Understanding yourself and others

Question 1

Personality definition

Answer 1

a person’s usual pattern of behaviours, feelings, and thoughts

relatively stable across time and situations

Question 1

Personality traits definition

Answer 1

fundamental aspects of ourselves that predict behaviours

ex. the big five

personality traits explain much of the variation in human personality

Question 2

What other factors influence personality

Answer 2

unconscious defence mechanisms, motivations, views of the self

Question 3

What determines personality

Answer 3

genetics, upbringing, peers, birth order, culture

Question 4

Reciprocal determinism

Answer 4

our experiences shape our personalities, and our personalities shape our experiences

our personalities can impact our environment (how ppl treat us) which can then reinforce our personality tendencies

Question 5

trait theory

Answer 5

personality is made up of traits that are already found in language

sir Francis Galton> first to consult a thesaurus for traits

Question 6

psychodynamics

Answer 6

seeks to capture the “whole person” including motivations driven by deeper impulses, fears, and unconscious mental structures

Sigmund Freud

Question 7

person-situation debate

Answer 7

do personality traits exist or do our behaviours simply depend on the situation we’re in? (ex. Milgram experiment made non-violent people act violently)

• people’s personalities and situations seem to predict behaviours equally
• personality affects behaviours much more than it does in unusual situations (ex. Nazi Germany, being in an experiment, etc.)

Question 8

person-situation interaction

Answer 8

when personality and situation work together to determine behaviour:

1) situations impact personality
2) people respond differently to the same situation
3) people choose their situations
4) personality impacts situations

1 + 4 > reciprocal determinism