PSY 352 FINAL QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS
Personality - Answers - an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and
acting
What are traits? - Answers - characteristics that make people different from each other;
average tendencies, internal characteristics, enduring over time
What is situationism? - Answers - view that personality is a function of situation (not
internal traits)
E.g. social psychology
How would you describe the person/situation debate? - Answers - Person-situation
debate: both external and internal forces form reactions and will shape the situation
What is interactionism? - Answers - view that personality and situation drive behavior
together
Describe the dispositional approach to understanding personality - Answers - Do you
have a steady, unchanging personality?
Describe the biological approach to understanding personality - Answers - inherited
predispositions, physiological processes
Are genes/brain chem/evolution responsible for your personality?
Describe the intrapsychic approach to understanding personality - Answers - processes
within the mind (unconscious?)
Is personality shaped by forces outside of consciousness?
Describe cognitive/experiential approach to understanding personality - Answers -
thought and subjective experiences
How is personality shaped by thoughts, feelings, beliefs, goals, etc?
Describe the social and cultural approach to understanding personality - Answers -
society, culture and gender
What is a Likert scale? - Answers - Range of numbers represent answers (on a scale of
1-10)
What is experience sampling? - Answers - Report experiences repeatedly over time
(detects patterns)
E.g. social media
, What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is reliable? - Answers -
consistent results from a measure
Describe face validity - Answers - it seems like it addresses the subject
Describe predictive validity - Answers - results predict other criteria, external to test
Describe convergent validity - Answers - refers to whether a test correlates with other
measures that it should correlate with
Describe discriminant validity. - Answers - the measure does not correlate with what it
should NOT correlate with.
What are the general guidelines for interpreting a correlation coefficient as a small,
medium, or large effect? - Answers - Larger (close to +/-1) = more predictive
Small correlation: 0.1 to 0.3
Medium correlation: 0.3 to 0.5
Large correlation: 0.5
to 1.0
Describe Allport's contributions to the field of personality psychology - Answers - He
described personality in terms of traits
Founder of modern personality psychology
Describe the act frequency approach to defining traits - Answers - traits = categories of
acts
More acts performed = stronger trait
Some members= "better" members of concept than others (typicality)
What is a prototype? - Answers - most typical example of a category
How do prototypes influence our perceptions of others? - Answers - most typical
example of a category
Memory for items shifts toward prototypes over time
Race, gender, remembered more stereotypically
What is a trait taxonomy? - Answers - list of the most 'important' traits in defining a
personality
Describe the lexical approach to creating trait taxonomies - Answers - important
individual differences encoded in language over time
Meaningful differences → words invented to talk about them
What are the three traits that are included in Eysenck's hierarchical model? - Answers -
Extraversion → active, sociable, likes parties, many friends
Personality - Answers - an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and
acting
What are traits? - Answers - characteristics that make people different from each other;
average tendencies, internal characteristics, enduring over time
What is situationism? - Answers - view that personality is a function of situation (not
internal traits)
E.g. social psychology
How would you describe the person/situation debate? - Answers - Person-situation
debate: both external and internal forces form reactions and will shape the situation
What is interactionism? - Answers - view that personality and situation drive behavior
together
Describe the dispositional approach to understanding personality - Answers - Do you
have a steady, unchanging personality?
Describe the biological approach to understanding personality - Answers - inherited
predispositions, physiological processes
Are genes/brain chem/evolution responsible for your personality?
Describe the intrapsychic approach to understanding personality - Answers - processes
within the mind (unconscious?)
Is personality shaped by forces outside of consciousness?
Describe cognitive/experiential approach to understanding personality - Answers -
thought and subjective experiences
How is personality shaped by thoughts, feelings, beliefs, goals, etc?
Describe the social and cultural approach to understanding personality - Answers -
society, culture and gender
What is a Likert scale? - Answers - Range of numbers represent answers (on a scale of
1-10)
What is experience sampling? - Answers - Report experiences repeatedly over time
(detects patterns)
E.g. social media
, What does it mean to say that a psychological measure is reliable? - Answers -
consistent results from a measure
Describe face validity - Answers - it seems like it addresses the subject
Describe predictive validity - Answers - results predict other criteria, external to test
Describe convergent validity - Answers - refers to whether a test correlates with other
measures that it should correlate with
Describe discriminant validity. - Answers - the measure does not correlate with what it
should NOT correlate with.
What are the general guidelines for interpreting a correlation coefficient as a small,
medium, or large effect? - Answers - Larger (close to +/-1) = more predictive
Small correlation: 0.1 to 0.3
Medium correlation: 0.3 to 0.5
Large correlation: 0.5
to 1.0
Describe Allport's contributions to the field of personality psychology - Answers - He
described personality in terms of traits
Founder of modern personality psychology
Describe the act frequency approach to defining traits - Answers - traits = categories of
acts
More acts performed = stronger trait
Some members= "better" members of concept than others (typicality)
What is a prototype? - Answers - most typical example of a category
How do prototypes influence our perceptions of others? - Answers - most typical
example of a category
Memory for items shifts toward prototypes over time
Race, gender, remembered more stereotypically
What is a trait taxonomy? - Answers - list of the most 'important' traits in defining a
personality
Describe the lexical approach to creating trait taxonomies - Answers - important
individual differences encoded in language over time
Meaningful differences → words invented to talk about them
What are the three traits that are included in Eysenck's hierarchical model? - Answers -
Extraversion → active, sociable, likes parties, many friends
