Lecture 1: Introduction to Personality Psychology

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within an individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence their interactions with and adaptations to the intrapsychic (within the mind) , physical, and social environment.

Question 2

adaptive functioning

Answer 2

accomplishing goals, coping, adjusting and dealing with life challenges and problems

Question 3

three levels of personality analysis

Answer 3

• human nature (like others)
• individual and group differences (like some others)
• individual uniqueness (like no other)

Question 4

nomothetic research

Answer 4

statistical comparisons of individuals or groups (universal)

Question 5

idiographic research

Answer 5

research that focuses on a single participants and what makes that participant unique

Question 6

trait-descriptive adjectives

Answer 6

words that describe character traits or attributes of a person that are characteristic of a person and perhaps enduring over time

Question 7

theoretical approach

Answer 7

based on theoretical consideration, important traits are identified, described, structured, and measured (e.g. four temperaments)

Question 8

external approach

Answer 8

comparing groups of people and finding differences (e.g. Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory)

Question 9

lexical approach

Answer 9

based on the lexical/sedimentation hypothesis, all important individual differences have become encoded within the natural language over time. trait terms are important for communication with other people

2 criteria for identifying important traits:
- synonym frequency
- cross-cultural universality