Intro to TOP

• INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES


  individuals differ from one another
• TYPES


  Proposes that personality comes in a limited number of distinct categories (qualitative groupings). Such types are categories of people with similar characteristics
• TRAITS


  Characteristics that varies from one person to another and that causes a person’s more or less consistent behavior Permits a more precise description than types
• FACTORS


  Broader than traits but, like traits they are also quantitative in nature
• NOMOTHETIC APPROACH


  Groups of individuals are studied, often by comparing their trait or factor scores on personality tests and relating these scores to different behaviors or background experiences
• IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH


  Studies an individual one at a time, without making systematic comparisons with other people. Strictly difficult because any description of person implies comparison from others
• Personality DYNAMICS


  This refers to the mechanisms by which personality is expressed, often focusing on the motivations that direct behavior. Motivation provides energy and direction to behavior.
• ADAPTATION & ADJUSTMENT


  Personality encompasses an individual’s way of coping with the world, and adjusting demands and opportunities of the environment
• COGNITIVE PROCESSES


  The way we “think” and “label” experience and the ideas that we have about ourselves have substantial effects on our personality dynamics
• CULTURE


  Much remains to be done to adequately understand the role of social influences, but we can be sure that some motivations are shaped by culture
• PERSONA - theatrical mask worn by Roman act

  ors in Greek dramas
• Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that

  give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior; underlying causes

  within the person of individual behavior and experience.
• BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES


  Focuses on

  TEMPERAMENT which

  refers to consistent styles of

  behavior and emotional

  reactions that are present from

  infancy onwards
• CHILDHOOD & ADULTHOOD EXPERIENCES


  Focuses on the notion that

  personality develops over time.

  Experience, especially in

  childhood, influences the way

  each person develops toward

  his or her unique personality
• A theory is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
• THEORY and its Relatives (Philosophy, Speculation, Hypothesis, Taxonomy)
• CRITERIA of a GOODTHEORY

  -Generate research

  -Organize Data

  -Falsifiable

  -Guides Action

  -Internally Consistent

  -Parsimonious
• PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES

  States that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality.

  Events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious, and cause problems as adults.
• HUMANISTIC/EXISTENTIAL THEORIES

  Perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole person, and the uniqueness of everyone. It begins with the

  existential assumptions that people have free will and are motivated to achieve their potential and self-actualize.
• BEHAVIORAL THEORIES

  Behaviorism emphasizes the role of environmental factors in influencing behavior, to the near exclusion of innate

  or inherited factors. This amounts essentially to a focus on learning.
• COGNITIVE THEORIES

  This contends that human behavior begins with a person’s thoughts. Theorists study areas of perception, memory, language, thinking, etc.
• TRAIT THEORIES

  They rest on the idea that people differ from one another based on the strength and intensity of basic trait

  dimensions. There are three criteria that characterize personality traits: (1) consistency, (2) stability, and (3) individual differences.
• BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES

  Evolutionary psychology is the study of the ways in which the mind was shaped by pressures to survive and

  reproduce. Findings in this field often shed light on "ultimate" as opposed to "proximal" causes of behavior.
• DETERMINISM vs FREE CHOICE

  Are people’s behaviors determined by forces over which they have no control, or can people choose to be what they wish to be?
• PESSIMISM vs OPTIMISM

  Are people doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives, or can they change and grow into psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning human beings?
• CAUSALITY vs TELEOLOGY

  Do people act as they do because of what has happened to them in the past, or do they act as they do because they have certain expectations of what will happen in the future?
• CONSCIOUS vs UNCONSCIOUS Determinants of Behavior

  Are people ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it, or do unconscious forces impinge on them and drive them to act without awareness of these underlying forces?
• BIOLOGICAL vs SOCIAL

  Are people mostly creatures of biology, or are their personalities shaped largely by their social relationships?
• UNIQUENESS vs SIMILARITY

  Is the salient feature of people their individuality, or is it their common characteristics?