Personality Research Methods
This type of reliability should be high when we are assessing traits, but low when we are assessing states.
What is test-retest reliability? [What other type of reliability did we discuss?]
What is a publication bias?
Significant results are much easier to publish than non-significant ones. [Why is this problematic? What effect does the publication bias have on researcher's decisions about running replication studies? Why do researchers need to publish so much?]
A group of researchers assessed levels of the Big Five in 15 year olds. Many years later, they obtained criminal records for their sample. They found that lower Agreeableness at age 15 was associated with more extensive criminal records. What is the dependent variable in this study?
Extensiveness of criminal records. [What type of data is this? What are the advantages & disadvantages of this type of data?]
Describe 2 common biases in our research procedures that reduce generalizability.
What are gender biases, conscientiousness bias, and WEIRD samples. [Make sure you can explain how those biases "work." How can we improve generalizability?]
This research method has pretty poor generalizability
but is great for coming up with new ideas about people and their personality.
What is the Case Method? [What are the two other
types of methods? What can we use them for? What
can and can't they tell us?]
What is the projective hypothesis?
The projective hypothesis says that our personality exists outside of our awareness, but that it will leak out when we are faced with ambiguous or neutral stimuli. [How does this hypothesis relate to the Rorschach's and Thematic Apperception Test's items?
How is the validity of these measures?]
Explain Funder's 3 Laws in your own words.
Here are his words: 1) “Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well” 2) “There are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous.” 3) “Something beats nothing, two times out of three.”
Why has Null Hypothesis Significance Testing recently come under fire by personality psychologists?
NHST is based on the probability (p-value) that you would get your results even if there was no important relationship between your variables. (IOW: if p < .05 then there is a less than 5% chance
that you would find a relationship in your sample that wasn't "real" in the population.) However, these cut-offs are arbitrary and don't tell us anything about whether the finding has "real-world" importance.
Design the "best" assessment for Thrill-Seeking. Choose two types of data to gather in your study and justify your choices.
Many possible answers -- just be sure you can back up your answers by using what we know about the advantages and disadvantages of each type of data.
Researchers find a correlation of .26 between a personality variable and an outcome in a total sample of 600 participants, half of whom received a training program. Produce the BESD for this correlation -- show all your math. Then, give an example of an outcome for which it would be "worth it" to seek out a program that targets the personality trait.
Ultimately, the math should show: 150 + [(26/2)*3] = 189 and 150 - [(26/2)*3] = 111, with the benefits seen in the Training Program Group. Many possible answers for the outcome that is "worth it." [Can you
explain what this finding means?]