PSY 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Learned Helplessness, Twin Study, Psychopathy

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1102
• Professor: Najwa Haddad

Document Summary

Personality is the typical way we think, feel, and behave. Ultimately, how are personalities developed: evaluating the trait perspective. Criticism: the trait perspective lists traits and describes them, it does not offer an explanation on how they are developed. Focuses so much on traits and considers them powerful predictors of behaviours, disregards situational/environmental factors that could also in uence and affect behaviours. Person-situation controversy: what in uences behaviour most? internal characteristics (traits) or situational factors. Mischel: traits are poor predictors, human behaviour is inconsistent (varies from one situation to the next) Epstein: if traits are used to predict the behaviour of a person in a speci c situation, then traits are poor predictors of behaviours. However, if trait are used to predict the behaviours of a person on average, across similar situations across time, then traits are good predictors of behaviours.