PPE 3003 Personality Psychology Unit 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality Psychology Personality Defined Personality personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organized and relatively enduring and that influences his or her interactions with and adaptations to the environment including the intrapsychic physical and social environment o Traits Trait descriptive adjectives About 20 00 of them Average tendencies i e what does it mean to be outgoing An individual isn t always 100 their normal traits o Mechanisms Activated under particular conditions i e courage 3 ingredients inputs decision rules and outputs Inputs environment danger snake Decision rules optional If courageous face it if not run o Think of it as an if then statement Outputs behaviors RUN LIKE HELL o Within the Individual Inside the person Stable over time and consistent over situations o Organized and relatively enduring Not a random collection of elements Linked to one another in a coherent fashion Enduring over time Being angry in the moment trait of anger Being anger prone or hot tempered trait anger Shapes our lives Not passive beings responding to external forces Perceptions how we see the world Selections manner in which we choose situations to enter Evocations reactions we produce in others Manipulations ways we intentionally attempt to influence others Functional accomplishing goals coping adjusting Maladaptive traits may be functional o Influences o Interactions o Adaptations o Environment i e excessive worrying leads to lots of support from others Physical direct threats to survival Social compete with others for jobs romantic partners Intrapsychic within the mind private experiences and memory self esteem Types of Questions Personality Psychologists Ask How many traits are there How are traits organized What are the origins of traits What are the correlations and consequences of traits 3 Levels of Personality Analysis Human nature universal by nearly everyone Individual and Group differences particulars o How we are like some others o Individual differences o How we are like all others o Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and possessed Ways in which each person is like some other people e g extraverts sensation seekers high self esteem persons o Group differences Ways in which the people of one group differ from people in another group e g cultural differences age differences Individual uniqueness uniqueness o How we are like no others o Every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world o Individuals can be studied nomothetically or ideographically Six Domains of Knowledge Dispositional time Biological o Deals with ways in which individuals differ from one another and therefore cuts across all other domains o Focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions o Goal of those working in this domain is to identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals differ from one another o Also interested in the origin of individual differences and how these develop over o Humans are collections of biological systems and these systems provide building blocks for behavior thought and emotion o Behavioral genetics of personality o Psychophysiology of personality o Evolutionary personality psychology Intrapsychic o Deals with mental mechanisms of personality many of which operate outside conscious awareness o Classic and modern versions of Freud s theory of psychoanalysis including work on repression denial projection and motives for power achievement and affiliation Cognitive Experiential o Focuses on cognition and subjective experience such as conscious thoughts feelings beliefs and desires abut oneself and others Self and self concept Goals we set and strive to meet Emotional experiences in general and over time Social and Cultural o Personality affects and is affected by cultural and social contexts o Cultural differences between groups e g in social acceptability of aggression o At human nature level of analysis all humans have common set of concerns they struggle with in the social sphere Adjustment o Personality plays key role in how we cope adapt and adjust to events in daily life o Personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping and adjustment The Role of Personality Theory Personality research is often informed by personality theory Theory has several key purposes o Serves as a guide for researchers o Organizes known findings o Makes predictions about behavior and psychological phenomena that not one has yet documented or observed Theories Beliefs o Beliefs are based on leaps of faith o Theories are based on systematic observations Standards for Evaluating Personality Theory Comprehensiveness Heuristic Value Testability Parsimony Compatibility and integration among domains and levels CHAPTER 2 Personality Assessment Measurement and Research Design Sources of Personality Data Self report Data S Data o Information provided by a person such as through a survey or interview o Private access access to information that others don t have o S data personality tests Unstructured items open ended Structured items response options provided Likert scales o Limitations of S data People may not respond honestly People may lack accurate self knowledge Observer Report Data O Data o Information provided by someone else about another person o Key features of O data Provides access to information not attainable through other sources Multiple observers can be used to assess a person o Selecting observers Professional personality assessors People who actually know the target person Often in better position to observe target s natural behaviors than professional personality assessors Allows for assessment of multiple social personalities Because of relationship to target however observer may be biased o Naturalistic vs Artificial Observation Naturalistic observation Observers witness and record events that occur in the normal course of lives of the participants Has the advantage of being able to secure information in realistic context but at the cost of not being able to control events witnessed Occurs in artificial settings or situations Has the advantage of controlling conditions and eliciting relevant behavior but at the cost of sacrificing realism Artificial observation Test Date T Data o Information provided by standardized tests or testing situations
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