chapter 13

• The concept of a good personality?

  start of 20th century (cultural shift), "good personality" is the 20th century concept. "stable and distinctive patterns of behavior that characterize an individual and his or her reactions to the environment."
• What are personality states?

  emotional reactions that vary from situation to another.
• What are personality traits?

  relatively enduring dispositions— tendencies to act, think, or feel in a certain manner in any given circumstance and that distinguish one person from another.
• What are personality types?

  general descriptions of people.
• What is self concept?

  refers to a persons self definition or, an organized and relatively consistent set of assumptions that a person has about himself or herself.
• What is a self report questionnaire?

  provided a list of statements and required subjects to respond in some way to each, such as marking “true“ or ”false” to indicate the statement applied to them.
• Deductive strategies; what is logical content strategy?

  original PI constructions, strategy (plain old logic). Uses reason and deductive logic in the development of personality measures.
• In logical content strategy, the content of the item?

  the trait being measured. write face valid items —> items looks what they are supposed to measure. e.g., Woodworth personal data sheet.
• Surveys rely on?

  people answering honestly, especially face valid items.
• Deductive strategies: what is theoretical content strategy?

  about the nature of the particular characteristic to be measured. Items must be consistent with the theory.
• Empirical strategies: what is criterion group strategy?

  collection of individuals who share a characteristic such as leadership or schizophrenia.
• Empirical strategies: in criterion group strateg, test constructors?

  select and administer a group of items to all people in the criterion group as well as the control group that represents the general population.
• What is the MMPI?

  Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: looked at mental health illnesses, had items discriminating for different personality features. (e.g., “I hear voices when I’m alone” —> schizophrenia face valid item.)
• MMPI was designed to?

  identify disorders, clinical scales (disorders), never diagnosed based on test score.
• The MMPI had a large?

  number of items (1,000), true and false items, takes long to complete. identifies criterion and control groups (both take the test).
• In the MMPI they only care about ?

  whether Items show distinguish between people have the mental illness and people who don’t. it is based on items that discriminate mental health symptoms.
• The MMPI was originally not a ?

  diverse sample cause it was made in Minnesota in the 1930s, their control group was people without illness diagnosis.
• MMPI GROUP: Hypochondriasis scale 1?

  fear with having an illness or something physically wrong with them, anxiety about having an illness. cynical look on life, excessive skepticism about people and things.
• MMPI GROUP: depression scale 2?

  intense sadness, low motivation, thoughts of harm, fatigue. dissatisfaction with life, social withdrawal.
• MMPI GROUP: hysteria scale 3?

  physical symptoms but no physical cause for it; actually, perceiving physical symptoms. NOT FAKING IT. (E.g., soldier freezing due to high stress of situation.) DONT report minor emotional problems due to conversion to physical symptoms.
• MMPI GROUP: psychopathic deviate scale 4?

  changed to anti social personality. narcissistic, impulsive, risk taking, low empathy. seek immediate gratification.
• MMPI GROUP: masculinity— femininity scale 5?

  homosexuality illness
• MMPI GROUP: paranoia scale 6?

  fear that someone is out to get you. delusions (believe it is true and is out of touch with reality) —> people are against them. POOR reality testing —> you’re in touch with reality. Blame others for their problem.
• MMPI GROUP: psychasthenia scale 7?

  anxiety, difficulty concentrating and making decision. E.g., test anxiety
• MMPI GROUP: schizophrenia scale 8?

  hallucinations, delusions — detachment from reality. feel alienate, isolated. NOT ALL DELUSIONS ARE PARANOID (e.g., thinking they are a gift from god to the world.)
• MMPI GROUP: hypomania scale 9?

  mania, excessive energy, accelerated speech and motor activity. impatient and easily frustrated (other people in their life are blocking their goal and slowing them down).
• MMPI VALIDITY SCALE: what is L scale?

  lie scale, denying minor flaws: faking good (denying everything bad) most normal things that people will admit to.
• MMPI VALIDITY SCALE: what is the F sclae?

  infrequency, malingering. faking bad or (severe symptomology)
• MMPI VALIDITY SCALE: what is the K scale?

  denial of problems, denying major flaws. empirically derived! will admit to minor stuff but will deny major stuff.
• MMPI VALIDITY SCALE: what is the TRIN scale?

  True Response Inconsistency
• MMPI VALIDITY SCALE: what is the VRIN scale?

  random, matched pairs — similar content.
• What are revisions of the MMPI-2?

  removes outdated language. large representative sample (census)
• What is factor analytic strategy?

  looking for core dimensions of personality (construct validity). usually start with logical approach (items). use FA to see what items hang together (single items = mostly error).
• What is the major criticims of the factor analytic strategy?

  approaches centers on the subjective nature of naming factors. each score on any given set of test or variables can be broken down into 3 component: common, unique, and error variance.
• The NEO Personality Inventory has the domains of?

  Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness
• NEO DOMAINS: what is neuroticism?

  emotional stability vs. negative emotions. high N = anxiety, fear, guilt, embarrassment. low N = emotionally stable, calm, even tempered, relaxed, better able to cope.
• NEO DOMAINS: what is extraversion?

  core is positive affectivity (thought it was related to positive mood because “why else would someone be outgoing?” high E = gregarious, assertive, upbeat, talkative, enjoy stimulation, optimistic. low E = reserved, independent
• NEO DOMAINS: what is openness?

  Accepting new ideas, being receptive. High O = affect intensity (how strongly you feel your emotions [negative and positive], prefer variety. Low O = congenital, planned, familiar experiences (report feeling emotions less intensely).
• NEO DOMAINS: what is agreeableness?

  not big on conflict, agreeable with most things. High A = altruistic sympathetic, valuing harmony. Low A = egocentric, competitive, mean, skeptical of others intentions.
• NEO DOMAINS: what is conscientiousness?

  more aware of things. High C = purposeful, determined, organized. Low C = difficulty getting organized, low attention to detail.