Goal: Try to understand individual differencesTraditions that led to individual differences:ExperimentsDarwinMain Causes of Psychology-PersonalityPsychodynamic TheoriesSee the individual differences/person as involving conflicts betweenPhenomenal Logical TheoriesEmphasis on experiments and subjects awareness; guided by subjective awareness. Actions are a result of experience and awarenessTrait TheoriesDeal with consistencies in personality and where they come fromlong term stable aspects of personalityBehavioral TheoriesEmphasis on B.F. Skinner, theories that describe how the environment shapes behavior.Personality definedDynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems which determine his/her unique adjustment to the world – Allport, 1937Allport wrote the 1st text over psychology of personalityPsychological SystemsTemperament: refers to biologically based (innate), born individual differences.Temperament dimensionsActive vs. passivecalm vs. irritablealertness vs. obliviontrait (persistent way of behavior) CONSISTENTstate (temporary way of being) NOT CONSISTENTA “trait” could be a predisposition to a “state”Trait descriptions of personality account for 7% of English languageFundamental Attribution of ErrorsPeople tend to ascribe behaviors to a trait rather than the state. This isn’t accurate because human behavior is also influenced by someone’s stateCharacter: refers to certain aspects of someone that’s more ethical, morally correctMood: refers to an emotional condition/ form of behaviorThought of as a stateMood can be stable or fluctuate (labile)Disposition: refers to the instance when you enter into new situations, predisposed for certain things to occur. They are expectancies.Habit: refers to a fixed/ automatic way of responding. It involves behavior that occurs without full awarenessAttitude: refers to the evaluation of something elseDynamic OrganizationsCan be:Moment-to-Moment (psychodynamic)Cumulative (developmental)Longitudinal: studying people over timeCross-sectionalUnique AdjustmentFocuses on the individual difference rather than the universal laws in the study of personalityUniversal Law of affective facilitationJudgment is made faster with the presence of an emotional component, than neutral.“Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our own sense experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought” – Einstein, 1940Our own experience can be used as data & the logical uniform system of thought is a theoryDevelopment of a ScienceThomas KuhnPhilosophical speculationEmpirical explorationAdvances in methodology: tools one uses to gather dataEx: advances that have been made in the methodology of statsFormulation of theory: feedback processUnderstanding brain functionBasic Assumptions of Personality TheoriesDeterminism vs. free willIs human behavior the product of free will or is it determined?Ex: choosing to rob a bank vs. being held at gun point/ or being blackmailed to do it.Most theorists choose the side of determinismB.F. Skinner: change contingencies; people react based on contingencies; the solution would be to control contingenciesIdiographic vs. NomotheticAllport supported Idiographic theorySkinner supportAre people more alike than they are different or vice versa?Nomothetic: one set of rules apply to everyoneIdiographic: people are unique and different and therefore don’t follow the same rules.Temporal EmphasisDo I look in the past, present or future?Teleology: the future influences behavior in presentEx: going to class because it is believes it will help in the future.Freud thought looking in the past was the main predictor of ones actions (case of early development)Pheunomologists: look at the present; what’s going on right now? How do you experience/react to things in the present?Role of Consciousness (awareness)How much of behavior is determined by factors by which you’re aware?Pheunomologists: “all of it” consciousness is criticalFreud: talked about unconscious; most of what you do lies outside of your awarenessSkinner: didn’t care; he cared about contingencies not awareness, consciousness was irrelevantBalance as a normal stateEquilibrium state that people try to return toIs a normal state one of balance or change?Reductionistic vs. holisticHow microscopic of a level of analysis are you interested inHolistic: whole of person is more important than the sum of its partsReductionistic: the need to understand the parts to understand the individual/wholeSkinner favored the reductionistic approach; thought it was better the understand the personality by the sum of every behavior.Nature vs. NurtureThe role of environment s. genesNature: personality is determined upon conceptionNurture: the person is a “blank slate” that has the potential to be influenced by its environments and experiencesPersonal Factors of theoristWhat you’re exposed to shapes the way you think about peoplePerson vs. SituationFundamental attribution error ( tendency to attribute cause to a person rather than the situation)Normality vs. AbnormalityFreud: processes that make a person are the same processes that allow you to have a mental disorderSkinner: processes that lead to a disorder are the same to what leads you to individual differencesBoth Freud and Skinner agreed on this aspectHow continuous or discontinuous is abnormality?Measurement StrategiesFreud listened to dreams to understand personalityThe methods people used to measure personality are also differentContinuity of developmentGo through personality development through a series of stages and stepsLecture 1 Outline of Last Lecture I. Review of SyllabusOutline of Current Lecture II. Goal of Psychology of PersonalityIII. Main Causes of Psychology- Personality a. Psychodynamic theoriesb. Phenomenal Logical Theoriesc. Trait Theories d. Behavioral TheoriesIV. Personality Defineda. Allport’s Definition of Personality i. Psychological Systems1. Fundamental Attribution of Errorsii. Dynamic Organizationsiii. Unique Adjustment1. Universal Law of Affective FacilitationV. Development of ScienceVI. Basic Assumptions of Personality Theoriesa. Determinism vs. Free Willb. Idiographic vs. Nomotheticc. Temporal Emphasisd. Role of Consciousnesse. Balance as a normal Statef. Reductionistic vs. Holisticg. Nature vs. Nurtureh. Personal Factors of Theoristi. Person vs. Situationj. Normality vs. Abnormalityk. Measurement Strategiesl. Continuity of Development Current