Chapter 1

Question 1

What is the psychological triad?

Answer 1

How people think, feel and behave

Question 2

What are some definitions of personality?

Answer 2

• a characteristic pattern of thought and behaviour
• unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving
• • personality not always consistent**

Question 3

What is the goal of personality psychology?

Answer 3

to explain the whole person in their daily environment

Question 4

What are some approaches to studying personality?

Answer 4

1. trait approach: how people differ psychologically
2. biological approach
3. psychoanalytic approach: unconscious mind and internal mental conflict
4. learning and cognitive approach: change in behaviour from reward/punishment
   a) classic behaviourism: focuses on overt behaviour
   b) social learning: learning through observation
   c) cognitive personality: focuses on cognitive processes like perception, memory and thought

Question 5

What are some advantages/disadvantages of personality psychology?

Answer 5

1. Funder’s first law - great strengths could be great weaknesses
   advantage: inclusive, interesting, important
   disadvantage: overinclusive or unfocused
2. basic approaches
   advantage: good at addressing certain topics
   disadvantage: ignoring other topics
3. emphasizes individual differences
   advantage: respect for uniqueness
   disadvantage: pigeonholing (grouping according to characteristics)