intro

• Personality


  A pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behavior
• Traits


  • Contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of behavior over time, and stability of behavior across situations
  • May be unique, common to some group, or shared by the entire species, but their pattern is different for each individual
• Characteristics


  Unique qualities of an individual that include such attributes as temperament, physique, and intelligence
• Theory


  A set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
• Theory


  Relates most closely to epistemology, or the nature of knowledge
• Hypothesis


  An educated guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested through the use of the scientific method
• Theory


  Is a narrower concept than philosophy, but a broader term than hypothesis
• Theory and hypothesis


  Have a close relationship through deductive reasoning (going from the general to the specific) and inductive reasoning (going from the specific to the general)