Week 1

Question 1

Trait Psychologists

Answer 1

Believe that traits are influenced by biological systems and that the environment carries little influence

Question 2

Behavioral Psychologists

Answer 2

Focus on how the environment shapes personality, but also must focus on why people behave consistently in certain ways

Question 3

What is Personality?

Answer 3

• An individuals constellation of consistent behavioral traits and feelings
• A disposition to behave in a particular way across a variety of situations
• Relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people, making them unique but comparable

Question 4

Gordon Allport

Answer 4

• One of the fist to populate the idea that people have different traits that we measure to predict behaviour
• How we think/feel is driven by traits which are composed of biological systems
• Theorist > Empiricist

Question 5

Allport’s Definition of Personality

Answer 5

A dynamic organisation, inside the person or psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings

Question 6

Aspects of Personality

Answer 6

• Consistent
• Biological
• Processes
• Causal
• Characteristic
  -Displayed in many ways

Question 7

Etymology

Answer 7

• The word personality comes from the Greek word ‘persona’
• Derived from Greek theatre where actors wore a mask to embody a specific character
• Simplistic and Unidimensional
  -Earliest cultural reference to personality

Question 8

Galen’s Theory

Answer 8

• Greek Doctor living in Roman times
• Proposed a theory that an excess in one of the four bodily humours produces a certain personality type
• Biology of the theory is outdated, the idea that certain behaviours indicate certain personality types is astute

Question 9

The Sanguine Humour

Answer 9

• Excess of Blood
• Characterised by a healthy look and rosy cheeks
• Cheerful, optimistic, comfortable with his/her work, pleasant to be around

Question 10

The Choleric Humour

Answer 10

• Excess of yellow bile
• Characterised by yellowish complexion and tense muscles
• Aggressive, impulsive, a quick/hot temper

Question 11

Phlegmatic Humour

Answer 11

• Excess of phlegm
• Characterised by coldness with shaking hands with them being like shaking hands with a fish
• Slowness, laziness and dullness

Question 12

Melancholic Humour

Answer 12

• Excess of black bile (doesn’t exist)
  -Sad, depressed and pessimistic

Question 13

Hans J.Eyesenck

Answer 13

• Proposed a tri-dimensional personality structure
• The 2 core personality dimensions; extraversion and neuroticism provide the basis for a classification similar to that of Galen