Psychology of Personality - Chapter 1

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key concepts, terms, and definitions from the lecture notes on personality psychology.

Personality psychology

The psychological study of the whole person, focusing on the big picture: a full-bodied person with a unique mind in a specific moment of time and culture.

Social actor

The aspect of personality traits that are shown in how one relates to others and the world; the social performance of the self.

Motivated agent

The part of a person that involves goals, values, plans, and beliefs—what one wants to accomplish in life.

Autobiographical authors

The life story one constructs to make sense of one’s life, an inner narrative about who one is and how one became that person.

Extraversion

A trait characterized by being outgoing, sociable, energetic, dominant, and reward-seeking; often linked to dopamine in brain processes.

Openness to experience

A trait involving curiosity, creativity, imagination, and openness to new ideas and experiences.

Personality trait

A broad, characteristic way a person acts, feels, or thinks that helps account for consistencies across situations.

Self-Report Test

A questionnaire in which individuals rate themselves on various traits; higher scores indicate higher levels of the trait.

Dopamine

The reward neurotransmitter thought to underlie some brain processes related to Extraversion.

Age 5-7 shift

A developmental transition where children develop advanced cognitive skills, rational thinking, future orientation, and motivation to pursue long-term goals.

Social Actor vs. Motivated Agent

0–5 years: social actor; 5–7 years: addition of motivated agent, enabling goal-directed behavior.

Psychoanalytic theory

Freud’s view that desires conflict and often operate unconsciously, leading to irrational behavior.

Unconscious

Mental processes outside conscious awareness that influence thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Humanistic theory

View that humans are rational and growth-oriented, seeking self-actualization (Rogers, Maslow).

Self-determination theory

Theory suggesting growth and fulfillment come from autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Power motivation

A recurring desire to influence things and have an impact; can be beneficial or harmful.

Narcissism

An extreme focus on the self, with entitlement and grandiosity; often linked to power motivation.

Narrative identity

An internalized, evolving story that explains how one becomes the person they are becoming, integrating past and imagined future.

Emerging adulthood

The period between mid-teens and twenties characterized by transition and experimentation with long-term goals.

Turning points: Agency

Episodes where the protagonist aims to have an impact and effect change in the life story.

Turning points: Communion

Episodes focused on warm, meaningful relationships with others.

Turning points: Redemption

Moments where suffering leads to growth or positive transformation.

Turning points: Contamination

Experiences that begin positive but end up ruined or spoiled, turning negative.

Unsystematic Observation

Starting point of developing a science; noticing patterns in human difference.

Theory

A set of interrelated statements proposed to explain phenomena and organize ideas into clear frameworks.

Hypothesis

A specific prediction about what should happen if a theory is true.

Context of discovery

The phase of seeking patterns and developing theories about reality.

Context of justification

Designing studies to test hypotheses and justify theories.

Gordon Allport

Founding figure of personality psychology; Harvard author of Personality: A Psychological Interpretation; argued for a unique, integrated person expressed through traits.

Nomothetic

Approach aiming to find general principles that apply across people, using large samples.

Idiographic

Approach focusing on understanding a single individual or case (e.g., life history).

Informants

People who know the subject well and provide ratings; used to supplement self-reports and reduce bias.

Peer ratings

Ratings provided by peers; can be more objective but still subject to biases; often combined with self-reports.

Open-ended verbal measures

Unconstrained responses (e.g., interviews) that capture nuanced traits but are time-consuming to analyze.

Naturalistic Observation

Observing behavior in real-world settings; can be clear and objective but time-consuming.

Experience sampling

Method to document daily experiences as they occur, often via beepers or prompts.

EAR (Electronically Activated Recorder)

A small device that intermittently records ambient sounds to sample daily life objectively.

fMRI

Functional MRI; measures brain activity by detecting oxygenated blood flow; useful but costly and not always clearly tied to psychological constructs.

Correlational design

Research examining relationships between variables without manipulation; cannot infer causation.

Correlation coefficient

A statistic (r) ranging from -1 to +1 indicating the strength and direction of a relationship.

Third Variable Problem

Unobserved variable C that accounts for an observed correlation between A and B.

Statistical significance

Probability that a result is not due to random chance; commonly p < .05 indicates significance.

p-value

Probability of obtaining the observed result if the null hypothesis were true; a threshold used to judge significance.

Replication

Repeating findings across studies to build confidence in conclusions.

Experimental design

Research in which a researcher manipulates one variable to observe its effect on another, enabling causal inferences.

T-test

Statistical test comparing means between two groups to determine if they differ significantly.

Debriefing

Explanation at the study’s end detailing purposes and any deception used.

Causation

A causal relationship where one event or variable directly affects another.