Personality Foundation

Determinism

belief that all behavior is caused and is therefore not free

What is empiricism?

The contention that an attribute is determined by experience rather than by genetics.

What is the belief within epistemology regarding empiricism?

All knowledge is derived from sensory experience.

Environmentalism

belief that the determinants of behavior are found in the environment instead of in the person

Epistemology

Study of the nature of human knowledge

What is epiphenomenalism?

The contention that mental events are the by-products of bodily events.

In epiphenomenalism, what causes mental events?

Bodily events cause mental events.

Can mental events cause bodily events in epiphenomenalism?

No, mental events cannot cause bodily events.

How are mental events treated in the analysis of human behavior according to epiphenomenalism?

Mental events can be ignored in the analysis of human behavior.

Hedonism

Contention that the major motive in life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Heuristic function of a theory

Theory's ability to generate new information

One task of the personality theorist -human nature

To specify the nature of human nature.

Human nature

Qualities that characterize all humans

Idiographic Research

intense study of a single person

Individual Differences

Important ways in which humans differ from one another.

One task of the personality theorist -individual differences

To describe and explain individual differences.

Interactionism

The contention that the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind.

Interactionism - mind/body relationship

The mind and the body are causally related.

Introspection

Self-examination. Directing one's thoughts inward to discover the truth about one's self.

Mind-body problem

problem of specifying how something mental (cognitive) can influence something physical, such as the body, and vice versa

Nativism

Contention that an attribute is determined by genetics rather than by experience.

Nativism-empiricism controversy

(also called Nature-Nurture controversy) argument concerning the extent to which an attribute, such as intelligence, is influenced by inheritance as opposed to experience. Nomothetic research. study of groups of individuals.

Paradigm

Term used by Kuhn to describe a theoretical viewpoint shared by many researchers

Parallelism

Contention that an environmental event causes both mental and bodily reactions at the same time.

Parallelism -mind/body question

bodily and mental phenomena run parallel to each other and are therefore not causally related.

Person Variables

Variables contained within persons thought to be responsible for their behavior.

What exemplifies person variables?

Traits, habits, memories, information-processing mechanisms, and repressed early experiences.

Persona

Latin word for "mask."

Physical Monism

(also called materialism). Contention that no mind-body problem exists because no mind exists. No mental events occur, only physical events

Principle of Falsifiability

(also called the principle of refutability). Poppers contention that a scientific theory must make risky predictions; that is, it must make predictions that could conceivably be false and, if so, would refute the theory

Principle of Verification

the stipulation that scientific propositions must be capable of objective, empirical testing that is available to any interested person

Rationalism

Belief that knowledge can be gained only by exercising the mind, ( thinking, deducing, or inferring)

Risky Predictions

Predictions that run the risk of being incorrect. According to Popper, for a theory to be considered scientific it must make risky predictions.

Science

Epistemological pursuit that combines the philosophical schools of empiricism and rationalism.

Scientific Theory

Combination of the philosophical schools of rationalism and empiricism, with two major functions: 1- to synthesize (explain) many observations, 2- to generate new information.

Self

Concept employed by several personality theorists to account for the facts that human behavior is smooth running, consistent, and well organized. The concept of self has also been used to explain why we are aware of ourselves as individuals.

self-actualization

situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential.

Situation variables

those variables found in the environment thought to be responsible for behavior

Synthesizing function of a theory

a theory's ability to organize and explain several otherwise disjointed observations

Teleological Behavior

purposive behavior