Week 1 - Introduction

Question 1

Which of the 2 following are associated with neuroticism?

Answer 1

cortisol and norepinephrine

Question 2

What 3 main issues do personality psychologists focus on?

Answer 2

1. structure of personality
2. causes of personality
3. consequences of personality

Question 3

What are the 3 stages of knowing?

Answer 3

1. The Garden of Eden - knowledge is clear, certain and absolute from authorities, must accept knowledge
2. Anything Goes - authorities often disagree with each other, there can be no accepted truths,
3. Thinking Critically - some viewpoints are better because of compelling reasons not because authorities say so, prepared to modify opinions and beliefs

Question 4

Why can’t we make one big theory?

Answer 4

“different basic approaches address different sets of questions, and that each approach generally has the best answers for the questions it has chosen to address”

simple/effective theories on human behaviour since it is so vastly complex that you would need to know the underlying state of every molecule in the human body and calculate the interrelationships between each molecule

Question 5

What are animal applications to personality research?

Answer 5

Dogs best suited to certain tasks = eg. drug and explosive detection, can we find dogs that have a personality well suited to certain occupations?

Most dogs can detect bombs/drugs in high intense and overstimulated environments like an iraqi warzone

Used to predominantly believe that dog breeds were the biggest determinant of a dog’s behaviour, but found huge variation in the data

Question 6

What is the Personality triad of personality?

Answer 6

how people think, feel and behave

Question 7

What is Funder’s first law?

Answer 7

Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well

Example: Certain traits may be expressed in both positive and negative ways, eg. perfectionism may be both inspiring/hard working/creative, and also destructive/cruel/strict/relentless

Question 8

What are the main advantages and disadvantages of personality psychology?

Answer 8

1. Advantages - study of individuals and real life problems
2. Disadvantages - overinclusive and unfocused research, some argue studying personality pigeonholes people and is too implausible to study

Question 9

How does personality psych differ to other types of psychology?

Answer 9

Statistical psychology considers individual differences from the mean to be ‘error terms’ and many branches like cognitive/social categorise people as one