PSYCH 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Phlegm, Posset, Nomothetic
19 Sep 2018
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Group vs individual (nomothetic which means rule making or idiographic) Personality looks at understanding each individual but not applying this to the general population which is known as the idiographic approach. Personality shapes our behaviour and our cognitive perspective. Many large scale theories (lots of personality theories) Theories don"t guide research: two purposes in science which is to explain things, give purpose and secondly to guide research which is asking questions. Personality does not do either of the two mentioned above, better for explaining but not for research. Normally in science there is a hypothesis and a series of tests carried out to support it but in personality the application comes first. Early psychologists like rogers and freud were therapists who developed theories to guide their therapeutic work. These theories they made up weren"t tested (maybe a few were) All theorists were not scientists (therapists, clinicians, etc) To understand a theory, understand the theorists personality.
