PSY234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thematic Apperception Test, Phineas Gage, Psychopathology
2 Jun 2018
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PSY234 – Week 1:
Personality –
• Individual differences in behaviour
• Consistency across different situations
Social psych –
• Reactions to situational influences
Social and personality may seem quite different, - BUT:
• They each draw on many of the same theories
• Research usually incorporates both situational manipulations together with
individual difference measures
• They each concern the science of how we think, feel and relate to one another
Criticisms of social and personality research:
• Research findings –
o When it comes to interpersonal attraction ‘opposites attract’
o Lottery winners are happier: their new wealth allows them to satisfy
more levels in Maslow’s needs hierarchy
o Olympic silver medalists take more joy in their achievement than do
bronze (2nd is greater reward than 3rd)
o Sad people are less accurate than happy people: pessimists are always
thinking of the worst
• Yet, all these criticisms are not accurate – there are findings that contradict all
Commonsense vs. science
• Does social and personality psych just document the obvious?
o We all have commonsense views of personality/social psych
▪ Based on personal experience
▪ But commonsense is sometimes right or wrong
o Hindsight bias – knew it all along
How is the scientific approach better than common sense?
• Theories are formulated based on empirical evidence
• A theory is an explanation that accounts for observed facts
• Hypotheses are implied by theories
• They are testable predictions that describe a relationship that might exist
between events
Personality;
Current psychodynamic theories –
• “Everyone, it seems, knows what personality is, but no one can precisely
describe it: hundreds of definitions are available” (Allport)
• Personality comes from ‘persona’ → mask; character
Defintions:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Individual differences in behaviour: consistency across different situations. Social psych : reactions to situational influences. Commonsense vs. science: does social and personality psych just document the obvious, we all have commonsense views of personality/social psych, based on personal experience, but commonsense is sometimes right or wrong, hindsight bias knew it all along. Current psychodynamic theories : everyone, it seems, knows what personality is, but no one can precisely describe it: hundreds of definitions are available (allport, personality comes from persona" mask; character. Defintions: personality is a particular pattern of behaviour and thinking that prevails across time and situations that differentiates one person from another, personality may be defined as the underlying causes within the person of individual behaviour and experience. Personality theories common factors: personality theories tend to address both , human nature (general factors) i. e. nomothetic, individuality (specific factors) i. e. idiographic.
