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• 5 Major Perspectives on Personality

  • Trait Theories
  • Psychodynamic Theories
  • Behavioristic Theories
  • Social Learning Theories
  • Humanistic Theories
• Trait Theories


  Attempt to learn what traits make up personality and how they relate to actual behavior
• Psychodynamic Theories


  Focus on the inner workings of personality, especially internal conflicts and struggles
• Behavioristic Theories


  Focus on external environment and on effects of conditioning and learning
• Social Learning Theories


  Attribute differences in perspectives to socialization, expectations, and mental processes
• Humanistic Theories


  Focus on private, subjective experience and personal growth
• Persona


  A mask worn by an actor
• Personality Types


  A discrete category into which a person can be sorted
• Personality Traits


  An enduring personal characteristic that underlie a person's reactions to a variety of situations
• Theory


  A scientific theory is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
• The ultimate goal is understanding of individuals
• Epistemology


  A branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge. How do we know that we know something?
• Speculation


  A scientific speculation of course
• Hypothesis


  An educated guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested using the scientific method
• Deductive Reasoning


  A scientific investigator can derive testable hypotheses from a useful theory and then test these hypotheses
• Taxonomy


  Classification of things according to their natural relationships
• Psychology of Science


  A subdiscipline of psychology which studies the personality traits of scientists
• Hippocrates' Four Humors


  • Phlegm (related to water, with moist and cold qualities)
  • Blood (related to air, with moist and warm qualities)
  • Yellow Bile (related to fire, with dry and warm properties)
  • Black bile (related to earth, with cold and dry properties)
• Galen's Four Temperaments


  • Choleric
  • Melancholic
  • Sanguine
  • Phlegmatic
• Reliability


  Consistency of responses to an assessment device
• Validity


  Refers whether an assessment device measures what is intended to measure
• Motives


  Something that causes us to act or behave to reach a goal or desired endpoint
• Traits


  A stable characteristic of personality
• Cognition


  The mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension
• Context


  The background stimuli that accompany some kind of foreground event
• Two Basic Methods in Personality

  • Idiographic (person centered; studies the within-subject organization of personality)
  • Nomothetic (variable centered; studies relations between variables for the general population)
• personality trait is an enduring personal characteristic that underlie a person’s reactions to a variety of situation.
• A personality types is discrete category into which a person can be sorted .
• Epistemology – a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge. How do we know that we know something?
• Speculation - a scientific speculation of course
• Hypothesis – an educated guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested using the scientific method.
• Using deductive reasoning - a scientific investigator can derive testable hypotheses from a useful theory and then test these hypotheses. 
• Taxonomy – classification of things according to their natural relationships.
• Psychology of Science – subdiscipline of psychology which studies the personality traits of scientists.
• Sanguine - These people are playful and impulsive. They are constantly active and always optimistic. They have a good sense of humor, are entertaining and easily amused. They are also expressive and affectionate. They build relationships easily and are trusting of others.
• Phlegmatic - but they can be seen as almost the opposite of sanguine temperaments. However, it is possible to have a primary type of sanguine and a secondary type of phlegmatic, or vice versa.
• Melancholic - When most people hear the word, they think of depression. However, the temperament type is not necessarily depressed so much as they are cautious, People with the temperament type are detail and quality-oriented. They are obsessed with finding what is right rather than being right all the time. 
• Validity: refers whether an assessment device measures what is intended to measure.
• Choleric - the rarest of the four primary types. In particular, females with the type as their primary temperament are extremely rare. People with a temperament are results-oriented. They make goals and stick to them. They are driven to succeed and tend to stay positive with constant forward movement. They face opposition head-on with the mindset of getting results.
• Reliability: consistency of responses to an assessment device.