Personality

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Personality

• Introductory Issues

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Personality Defined

• 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).

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3 Levels of Personality Analysis
Every human being is

• like all others Human nature level
• like some others Individual/Group Differences
• like no others Individual Uniqueness Level

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Human Nature Level

• The traits and mechanisms of personality that are
  typical of our species and are possessed by
  everyone or nearly everyone

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Individual and Group Differences Level

• Ways in which each person is like
• some other people

Risk takers
Worriers
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Individual Uniqueness Level

• Every individual has personal and unique
  qualities not shared by any other person in the
  world

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Current Issues in Personality

• Grand Theories of Personality
• vs.
• Contemporary Research in Personality

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Grand Theories of Personality

• Primarily address the human nature level of
  analysis
• Dont represent contemporary research in the
  field of personality psychology

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Contemporary Research in Personality

• Most studies address the ways in which
  individuals and groups differ
• Studying personality psychology needs to be more
  than just covering current research topics

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Current Issues in Personality

• Appropriate Units of Personality
• Traits
• Motives
• Cognitions
• Which traits, motives, cognitions, etc.

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Current Issues in Personality

• Nomothetic scientific, analytic, common units
• Vs.
• Idiographic individual level, study individual
  lives in depth

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Current Issues in Personality

• Are people consistent over situations?
• Are people stable over time?

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Six Domains of Knowledge

• Biological
• Intrapsychic
• Cognitive-Experiential
• Dispositional
• Social and Cultural
• Adjustment

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Six Domains of Knowledge
Biological Domain Humans are collections of
biological systems that provide the building
blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion
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Six Domains of Knowledge
Intrapsychic Domain The mental mechanisms of
personality, many of which operate outside the
realm of conscious awareness
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Six Domains of Knowledge
Cognitive-Experiential Domain Our thoughts,
feelings, beliefs and desires shape our
personality
Do I see myself as having a successful career?
Am I a good person or evil?
What makes me fearful?
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Six Domains of Knowledge
Dispositional Domain Deals centrally with the
ways in which individuals differ from one
another More statistical than other domains
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Six Domains of Knowledge
Social and Cultural Domains Personality
doesnt merely reside within the head and nervous
system, but affects, and is affected by, the
social and cultural context.
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Six Domains of Knowledge

• Adjustment Domain
• Certain personality features are related to poor
  adjustment
• Studying disorders of personality deepens our
  understanding of normal personality

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Summary

• Theories serve as a guide for researchers
• Theories organize known findings
• Theories allow us to make predictions
• Theories are more than just beliefs
• Theory and research are bound together