PSYB30H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Job Analysis, Relationship Counseling, Psychological Types
Document Summary
Chapter 4 theoretical and measurement issues in trait psychology. 3 important assumptions about personality traits: meaningful individual differences, stability or consistency over time, consistency across situations. How people are different from each other = personality trait. Degree of consistency in personality over time. Intelligence, emotional reactivity, impulsiveness, shyness, and aggression show high test-retest correlations. Personality traits that show a biological basis: extraversion, sensation seeking, activity level, shyness show consistency overtime. Overtime a trait might change substantially from childhood to adulthood. Rank order if all people show a decrease in a trait at the same rate over time, they might still maintain the same rank order relative to each other. If situations control how people behave, consistency is less promising. Challenged the idea that traits are consistent across situations: situationism if behaviour differs from situation to situation, then it must be situational differences, rather than underlying personality traits that determine behaviour.
