A New Big Five: Fundamental Principles for Personality Psychology

Practice flashcards for the key concepts of personality psychology as discussed by McAdams and Pals, capturing their five fundamental principles for understanding human individuality.

What are the five big principles for an integrative science of personality according to McAdams and Pals?

1. Evolution and Human Nature
2. The Dispositional Signature
3. Characteristic Adaptations
4. Life Narratives and Modern Identity
5. The Differential Role of Culture

How do McAdams and Pals define personality?

Personality is an individual's unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature, expressed as a developing pattern of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and integrative life narratives.

What is the significance of the Big Five model in personality psychology?

The Big Five model organizes broad individual differences in social and emotional life into five factor-analytically-derived categories: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience.

What principle emphasizes that human lives are individual variations on a general evolutionary design?

Principle 1: Evolution and Human Nature.

What are dispositional traits?

Dispositional traits are broad, nonconditional, generally linear and bipolar dimensions of human individuality, like extraversion and agreeableness, which account for interindividual consistency across behaviors.

What are characteristic adaptations in the context of personality psychology?

Characteristic adaptations refer to more specific motivational, social-cognitive, and developmental constructs that are influenced by context and may change over time.

What is narrative identity according to McAdams and Pals?

Narrative identity is the internalized and evolving life story that individuals construct to provide their lives with unity, purpose, and meaning in a modern context.

How does culture influence personality according to the five principles?

Culture influences the expression of traits, shapes the content and timing of characteristic adaptations, and provides themes for personal narratives.

What does it mean that personality psychology has a historical mission?

It aims to provide an integrative framework for understanding the whole person, emphasizing human individuality and the complexities of personality.

What is the relationship between dispositional traits and characteristic adaptations?

Dispositional traits provide a broad outline of human individuality, while characteristic adaptations fill in the details and are more context-dependent and changeable.