Chapter 1 Learning Objectives 1 What is personality Know the definition of personality as well as how it is different from Social Psychology and other related fields e g Developmental abnormal clinical counseling a Personality A unique set of consistent emotional cognitive and behavioral dispositions or tendencies b Personality psychology the scientific study of the whole person i It s distinguished from other fields by its focus on psychological individuality its tendency to examine relatively enduring rather fleeting and momentary characteristics of persons its interest in individual differences as manifested in adulthood and its focus on relatively normal healthy psychological functioning 2 What is the difference between personality traits and mechanisms a Personality traits Pg 5 The general internal and comparative dispositions that we attribute to people in out initial efforts to sort individuals into meaningful behavioral categories and to account for consistencies we perceive or expect in behavior from one situation to the next and over time i How a person feels acts on average b Personality mechanisms are how people process information i Interpreting a compliment 3 What are three purposes of personality traits a Describe behavior i They rear ended me b Explain behavior i They did it because they re reckless c Predict behavior i They ll probably do it again 4 What are the three components of personality mechanisms a Inputs i Becoming extra attentive b Decision rules c Outputs i Looking at your options i The actual behavior you decide on 5 What are the differences between personality traits characteristic adaptations and life stories a Personality traits describe what people do in general b Characteristic adaptations what people want and how they go about trying to get it c Life story speaks to what kinds of lives people are trying to make 6 What are the major components to each of these three terms a Personality traits are general internal and comparative dispositions that we b Characteristic adaptations Pg 8 conceptualized facets of psychological make individuality that speak to motivational cognitive and developmental concerns in personality the reconstructed past perceived present and anticipated future in order to provide a life with a sense of unity and purpose internalized and evolving narrative of the self that integrates c Life stories Pg 10 7 Know the three levels of personality analysis a Human nature i Personality components that pretty much everyone has 1 Ex the need to belong strong desire or motivation that leads you b Individual and group differences to interacting with others 1 Ways in which each person is similar to or different from others a Individual differences b Group differences i Being high low in sensation seeking i How people differ across groups 1 Culture age sex gender c Individual uniqueness i How each individual is different in the sense of the different combinations they have in their personality 8 Know what induction is a The process where a scientist moves from the concrete and Induction Pg 13 particular events that are discerned to the more abstract and general representations of those events 9 Be able to recognize an example of a case study a Case Study Pg 13 conducted over a substantial period of time an in depth investigation of a single individual sometimes 10 What are the three major steps to the scientific process What are the four tools a theory provides and the seven standards by which a scientific theory may be judged How are scientific theories evaluated and the steps to the scientific method used to evaluate them a Three steps to the scientific process 1 Unsystematic observation 2 Building theories 3 Evaluating propositions b Theories i Four tools 1 Abstract model or picture that serves as an easily envisioned representation for the structure of the theory 2 Conceptual terminology or set of names for key ideas and major classes of observations in theory 3 Set of correspondence rules that describe the relationships of observations in the theory 4 Hypotheses or testable predications that are logically derived from the correspondence rules ii Standards of judgment 1 Comprehensiveness theory that explains more is favored over one that explains less 2 Parsimony simplicity and straightforward answers are favored 3 Coherence logically and internally consistent 4 Testability the hypothesis presented by the theory has to be able to be tested empirically 5 Empirical validity testing should support the major claims 6 Usefulness those able to sole humanly significant problems are favorable over those less equal 7 Generativity theory needs to have the ability to generate new c Evaluation by the scientific method research and new theorizing i Theories step 2 that come from unsystematic observation step 1 should be empirically tested step 3 as the scientist moves from the context of discovery to the context of justification 1 Context of discovery Pg 13 and building theories in science 2 Context of Justification Pg 16 theory in science process of discovering new ideas process of testing ideas from a Scientists attempt to evaluate justify the truth of a statement proposed by a theory b Theory should be falsifiable i Theory should state exactly what observations would disprove the theory 11 Know the differences between correlational and experimental designs a Correlational design Pg 18 empirical designs that asses the extent to which two different variables relate to each other i Negative correlation when an increase in one variable is generally associated with a decrease in the other variable ii Positive correlation when an increase in one variable is generally associated with an increase in the other variable iii Zero no correlation there is no clear association between the two variables 1 Correlation coefficient numerical way of expressing the degree of correlation between the two variables 12 Be able to recognize examples of positive and negative correlations a Correlation coefficients range from 1 0 perfect positive correlation to 0 0 to 1 0 perfect negative correlation 13 Know the difference between nomothetic and idiographic approaches Allport s term for an approach to personality study that a Nomothetic Pg 22 seeks to discover general laws for all persons Idiographic Pg 22 focuses on the uniqueness of the individual case b Allport s term for an approach to personality study that i Would ignore general laws to discern the specific and
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