PSY 0160 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Last Lecture I. Overview of syllabusOutline of Current LectureII. Personality History III. What is PersonalityIV. Theory BuildingV. Theory ConsiderationsVI. Multiple TheoriesCurrent LecturePersonality History Gordon Allport (1937)—initiated personality Psychologyo Personality: A psychological interpretation—his book, mark of formal start of personality as area of specialization within psychologyo More books written on personality after his booko Personality research began afterwardsWhat is Personality Personality—psychological qualities (have to do with mental events/aspects of being, thinking, feeling, behaving) that contribute to enduring and distinctive patterns of feeling, thinking, and behavingo Personalities endure, tend to be consistent across time but not exactly always thesameo Everyones personality is distinctive/different, what sets us aparto Developed throughout life, end of adolescence/end of is when personality is wellestablished o Patterns—similarities in how people think/feel/behave, perceive the world Human Universals—what is generally true about people, what is universal about peopleo What can personality theory tell us about people in general, what characteristics/are there ones that all people share Individual differences—how people are different from each other in any way, what is range of differences, is there a set of basic individual differences among everyone vs infinite differences Uniqueness of the individualTheory Building Scientific observation Systematico Systematic theory relates to itself in an organized manner—ideas aren’t fragmented but come together Testability o Is theory testable, be objective and gather scientific evidenceo Challenging because mental life is hard to study for personality Comprehensive o Does theory address all significant questions Applicable to practiceTheory Considerations Structureo Grouping of traits vs individual traits/aspectso Structure of each theory is different Process—how things change over time, how reactions and people are motivated, different processes within person Development—how did people get to be how they areo Genetics, environment, parents, peers, culture, socioeconomics Causes of psychological problems Informing interventions Multiple Theories Not one answer to all questions Different in how they developed and components How to evaluate
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