Chapter 1

Question 1

What is Personality?

Answer 1

-pattern of behaviour, feelings, and thoughts; set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual; organized and enduring
-influences our interactions with intrapsychic (in mind), physical, and social environment; shaped by genetics, parents, peers, birth order, and culture
-predict how others will respond/act

Question 2

What are Psychological Traits?

Answer 2

-average tendencies of a person (ex: talks a lot, lighthearted, etc.)
-people have different views of the world and behaviours

Question 3

What are Psychological Mechanisms?

Answer 3

-three key ingredients: input, decision rules, output (like machine)
-ex: danger - if courageous then face danger - confront source of danger

Question 4

How can personality be measured?

Answer 4

-some of personality can be measured enough to predict behaviour
-but people act differently in different situations

Question 5

What are the 2 main viewpoints of personality?

Answer 5

-View 1: stable personality traits predict behaviour
-View 2: situation is much more important, and personality does not really exist (Milgram’s experiment)

Question 6

What is the Person-Situation Interaction?

Answer 6

-both personality and situation influence behaviour
-the person and situation work together in various ways to determine behaviour

Question 7

What are the factors of Person-Situation Interaction?

Answer 7

-personality can be impacted by experiences
-people respond differently to the same situation
-people choose their situations
-people change the situations they enter

Question 8

What is Personality Analysis?

Answer 8

-human nature
-individual and group differences
-individual uniqueness

Question 9

What is Human Nature?

Answer 9

-how we are “like all others”
-traits and mechanisms of personality that are: typical of our species; possessed by nearly everyone

Question 10

What are Individual and Group Differences?

Answer 10

-Individual differences: ways in which each person is like some other people (ex: extraverts)
-Group differences: ways in which the people of one group differ from people in another group (ex: cultures)

Question 11

What is Individual Uniqueness?

Answer 11

-how we are “like no others”
-every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by many other person in the world

Question 12

What is the gap in the field?

Answer 12

-gap between grand theories of personality (human nature level of analysis) and contemporary research in personality (individual and group differences level of analysis)

Question 13

What are the 6 main domains in personality research?

Answer 13

1. Dispositional
2. Biological
3. Intrapsychic
4. Cognitive-Experiential
5. Social and Cultural
6. Adjustment

Question 14

What is the Dispositional domain?

Answer 14

-deals with ways in which individuals differ from one another (all domains)
-focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions
-interested in: the origin of individual differences; how these develop over time

Question 15

What is the Biological domain?

Answer 15

-core assumption: humans are collections of biological systems which provide building blocks for behaviour, thought, and emotion
-focuses on personality: behavioural genetics; psychophysiology; evolutionary effects

Question 16

What is the Intrapsychic domain?

Answer 16

-deals with mental mechanisms of personality (many which operate outside conscious awareness)
-classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis (includes works on repression, denial, projection, and motives for power, achievement, and affiliation)

Question 17

What is the Cognitive-Experiential domain?

Answer 17

-focuses on cognition and subjective experience (conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires about oneself and others)
-self and self-concept: goals we set and strive to meet
-emotional experiences, in general and over time

Question 18

What is the Social and Cultural domain?

Answer 18

-assumption: personality impacts, and is impacted by, cultural and social contexts
-cultural differences between groups
-individual differences within cultures: how personality plays out in the social sphere (including sex and gender differences in personality processes, traits, and mechanisms)

Question 19

What is the Adjustment domain?

Answer 19

-personality plays a key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to events in daily life
-personality linked to: health outcomes & problems in coping and adjustment