Cervoin And Pervin Summary

In the textbook, Cervoin and Pervin discuss the scientific study of people and the various parts to that. The most important aspect of this chapter was the data of personality psychology because they discuss the four different types of data categories. Those categories are L-data, O-data, T-data, and S-data. L-data, life record, is data from life history or events of an individual that are recorded such as medical history or a college transcript. O-data, observation data, is data from observations of an individual from important people in their life such as parents or friends. T-data, test data, is data from experiments on peoples performance on a certain task. S-data, self report data, is data that the individual reports for themselves. Of

O-data might not be the best choice because the observers might be bias or judgmental and report something differently than someone else would but multiple observers can focus in of specific behavior or report more general behavior. T-data is very objective but participants could alter their answers to what they think is “correct”. Lastly, S-data is easy and quick because the individual themselves is giving you the information but the participant could be altering the information to be able to show themselves off in a more positive light. Within the different data types, there are different measures that are taken into play, fixed and flexible. A fixed measurement is when everyone participating gets the same test and is scored the same way, which is most likely to be seen when collecting O-data and S-data due to questionnaires and personality tests. However, a flexible measurement is when something else is tested on rather than a set of questions, which is mostly seen in T-data due to various

Cervoin and Parvin explain that measurements must be reliable and valid in personality psychology for the research to matter. Reliability in research means that the observations of the data could be replicated and have the same outcome in various trials. This proves that the data is consistent. Validity in research means that the observations of the data is actually reflecting the area of interest the research is on. They are both extremely important and both must be present for the goals of research to be met. The strategies of research include different types of ways to obtain research. They are case studies, correlational studies, and experiments. Case studies is a way to study an individual in great depth through interaction with them. Case studies are the best way to study the full person but there could be a subjective interpretation of that data from the psychologist because of a relationship they build. Correlational studies are used when trying to link two variables together in how they interact with one another. Correlational studies are fast and easy to obtain a large number of samples but the reliability and validity of the questionnaires, which are used a lot, are questioned. Lastly, experimental research is where various variables are changed in a controlled environment. This type of research is useful because the manipulation of variables is extremely convenient