Welcome to Psych of Personality! Please fill out the info sheetPowerPoint PresentationFirst Day TopicsThe Things Personality Psychologists StudyDefinitions of Personality (Funder)Definitions of Personality (Gosling)Definitions of Personality (Larsen & Buss)Definitions of Personality (McAdams)Let’s summarize some of the ideas expressed in the definition:Slide 10Slide 11Activity: What makes a hero?The Goals of Personality PsychologySlide 14Basic Approaches to PersonalityBasic ApproachesSlide 17Slide 18Basic Approaches: Competitors or Complements?Advantages and Disadvantages of Personality PsychologySlide 21Slide 22Pigeonholing Versus Appreciation of Individual DifferencesSelected OutcomesGraded ComponentsAnticipated Grading (%)First Readings (Learn@UW)Welcome to Psych of Personality! Please fill out the info sheetInstructor Stephanie Federspiel, [email protected]. Amelia Cuarenta [email protected], D. C. (2016). The Personality Puzzle (7th Ed.). (ISBN: 978-0-393-26514-9). FREE 21-DAY TRIAL ELECTRONIC VERSION https://digital.wwnorton.com/puzzle7First Day Topics•What do personality psychologists study •How is personality defined scientifically•Video activity•Discuss the goal(s) of personality psychology and how this leads to the basic approaches•Advantages and disadvantages of personality psychology•Overview of graded componentsThe Things Personality Psychologists Study•Psychological triad: Thought, feeling behavior•Overlap with clinical psychology–Both have unusual goal of describing & understanding individuals, the whole person. (although research is often narrow & comparative). –Normal vs. extreme patterns of personality•Overlap with social psychology–Sociality as human nature vs. individual differences–Situations as equalizers vs. something distinguishingDefinitions of Personality(Funder)•“An individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms—hidden or not—behind those patterns” (p. 5)•An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavingDefinitions of Personality(Gosling)•Those characteristics of individuals•that describe and account for•temporally stable•patterns of affect, cognition, and behaviorDefinitions of Personality(Larsen & Buss)•Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms •within the individual •that are organized •and relatively enduring •and that influence his or her interactions with and adaptations to the environment.Definitions of Personality(McAdams)•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 stories,• complexly and differentially situated in culture.Let’s summarize some of the ideas expressed in the definition:•Something inside the person and enduring•Both a description (patterns/consistency) and an explanation (mechanisms)–There is variability across individuals!•Functional: how you engage with your environment(s).•Personality addresses challenges of adaptation.•Personality psychology concerns how each person is….–like every other person–like some other people(“individual differences”)–unlike any other person10Human universalsHuman variation!Human uniqueness.Not shared with any other11ALL THE SAMELIKE SOME OTHERSAND UNIQUEActivity: What makes a hero?•Why might a person behave heroically?•Is someone who behaves heroically in one situation more likely to behave heroically in another situation?•Is it easier to think of dispositional (person) or situational explanations for heroic behavior?The Goals of Personality Psychology•Explain the whole person in his or her daily environment–Mission: Impossible•Think of an important behavior that you performed recently and ALL of the reasons for that behavior.Most Personality Psychologists Focus on one thing…Basic Approaches to Personality•Approaches, paradigms or domains of knowledge•Trait approach: how people differ psychologically•Biological approach: understand the mind in terms of the bodyBasic Approaches•Learning and cognitive approach: how behavior changes as a result of rewards, punishments, and other life experiences–Classic behaviorism: focuses on overt behavior –Social learning: learning through observation and self-evaluation–Cognitive personality: focuses on cognitive processes including perception, memory, and thought. Often, these are generative mechanisms!Basic Approaches to Personality•Approaches, paradigms or domains of knowledge•Psychoanalytic approach: unconscious mind, motives, and internal mental conflict.•This tradition has also informed cognitive approaches examining differences in perception, motivation, emotion. Some mechanisms represent “unconscious” knowledge.Basic Approaches•Phenomenological approach: focus on people’s conscious experience of the world–Cross-cultural: how the experience of reality varies across cultures–Humanistic: how conscious awareness produces uniquely human attributes; understand meaning and basis of happinessBasic Approaches: Competitors or Complements?•Not mutually exclusive•They address different questions•Each ignores many key concerns •One Big Theory (OBT)–It’s difficult to do everything wellAdvantages and Disadvantages of Personality Psychology•Goal is to account for the whole person and real-life concerns–Advantage: inclusive, interesting, and important –Disadvantage: overinclusiveness or unfocused research•Basic approaches–Advantage: good at addressing certain topics–Disadvantage: poor at addressing other topics or ignores themPersonality Psychology is divided & fragmented in several ways…Advantages and Disadvantages of Personality Psychology•“Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well.” (p. 10)–Funder’s First Law–Also seen in individuals–What is something you really like about your best friend? Does this same characteristic ever cause problems?Pigeonholing Versus Appreciation of Individual Differences•Other areas of psychology treat all people as if they were the same•Personality psychologists emphasize individual differences–Negative: pigeonholing–Positive: leads to sensitivity and respect for