TASK 1 - PERSONALITY MEASUREMENTS Flashcards
self-reports
= S-data
- inferring individual’s personality on the basis of the responses; often mixture with self-ratings
- -> ask the person series of questions about his/her actions, thoughts, feelings in various situations
- structured and objective: same questions and same answers for each person –> makes meaningful comparisons possible
self-ratings
= overall rating of individual’s level of a personality trait
- more direct indication of personality trait than only self-report
observer/informants-reports
= I-data
= asking someone else (someone who knows individual well) for individual’s behaviour, thoughts, feelings
direct observation/behavioural measures
= B-data
= observe a person’s behaviour of interest directly to estimate level of the trait
= observing frequency or intensity with which individual performs behaviour
- naturalistic or laboratory setting
biodata/life outcome data
= L-data
= obtain some records of the person’s life which seem likely to be relevant to an individual’s personality (cell phone as sociability)
advantages of self-reports
- self knowledge: most informative and accurate information about oneself (introspective details)
- individual motivated to talk about themselves, identify with questions others do not
- straightforward
- inexpensive, quickness of a data collection administration –> large number of participants
- control most response biases
disadvantages of self-reports
- potential credibility issues
- not have enough self-awareness, self-knowledge
- response biases –> lack of credibility –> improve construction and instructions of questionnaire
1. social desirability
2. distorted self-perceptions –> self-enhancement
3. acquiescent responding (not considering what question is asking)
4. extreme responding (extreme ratings) - structure of questions: potential problems (question wording, context)
what is self-knowledge?
= accurate self-perceptions about how one typically thinks, feels, behaves, and awareness of how those patterns are interpreted by others
does self-knowledge exist?
YES, but not perfectly
- self-perceptions are tethered to reality
- self-views are not completely out of synch with how they are seen by close one’s
- people have some insights into fact that others see them differently
- -> we do not know our selves better than our closest friends/family
- -> blind spots in self-knowledge
advantages of informant-reports
- slightly more objective than self
- unique perspective of overt behaviours and actions
- personality across situations
1) principle of aggregation = receiving number of judgments from many people –> increases reliability
2) interjudge agreement = comparing ratings made by different observers –> correlations between self and observer ratings - practical + inexpensive
- complement to self-reports
- -> view of personality from the outside (reputation) + from the inside from self-reports (identity)
disadvantages of informant-reports
- inclination to present good impression
- not know as well as individual knows him/herself (no access to internal motives, feelings, thoughts)
- difficulty of uncooperative informants, dishonest answers
- (same) response biases
- enhancement (diminishing) biases
- fundamental attribution error
advantages of behavioural measures
- directly observing behaviour of interest
disadvantages of behavioural measures
- less practical; effort, time and money intensive
- ethical issues (manipulating situations)
- laboratory setting: lack of representativeness of general actions, demand characteristics, social desirability, ethical concerns, only once (specific situational factors rather than dispositional factors)
- naturalistic setting: expensive and time-consuming
experience sampling (ES)
= people are asked several times a day to provide instant reports on momentary experiences
√ minimising time between occurrence and registration –> bypasses memory-related problems
√ relatively objective accounts of person’s daily experiences
x subjective recall of events (interpretation of events) + only recall what they are aware of
naturalistic observation
- immense amount of rich information about person’s life
- amount of data restricts to ideographic analysis
x intrusion into participants world –> influences behaviour
