FINAL EXAM REVIEW PPE 3003 || A+ Graded Already.
Define personality correct answers 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 adaptations to, the environment.
What are three reasons personality traits are useful? correct answers Describe, explain & predict
behavior.
Personality (Psychological) Traits correct answers The WHAT of personality; characteristics that
describe ways that people are different from each other; average tendencies.
Average Tendencies correct answers Tendency to display a certain psychological trait with
regularity.
Personality Mechanisms correct answers The HOW of personality; the process of personality.
3 Components of Personality Mechanisms correct answers Inputs (attention), decision rules
(available options), & outputs (actual behavior)
Nomothetic Research correct answers Involves statistical comparisons of individuals or groups,
requiring samples of subjects on which to conduct research.
Idiographic Research correct answers Literally "the description of one"; typically focuses on a
single subject, trying to observe general principles that are manifest in a single life over time.
Human Nature correct answers Personality features possessed by nearly everyone; how we are
"like all others"; ex. the need to belong, capacity for love.
Group Differences correct answers How people are "like some others" in their group & different
from other groups as a whole; ex. age, gender, political differences.
Individual Differences correct answers Ways in which we are each "like some others"/different
from some others; ex. extraverts, high/low attention seeking.
Individual Uniqueness correct answers How we are "like no others"; Everyone has unique
qualities not shared by any other person.
What are the four sources of data collected by personality psychologists? correct answers Self-
Report Data (S-Data), Observer Report Data (O-Data), Test Data (T-Data), Life-Outcome Data
(L-Data)
Self-Report Data (S-Data) correct answers The information a person reveals; done through
interviews, reports, questionnaires, checklists, etc.; can be unstructured (open-ended q's) or
structured (forced choice q's); good because people know stuff about themselves that others
don't, bad because people can lie.
,Observer Report Data (O-Data) correct answers The information that friends, families, casual
acquaintances, etc. can reveal about a person's personality; done through professional personality
assessors or intimate observers, & in a naturalistic or artificial setting; good because multiple
observers & they may have access to info not attainable through other sources.
Test Data (T-Data) correct answers Participants are placed in a standardized testing situation to
see if different people react or behave differently to an identical situation; designed to elicit
behaviors that serve as indicators of personality (ex. emergencies); behaviors can be "scored" by
independent raters; bad because can be influenced by knowledge of experiment or researcher.
Life-Outcome Data (L-Data) correct answers Information that can be extracted from the events,
activities, & outcomes in a person's life that are available to public scrutiny; ex. marriage/divorce
records, clubs a person joins, etc.; can be bad because life outcomes are caused by several
different factors (race, gender, etc.)
Make a Test Scientifically Useful correct answers Reliability, validity, & generalizability.
Reliability correct answers Consistency.
3 Types of Reliability correct answers Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, & inter-rater
reliability.
Test-retest Reliability correct answers Done through "repeated measurement"; repeat a
measurement over time for the same people & if the 2 tests yield similar scores for most people,
the test has a high this...
Internal Consistency correct answers Done by examining the relationships among the items
themselves at a single point in time; if the items within a test- viewed as a form of repeated
measurement- all correlate well with each other, then the scale has a high...
Inter-rater Reliability correct answers Done by obtaining measurements from multiple observers;
when different observers agree with each other, measure has high...
(Only applicable for O-data measures)
Validity correct answers Extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure.
4 Types of Validity correct answers Face, predictive, convergent, & discriminant.
Face Validity correct answers Whether the test, on the SURFACE, measures what it appears to
measure.
Predictive (Criterion) Validity correct answers The extent to which performance on a test is
related to later performance that the test was designed to predict; ex. SAT predicts how high
school students will perform in college.
, Convergent Validity correct answers The degree to which scores on a test correlate with scores
on other tests that are designed to assess the same construct; ex. people's scores on an
aggressiveness test correlate with people's scores on another aggressiveness test.
Discriminant Validity correct answers The degree to which scores on a test do not correlate with
scores from other tests that are not designed to assess the same construct; ex. scores on a test
designed to assess aggressiveness should aren't correlated with scores from tests designed to
assess intelligence.
Reliability vs. Validity correct answers A scale (rating something 0-5, etc.) can be reliable but
not valid.
Generalizability correct answers The degree to which a scale is valid across various groups &
various situations.
Types of Research Methods correct answers Correlational, experimental, & case studies.
Correlational Research correct answers Naturally occurring relationships; ex. are X & Y related
to each other?; range from 1.0-1.0, closer to 1=stronger, closer to 0=weaker; same
direction=positive, different direction=negative.
Advantages of Correlational Research correct answers Describes the relationships between
variables; can measure things you can't control.
Disadvantages of Correlational Research correct answers Correlation does NOT equal causation.
Third Variable Problem correct answers Two variables could be correlated because some, third
unknown variable is causing both; "Can something else cause both variables?"
Directionality Problem correct answers If A & B are correlated, we do not know if A is the cause
of B or if B is the cause of A (or 3rd variable problem); "Can the second variable cause the first
variable?"
Experimental Method correct answers Systematically controls & manipulates events; can
determine causality (whether 1 variable influences another variable); examine cause-effect
relationships; is X the cause of Y?
Experimental Research Features correct answers Manipulation (control) & random assignment.
Manipulation (Control) correct answers Manipulation of independent variable (participant) while
all other variables (participants) are kept constant.
Random Assignment correct answers Helps ensure that all groups are the same (constant) at the
beginning of a study.
