Chapter 1 - Personality Theory in Context

Question 1

implicit personality theories

Answer 1

intuitively based theories on human behavior that we all construct to help us to understand both ourselves and others

Question 2

Problems implicit theories

Answer 2

• APPEAR to work well but are FLAWED,
• evaluation of the situation is flawed, - based on casual and non scientific observations/ chance observations

Question 3

Lay definition of personality

Answer 3

elements of description or judgment made about a person when they are in social settings (linked to implicit personality theories)

Question 4

Allport’s definition of Personality

Answer 4

“Dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts and feelings”

Question 5

Allport’s definition - Dynamic organization

Answer 5

process that is continually adjusting, adapting –> personality as an active, responsive system, organized in some kind of structure

Question 6

Allport’s definition - psychophysical system

Answer 6

refers to both mind and body

Question 7

Allport’s definition - Person’s characteristic pattern

Answer 7

relatively stable

Question 8

Allport’s definition - behavior, thoughts and feelings

Answer 8

central component influencing, and being discernible in a wide range of human experiences and activities

Question 9

psychological construct

Answer 9

mental concept that influences behavior via the mind-body interaction –> personality describes a psychological construct

Question 10

aims of studying personality

Answer 10

• seek to explain motivational basis of behavior / aim to provide descriptions or categorizations of how individuals behave

Question 11

term “personality”

Answer 11

from latin word “persona” = mask,
commonly used term: character or temperament

Question 12

approaches to studying personality

Answer 12

idiographic vs. nomothetic

Question 13

Idiographic approach

Answer 13

• focus on the individual, describes variables within the individual, studying 1 individual at time;
• differences bigger than similarities
• single case study method
• mainly qualitative research
  + depth of understanding individual
  – difficult to make generalizations

Question 14

Nomothetic approach

Answer 14

finite set of variables which describe personality
- goal: to identify these universal underlying variables
- concentrates on similarities
- each individual can be located among this set of variables
- quantitative methods
+ discovery of general principles, predictive function
– fairly superficial, training needed

Question 15

Distinctions and assertions in personality research

Answer 15

personality characteristics : enduring across different social contexts (relatively stable over time)
- observable vs. unobservable aspects of personality
- conscious vs. unconscious aspects
- private vs. public persona

Question 16

Individual differences strand of personality

Answer 16

• Galton as founder of research on individual differences
• produced standardized normative values for a range of measures

Question 17

current conceptualizations of individual differences

Answer 17

• structural model (how individuals differ) vs.
• process model (gives depth to understanding the “how” bye asking why, where, when people differ)

Question 18

Basic criteria that a theory of personality should satisfy

Answer 18

• description
• Explanation
• Empirical validity
• Testable concepts
• comprehensiveness
• Parsimony
• heuristic value
• applied value