PSYC 110 Study Guide - Big Five Personality Traits, Nomothetic, Twin Study
Document Summary
Validity means usefulness of scores for predicting something else. A statistical procedure that groups together related items on tests by analyzing the correlations among test scores. (ex: the big five personality traits) Each correlates with many personality dimensions for which our language has a word and none of these five traits correlates highly with any of the other five, so they are not measuring the same thing. They tend to be risk-takers, and the also have an increased risk of alcohol abuse and similar problems. It was based off of empirical evidence rather than theories, that people with certain disorders generally picked certain groups of answers. People rephrased some of the items, eliminated some, and added others to deal with drug abuse, suicidal thoughts, and other issues that did not concern psychologists in the 1940s. Because what would be considered abnormal in our society may be healthy and normal in another.
