Personality

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Personality
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Personality

• Persona

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Personality

• The dynamic and organized set of characteristics
  possessed by a person that uniquely influences
  his or her cognitions, motivations, and
• behaviors in various
• situations

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Personality Psychology

• The field within psychology which studies
  individuals and how they are
• Like every other human
• Like no other human

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Historical Ideas

• Hippocrates (460 380 BC)
• Plato (427 347 BC)
• Aristotle (384 322 BC)
• Galen (130 200 BC)
• Machiavelli (1469 1527)
• Descartes (1596 -1650)

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4 Humors
Character Humor Fluid Corresponding Trait in the Big 5
Irritable Choleric Angry yellow bile Agreeableness
Depressed Melancholic Depressed black bile Neuroticism
Optimistic Sanguine Content Cheerful blood Openness to experience
Calm Phlegmatic Slow moving Impassive phlegm Neuroticism
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Issues Around Personality Theory

• Dynamic Issues
• Individual Disposition
• How are we the same or different
• Determinism vs. Free Will
• Locus of Control
• Adaptation and Adjustment
• How do people adapt to lifes demands?
• Cognitive Processes
• Do our thoughts affect our personality?
• Unconscious vs. Conscious
• Culture/Society
• How does culture/society influence our
  functioning?
• Does our cultures/societys expectations for men
  and women have affect?
• Cultural Determinism vs. Cultural Transcendence

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Cultural Influences

• Personal Ads from US Newspaper
• 28 SWM, 61, 160 lbs. Handsome, artistic,
  ambitious, seeks attractive WF, 24-29, for
  friendship, romance, and permanent partnership.
• Very attractive, independent, SWF, 29, 56, 110
  lbs., loves fine dining, the theater, gardening
  and quiet evenings at home. In search of handsome
  SWM 28-34 with similar interests
• Personal Ads from the India Tribune, an American
  newspaper for immigrant families from India
• Gujarati Vaishnav parents invite correspondence
  from never married Gujarati well settled,
  preferably green card holder from respectable
  family for green card holder daughter 29 years,
  54, good looking, doing CPA.
• Gujarati Brahmin family invites correspondence
  from a well cultured, beautiful Gujarati girl for
  29 years, 58, 145 lobs. handsome looking, well
  settled boy

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Issues Around Personality Theory

• Developmental Influences
• Biological Influences
• Is personality inherited?
• Child Development
• Does childhood experience effect personality?
• Adult Development
• What experiences in adulthood influence
  personality?