Personality psychology chapter 1 what is personality psychology

Chapter OneWhat Is Personality Psychology?. What Is Personality Psychology?... Suggests internal origins of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors Personality psychology emphasizes the role

Chapter One

What Is Personality

Psychology?

What Is Personality

Psychology?

• Everyday meaning:

– Typically characterizes specific personalities – Typically characterizes specific people

• Formal meaning:

– Abstract construct

– Broadly applicable

Why Use the Construct?

• 1 Conveys a sense of consistency or continuity

– Across time

– Across situations

• 2 Suggests internal origins of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Personality psychology emphasizes the role of person

variables on behavior

Why Use the Construct?

Behavior Person Situation

Two Sources of Influence

Why Use the Construct?

• 3 Helps in predicting and understanding behavior

• 4 Captures a sense of personal

distinctiveness

A Working Definition

• “Personality is a dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical

systems that create the person’s

characteristic patterns of behavior,

thoughts, and feelings.”

—Gordon Allport (1961)

Key Features of the Definition

• Personality…

– has an organized structure

– involves active processes

– has psychological and physical components

– helps determine how people relate to the world – demonstrates patterns and consistencies

– manifests itself across a range of thoughts,

feelings, behaviors

Fundamental Issues in Personality

Psychology

• Individual Differences

– Represent differences in people

– Examples: aggressiveness, sociability,

optimism

• Intrapersonal Functioning

– Represents stable processes that underlie

thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

– Examples: goal or motivational processes

Theory in Personality

Purpose of a theory:

• Explain what is known

– Social learning theory: Helps explain

differences in aggressiveness

• Predict new information or events

– Biological theories of personality: Might

predict similarities in behaviors of parents and children

Interplay Between Theory and

Research

THEORY Theory guides research

RESEARCH

Research tests theory

-verifies

-suggests changes

What Characterizes a Good

Theory?

• Explains what is known

• Predicts what will happen (testable)

• Is based on multiple sources of information

• Is frugal in assumptions (parsimony)

• Has personal and intuitive appeal

• Is interesting

• Is provocative

Perspectives on Personality

• Individual theories of personality

– Attempt to describe human nature

– Have different orienting assumptions

– May be grouped by metatheoretical

perspective

– May have overlapping connections

– May be limited in scope (intentionally)

Specific Perspectives

Trait Stable qualities in people

Motive Motives that underlie behavior

Inheritance and evolution Personality is genetically based

Biological process Personality reflects the body and brain

Psychoanalytic Competition and conflict among internal forces Psychosocial Social relationships are paramount

Social learning Change as a results of experience

Self-actualization Natural tendencies toward self-perfection

Cognitive Mind imposes organization on experience

Self-regulation People are complex psychological systems that move toward goals

Additional Considerations in the

Study of Personality

• Assessment:

– Accurate characterization of individuals

– Important in order to conduct research

– Connection to real world applications (e.g., hiring, clinical assessment)

• Behavior change

– Specific predictions personality psychology makes about the way dysfunction may occur – Ways in which therapy and intervention may

be helpful