issues in the study of personality- lecture 2

Question 1

4 main approaches

Answer 1

1. psychoanalytic (freud)- does your childhood influence personality?
2. dispositional/biological (allport, eysneck, cattell, costa & mcrae)- are personality traits inherited?
3. behavioural/learning (skinner, bandura, mischel)- do you learn you personality and what from?
4. humanistic (rogers and maslow), cognitive (kelly)- do you havechoice about your personality?

Question 2

what is a personality theory

Answer 2

system of related ideas to explain development, structure and functioning of personality

Question 3

criteria for evaluating theories of personality

Answer 3

1. empirical validity
2. parsimony
3. comprehensiveness
4. internal consistency
5. testability
6. usefulness
7. acceptability

Question 4

empirical validity

Answer 4

what degree is the theory supported by evidence from observations

Question 5

parsimony

Answer 5

is it the simplest explanation possible

Question 6

comprehensiveness

Answer 6

how much bredth does the theory cover

Question 7

internal consistency

Answer 7

are its prepositions and assumptions consistent and fit togetehr in coherent larger explanation

Question 8

testability

Answer 8

how well and easily is the theory supported or refuted

Question 9

usefulness

Answer 9

do methods of personality assessment and techniques of inducing change provide a measure of the practical usefulness of the personality theory

Question 10

acceptability

Answer 10

must be accepted by other theorists

Question 11

criteria not acceted

Answer 11

1. correctedness
2. implicit theories of personality- own thoughts