Quiz 3 Prep - Personality Psychology

personality psychology

focuses on individual differences in how people behave in situations

personality

a person’s consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving in their lives

difference between social psychology and personality psychology

social psychology focuses on how situations and social context affect behavior and personality psychology focuses on the individual differences in how people behave within those situations

approaches to personality

• trait approach

  • 5 factor model

• psychodynamic approach

  • focuses on internal conflict, unconscious processes, defense mechanisms

• social-cognitive approach

  • beliefs, schemas, and biases developed through past experiences — social learning

• humanistic approach

  • focus on positive potential in human growth

  • serves as a counter to psychodynamic approach and idea of figuring out what’s wrong with people

trait

stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterizes a person across time and situations

key questions of the trait approach

• What are the basic traits of personality? How do we measure them validly?

• What predictions can we make about behavior and life outcomes based on knowing people’s traits?

• How do traits develop?

  • Are they genetic or environmentally determined? Or both?

  • How stable/changeable are traits over time?

the Lexical hypothesis

all of the important dispositional differences in behavior are represented in our language

Five Factor Model

• Extraversion vs. Introversion

• Agreeableness vs. Antagonism

• Conscientiousness vs. undirectedness

• Negative emotionality vs. emotional stability

• Openness to experience vs. closed-mindedness

self-reported trait scores correlate with:

• peer reports

• objective/naturalistic behaviors

  • behaviors in the lab

  • patterns of real life behavior

• neurological and physiological correlates

• life outcomes