Personality
- Consistent behavior patterns and intra-personal processes originating within the individual
- 人格是构成一个人的思想 情感和行为的特有模式 包含一个人区别与他们的稳定而统一的心理品质
- 气质(temperament): 与生俱来的 无好坏之分 无到的评价的意义；具有稳定性 跨活动的一致性 [most unconscious; mostly nature] Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic (couldn’t get stable result for myself)
- 性格(character): 表现为个人的道德品格和行为的风格 能够进行道德评价 [nature and nurture]
- 人格 (personality) [mostly nurture] 独特性，稳定性，综合性，功能性
Objective Tests
Objective Tests
Administering a standard set of items, each answered using a limited set of responses options. (Self-ratings)
stringly disagree ----- slightrly disagree ----- slighlty agree ----- strongly agree
- The term ”objective” refers to the method used to score the responses, not the response themselves
- Psychologist does not need to judge or interpret the response
Self-report Measurements
Ask people to describe themselves
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Use single words, short phrases, or complete sentences
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Demonstrates high validity in importance outcomes
- Conscientiousness => academic performance and job performance
- Neuroticism => psychopathology
- Early life rating => happiness/well-being
- Predict occupational attainment, divorce, and mortality
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Advantage
- Self-raters have access to complete information (thoughts, feelings, and motives) that others can’t read
- The simplest, easiest, and cost-effective
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Disadvantage
- Ratings maybe be present in a socially desirable way (especially when the result is important)
- Reflect self enhancement bias
- Reference group effect
Informant Ratings
Ask someone who knows a person well to describe
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Use single words, short phrases, or complete sentences (same as self-report, easy to convert)
- Valuable when self-ratings are impossible to collect or when self report’s validity suspect
- Can be used combined with self-rating to increase reliability
- By itself have similar validity as self-ratings
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Ex. The big 5
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Advantage
- Have strong incentives for being accurate
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Disadvantage
- Level of relevant info available to the rater (lack full access to subject feelings)
- Reference group effect in similar way as self-rating
- Parent’s rating are subject to “sibling contrast effect” (exaggerate the true magnitude of differences between children)
- Participants often choose likable raters (“letter of recommendation effect”) or honeymoon effect
Other ways to Classify Objective Tests
- Comprehensiveness (the extent to which how comprehensive the tests are)
- Focus on single attribute vs. Focusing on too many attributes
- Breadth (broad traits)
- Ex. Extraversion can be divided into many different interconnected, yet separate traits
Projective and Implicit Tests
Projective Tests
Asks a person to interpret ambiguous stimuli (things that an be understood in different ways)
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Based on projective hypothesis
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Assessment based on the belief that important thoughts are outside of the conscious
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Ex. Rorschach Inkblot Test (interpret of ink) & Thematic Test (generate stories about pictures)
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Disadvantage
- Requires administer to interpret
- Need to develop a reliable and valid scheme to score the set of responses
- Validity are controversial
Implicit Test
- Based on the assumption that people form automatic/implicit associations between certain concepts. If such association exist strong associations would means faster connection between concepts
- Validity is still in debate, but data are promising (similar to objective measures)
Behavioral and Performance Measures
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From direct sample of behavior
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Ex. bring participants into conversation, let them watch videotapes, use electronically activated recorder (EAR)
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Advantage
- Not subject to response biases
- Avoiding the artificiality of other methods (observe in daily lives)
- The only method that assert what people do, instead of what they feel
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Disadvantage
- Requires administer to be at scene to observe
- Need a rich set of data to have validity and reliability
- Sample are often too small to generate the true personality type