Personality Theory, By Daniel Cervone And Lawrence A.

There are many different methods personality psychologists use to find ways of getting information that can strengthen their ideas about personality theory. Authors Daniel Cervone and Lawrence A. Pervin discuss some of the methods used in finding information by using the acronym “LOTS of data” in the textbook: L represents a person’s life record being used to find information about an individual’s personality, O represents their friends, family, and others observing the individual and reporting their observations to give information, T represents tests that are objective enough to provide great information about an individual, and finally S represents self-reported data given to the psychologist by the individual themselves (Cervone & Pervin

This was talked about in the textbook as well, showing that while self-report data is important and the most commonly used, it has its flaws when it comes to uncooperative people, people who want to be seen positively, people who don’t know how to answer the questions, and people who the questions in the questionnaire don’t apply to (Cervone & Pervin 2013). If a questionnaire is given to an inmate, let alone an inmate that is in a gang, or plans on being in a gang, or was once in a gang, the self-reported data is going to be a bit more difficult to get being that there are so many things that go into being in a gang; confidentiality being priority

Think of it like how big the mafia was in the early to late 1900s. They had such an impact on things that they were practically untouchable and could walk around amongst a population in either fear or ignorance. That is how it works today, a person’s natural desire to be a part of something can cause them to get into bed with the wrong people; especially a person who is socially isolated from their peers (Egen & Beadman 2011). Gangs offer comfort, money, protection, and even a seemingly nice lifestyle to one who is socially isolated or angry because usually said person would have nobody. The research done on the inmates that took part in the experiment showed that some of them were in gangs while they were in their youth, showing that it is more likely for an isolated kid or adolescent to make a commitment to a negative person who is seen as positive at the time (Egan & Beadman 2011). Research like this is important to the ways in which a person could help prevent a gang’s influence on a