What is Personality?
Personality Lab
January 14, 2011
Three Levels of
“Knowing Another Person”
Dan McAdams
• Personality Traits – psychology of the stranger
The Five Factor Model
aka The Big 5
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Neurotic vs. Emotionally Stable
Extraversion vs. Introversion
Openness to Experience vs. Traditional
Agreeableness vs. Disagreeableness
Conscientiousness vs. Impulsive
Three Levels of
“Knowing Another Person”
Dan McAdams
• Personality Traits – psychology of the stranger
• Life Tasks – what’s happening now
• Self-History – personal life story
What is Personality?
• Definition according to Funder – Personality is
an individual’s characteristic patterns of
thought, emotion, and behavior, together with
the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not –
behind those patterns.
• The ABCs of Personality – Affect, Behavior,
Cognition, and Motivation