What is the ABC Triad?
Affect, Behaviour, Cognition
Why are people interested in personality?
1) It helps in predicting and understanding behaviour.
2) It captures a sense of personal distinctiveness.
What is Attribution Theory?
It explains why people behave in a certain way.
Heider (1958) Attribution theory? 2 categories?
1) Personal attributions
2) Situational attributions
Personal Attributions definition
You attribute a persons actions to something internal to that person.
Situational Attributions definition
You attribute a persons actions to factors that are external to that person.
Kelley’s Covariation Theory
- interested in which attribution people make.
- covaration principle
Covariation Principle
Tendency to attribute behaviour to factors that are present when the behaviour occurs, and absent when it does not occur.
What are the three types of covariation?
1) consensus - do other people react to the same stimulus in the same way?
2) distinctiveness - does the person react to other stimuli in the same way?
3) consistency - is the person’s behaviour towards the same stimulus consistent over time?
S+D in Social v.s Personality Psychology
+ research interests - both types are interested in thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals.
- social is interested in cross-situational variability. Personality is interested in stable traits and cross-situational consistency.
S+D Personality v.s. Common Sense or Intuition
+ topics or focus of interest (e.g. behaviour, relationships etc).
- personality psychology tests are common sense or intuition using the scientific method.
4 Limitations to Common Sense
- wrong
- contradictory
- too simple
- not so common
What did McFarland (1989) find out about PMS?
- people perceive a correlation between a negative mood and menstruation.
- BUT women’s self-related emotions do not change during the menstrual cycle.
Illusory Correlations definition
An overestimate of the association between factors that are not strongly correlated. e.g. PMS and moodiness.
Why are results perceived to be common sense?
Hindsight Bias:
- people spontaneously come up with reasons for the finding - psychological or physics.
- rationalising - can come up with valid reasons for almost anything.
Difference between individual differences and personality differences:
Individual - more physical things e.g. finance, gender.
Personality - overarching collection of things.
What is the purpose of a theory?
- explain what is known.
- predict new information or events.
What characterises a good theory?
- explains what is known.
- is based on multiple sources of information.
- testable.
- is frugal in assumptions - parsimony.
- has personal and intuitive appeal.
- is interesting and proactive.
What is needed as evidence in personality research?
- ratings by others (e.g. direct report by observer, peer ratings).
- self-reports (e.g. scales, inventories).
What is an indirect way to determine what a person is like?
- Implicit/Indirect Assessment (e.g. Implicit Association Test).
Issues with Personality Evidence:
- reliability (consistency or repeatability of measurement).
2 Methods to ensure internal consistency?
1) Split-half reliability.
2) Cronbach’s Alpha
What is inter-rater reliability?
Observations are used it is ideal to have multiple judges to avoid biases.
What is construct validity?
It indicates a match between operational and conceptual definitions.
