Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Define personality |
-a set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that i organized and relatively enduring and that influences his or her interactions with, and adaptions to, the environment (including intrapychic, physical, and social environment)
-characteristic or qualities to describe how people are different from each other, or similar |
|
|
Personality trait
How many traits are there? |
-an average of what we usually are, moderately stable overtime
-millions of trait adjectives we use to describe people, a lot of the words for the same thing |
|
|
Mechanisms of personality |
-similar to traits, except that the term mechanism refers more to the processes of personality -leads to different outcomes
inputs -> decision making -> outputs |
|
|
within the individual |
-traits and personalities come within us -personality is something a person carried with him or herself over time from one situation to the next |
|
|
organized and relatively enduring |
-organized means that the psychological traits and mechanisms for a given person are not simply a random collection of elements -personality is organized because the mechanisms and traits are linked to one another in a coherent fashion -have many traits to varying degree -these traits are organized -depends on the environment, and the traits, they will be exhibited in a certain way -stable over time (relatively enduring) |
|
|
Personality has influences |
-personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on people's lives -personality affects how you think about yourself -affects how you/whether you interact with other people -influences a wide variety of context and domains |
|
|
Personality affects interactions in the environment
Perception, selection, evocations, manipulations |
-person-environment interaction is complex -choose what environment we put ourselves into -how someone acts toward you will evoke a response, may be the situation/ their personality
perception- refers to how we "see" or interpret, an environment selection- describe the manner in which we choose situations to enter- how we choose our friend, hobbies, college classes, careers evocations- are the reaction we produce in others, often quite unintentionally manipulations- are the ways in which we intentionally attempt to influence others |
|
|
Adaptions to the environment
.... the environment
---- traits are relatively enduring |
-how we adapt, cope, interact, react to changing environments/ problems we go through in life
.... physical environment, social environment (the challenges we encounter in our struggle for belongingness, love and esteem) Intrapsychic (within the mind)
-traits are stable over time |
|
|
3 levels of analyzing personality |
1. Human nature level - like all others
2. Individual and group difference level - like some others
3. Individual uniqueness level - like no others |
|
|
3 levels of analyzing personality
1. Human nature level -universals |
-like all others -similar within all people -ability to care for others: most people share -desire to fit in with a certain group: similar with most people -need to belong, capacity to love |
|
|
3 levels of analyzing personality
2. Individual and group difference level -particulars |
-like some others -males and females are similar and different -how is it different among groups -ways in which each person is like some people -differences among groups |
|
|
3 levels of analyzing personality
3. Individual uniqueness level -uniqueness |
-like no others -how are you like yourself -no 2 individuals have exactly the same personality |
|
|
Individual uniqueness level
2 sub approaches
(1) Nomothetic (2) Idiographic
|
(1) recognizes differences between people and use statistical methods -statistical comparisons of individuals or groups, requiring samples of subjects on which to conduct research
(2) research focuses on just one individual (more qualitative) -typically focuses on a single subject, trying to observe principles that are manifest in a single life over time |
|
|
The fissure in the field |
-human nature level (harder to examine) -individual uniqueness -mot contemporary research occurs here -gap between the human nature level of analysis and the analysis of the group and individual differences
|
|
|
6 domains of knowledge |
-a domain of knowledge is a specialty area of science where psychologists have focused on learning about some specific and limited aspects of human nature (1) dispositional (2) biological (3) Intrapsychic (4) cognitive-experimental (5) social-cultural (6) adjustment |
|
|
6 domains of knowledge
(1) dispositional |
-focuses on the number and nature of traits -links to all domains and focuses on how people differ -deals centrally with the ways in which individuals differ from one another |
|
|
6 domains of knowledge
(2) biological |
-views people as biological system that are the foundation for personality -some traits are more parable, is there a genetic component -neurotransmitters affecting personality -humans are collections of biological systems and these systems provide the building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion -genetics, psychophyiology and evolution |
|
|
6 domains of human nature
(3) Intrapsychic |
-largely pertain to mental mechanisms of personality outside of consciousness -different motives we have -desires we have -happens at an unconscious level |
|
|
6 domains of human nature
(4) Cognitive-experimental |
-pertains to cognition and subjective experiences of ourselves and others -thoughts and feelings, beliefs and desires about ones self and others -how you think, how you perceive information you take in, in the environment -how you understand yourself, self-concept -emotions, how you feel have a huge part in personality |
|
|
6 domains of human nature
(5) social-cultural |
-entails the view that personality is influenced by social and cultural contexts -do certain cultures have a higher level of certain traits? is culture universal? -personality affects and it affected by the social and cultural content |
|
|
6 domains of human nature
(6) adjustment |
-pertains to how we cope, adapt and adjustment to various forms of change and event -changes in our environments, events themselves (traumatic), how do we respond |
|
|
Theory |
-guide for researchers -want to know whether we can confirm our theory -organizes known findings -makes predictions -based on systematic observations that can be repeated by others and yield similar conclusion |
|
|
Theories are evaluated by considering |
-comprehensiveness (take into account everything) -heuristic value (contribute to different types of findings) -testability (is the theory testable) -parsimony (have a few components, but don't want too much there- simple) -compatibility and integration (integrated into what we might know about different domains) |
|
|
Relating theory and research |
-theory is the starting point, theory leads to research, important to go out and test it, confirm or disconfirm some aspects of the theory -potentially go back and revise the theory, make modifications to see if they have more support with new theory theory <--> research |
|
|
Trait descriptive adjectives |
-adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people |
|
|
Standards for evaluating personality theories (5) |
1. comprehensiveness 2. heuristic value 3. testability 4. parsimony 5. comatability and integration across domains and levels |
|
|
standards for evaluating personality theories
1. comprehensiveness |
-does the theory do a good job explaining all the facts and observations within its domain? -theories that explain more empirical findings are generally superior to those that explain fewer findings -explain all or most facts |
|
|
Standards for evaluating personality theories
2. heuristic value |
-does the theory provide a guide to important new discoveries about personality that were not known before? -guides researchers to important new discoveries |
|
|
Standards for evaluating personality theories
3. testability |
-does the theory provide precise predictions that can be tested empirically? -makes precise predictions that can be empirically tested |
|
|
Standards for evaluating personality theories
4. Parsimony |
-does the theory contain few premises and assumptions (parsimony) or many premises and assumptions (lack of parsimony) -contains few premises or assumptions |
|
|
Standards for evaluating personality theories
5. Compatibility and integration across domains and levels |
-consistent with what is known in other domains; can be coordinated with other branches of scientific knowledge |
|
|
Grand theories of personality
Sigmund Freud: universal instincts of sex and aggression |
-a universal psychic structure of ID, EGO, and SUPER EGO (the universal stages of psychosexual development) |
|
|
Contemporary research in personality |
-most of the empirical research in contemporary personality addresses the ways in which individuals and groups differ |
|
|
Personality traits (definition) |
-characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other -average tendencies of a person |
|
|
Average tendency (definition) |
-tendency to display a certain psychological trait with regularity |
