How would you describe your personality?
a pattern of characteristic thinking, feeling
and behaving that distinguishes one person
from another and is stable over time
scientific study of the whole person in terms of
species-typical characteristics and individual
differences
species-typical characteristics concern how
individuals are alike
individual differences concerns how individuals are
different
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Unconscious
Sense of Identity
Biology
Conditioning and Learning
Cognitive
Traits and Skills
Spirituality
Interactions
Feel… attraction towards another…
Think… it would be wrong to act on this…
Behave… approach and avoidance…
lots of definitions and conceptions
1) lay circles
2) pop psychology
Personality?
extraverted and outgoing
warm and engaging
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http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/intro.asp
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http://www.deeshan.com/horochin.htm
Nomothetic
Ideographic
grand theories
◦ Freud, Millon
single dimensions
◦ locus of control, extraversion
Important for a variety of reasons
when working with others
Can personality change?
Begin to stabilize?
sociology
social psychology
psychology (personality psychology)
biology
Social Psychology
Abnormal Psychology
Development
Personality Psychology = the scientific study
of the whole person in terms of speciestypical characteristics and individual
differences
epistemology - the study of knowledge
rationalism = knowledge by exercising the mind
empiricism = one gains knowledge by sensory experience
Induction – “bottom up”
Deduction – “top down”
1) Observation
2) Theory
3) Testing
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1859 – Darwin
1880s – Galton
1900 – Freud
1906 – Pavlov
1917 – First self-report measure
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1919 – John B. Watson
1910 to 1930s – Jung, Adler, Horney
1920s – Kurt Lewin
1930s – Henry Murray
1930s – B. F. Skinner
1930s – Margaret Mead
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1930s
1940s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
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Allport
R. B. Cattell
Existential Psychology in US
Humanistic, Cognitive, Biological
Interactionist
Study of Gender Differences
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1970s
1980s
1980s
1990s
1990s
2000s
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Behaviorism begins to fade
Modern Interactionism
Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology
The Big Five
Theories become narrower
Neuroscience, Cognitive, Biological
anyone’s guess
Ideas move in a dialectical fashion
Current: empirical
Future: the opposite of empirical
Self-report: S Data
Peer-report: I Data
Life outcomes: L Data
Watch the person: B Data
Self-report
“S Data”
What person says about themselves
Questionnaires
Very common
Big Five
“S Data”
Advantage
◦ Best Expert
◦ Cause of what you do
◦ Simple and easy
“S Data”
Disadvantage
◦ 4 Sources of Distortion
Peer report
I Data - “Informant”
2) Peer report
Advantage
◦ Objectivity
Peer report
Disadvantages
Problem with closeness
leniency or harshness effect
Life Outcomes
L Data
How much money? Arrested? Graduate?
Life Outcomes
Advantage
◦ Objective
◦ Exactly what we study
◦ Link to psych variables
Life Outcomes
Disadvantage
◦ Behavior is multi-determined
Direct Observation
B Data
Natural Observation
“B Data”
Advantage
◦ Objective
◦ Quantifiable
◦ Natural actions
“B Data”
Disadvantage
◦ Hawthorne Effect
◦ Bias
Behavioral Data
L Data
Life Outcomes
Self-report
B Data
Person
S Data
I Data
Peer Report