Personality and individual differences

What is personality

The dynamic organisation inside the person

What are the two approaches to studying personality

Idiographic and Nomothetic

Define idiographic approach

• Focuses on the individual and describes personality characteristics

• Sees each person as having a unique personality

• Uses mostly qualitative methods to produce case studies and tends to be used more clinically

Define nomothetic approach

• Identifies personality characteristics that occur consistently across groups of people

• Studies large groups which then allows an average characteristic to be established

• Uses mostly quantitive methods(statistical based approach) to produce case studies

Who supported the clinical approaches to personality theories (idiographic)

• Freud

• Jung

• Ellis

• Humanistic approaches

Who supported the statistical based approaches to personality theories (nomothetic)

• Eysenck

• Five factor model

What is the basic criteria when evaluating personality theories

• Description (organises complexity of behaviours)

• Explanation (understanding the ‘why’ of behaviour)

• Empirical validity (generating predictions so it can be empirically tested+ valid)

• Testable concepts (concepts are defined precisely enough to be tested)

• Comprehensiveness (should incorporate and explain a wide range of behaviour)

• Parsimony (being careful with money/resources so it should be economical)

• Applied value (useful in a wider context)

• Heuristic value (how well something encourages thinking and promotes interest)

What is the link between personality and culture

• Culture shapes an individuals personality

• Personality theories must describe a whole range of cultures for them to be adequate and valid theories

• Cultural context is an important consideration in personality theories