of each Test retest the variation in measurements taken by a single person or instrument on the same item and under the same conditions Internal consistency a measure based on the correlations between different items on the same test It measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar scores e g if a respondent expressed agreement with the statements I like to ride bicycles and I ve enjoyed riding bicycles in the past and disagreement with the statement I hate bicycles this would be indicative of good internal consistency of the test Usually measured with Cronbach s alpha A scale can be reliable but not valid 8 A scale is generalizable If scale is valid across various groups If scale is valid across various situations Correlation does not equal causation Maybe the relationship is curvilinear 9 Be able to apply the two things you can say to sound smart when people talk about research As the independent variable increases the dependent variable increased then decreases see graph to the right From the book 10 What is the construct approach to test construction An approach to test construction in which scales are developed based on a specific theory refined using factor analysis and other procedures and validated by showing through empirical study that individuals who achieve certain scores behave in ways that could be predicted by their scores Most comprehensive and desirable approach to personality test construction However not the most widely used because it is time consuming labor intensive and expensive 11 What does an item analysis tell you An item analysis includes two statistics that can help you analyze the effectiveness of your test questions The question difficulty is the percentage of students who selected the correct response The discrimination item effectiveness indicates how well the question separates the students who know the material well from those who don t Traits and Trait Taxonomies Theoretical Issues Lecture 5 1 Know the four perspectives on traits covered in lecture and be able to describe how they are different Two perspective claim traits can CAUSE behavior Neurophysiological substrates Traits are biological differences that can cause behavior to occur Behavioral dispositions Traits are tendencies to behave a certain way Two other perspectives claim that traits DO NOT CAUSE behavior Act frequencies Linguistic categories Traits are descriptive categories for behavior Traits exist objectively Traits are linguistic categories for behavior Traits are all in our minds 2 Know the four main features of a trait Internal stable attribute Conceived in bipolar terms continuum Seen as additive and independent Broad differences in socioemotional functioning 3 Be able to describe the three approaches to developing trait taxonomies All important traits are apparent in language Give people questionnaires and analyze using factor analysis Lexical Statistical Theoretical A theory determines which traits are important 4 Know which characteristics are studied under Eysenck s model of personality and be able to describe each Extraversion Introversion E Extraversion Sociable Lively Active Assertive Sensation seeking Neuroticism Emotional Stability N Psychoticism P Solitary Lack empathy cruel inhumane Aggressive Prefer strange unusual things Impulsive Antisocial 5 Know the two dimensions of the Interpersonal Circumplex and how those dimensions correspond to Big Five traits see image above Dominant Submissive i e agency Argued to directly map onto Extraversion Friendly Hostile i e communion Argued to directly map onto Agreeableness 6 What is the most widely accepted model for personality and why is it widely accepted Five Factor Model is the most widely accepted due to its empirical evidence Found by many researchers using diff samples Has been replicated over 50 years in many languages Replicated using different item formats It represents the higher order
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