Personality Theory Flashcards
What is Personality?
In everyday language, the word personality refers to one’s social skills, charisma, and popularity.
However, scientists use the term to mean more than a person’s persona, or public image. To them, personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits or characteristics that give some consistency to a person’s behavior.
What is a Theory?
A theory is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses.
Why Different Theories?
Psychologists and other scientists generate a variety of theories because they have different life experiences and different ways of looking at the same data.
What Makes a Theory Useful?
A useful theory must (1) generate research-both descriptive research and hypothesis testing, (2) be falsifiable; that is, research findings should be able to either support of refute the theory, (3) organize data into an intelligible framework and integrate new information into its structure; (4) guide action, or provide the practitioner with a road map for making day-to-day decisions; (5) be internally consistent and have a set of operational definitions; and (6) be parsimonious, or as simple as possible.
Dimensions for a Concept of Humanity
Personality theorists have had different conceptions of human nature, and the authors list six dimensions for comparing these conceptions. These dimensions include determinism versus free choice, pessimism versus optimism, causality versus teleology, conscious versus unconscious determinants of behavior, biological versus social influences on personality, and uniqueness versus similarities among people.
