PSYB30H3 Lecture Notes - Personality Psychology, Verbal Behavior, Heredity
PSYB30 - Introduction to Personality
Lecture 1 - Personality Psychology
Readings: Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Introduction to Personality Psychology
Trait-Descriptive Adjectives - adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people
Personality Defined
● Personality - the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are
organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and
adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments
Personality is the Set of Psychological Traits
● Psychological Traits - characteristics that describe ways in which people are different
from each other or are similar to each other
● Talkativeness
○ A talkative person is that way from day to day, from week to week, and from year
to year
○ Overtime those with the trait of talkativeness tend to emit verbal behaviour with
greater frequency than those who are low on talkativeness
○ Describe the average tendencies
● 4 Questions Research on Personality Traits Asks
○ How many traits are there?
■ How many fundamental traits are there
○ How are the traits organized?
■ Organization, or structure, of traits
○ What are the origins of traits?
■ Concerns the origins of traits - where do they come from and how they
develop
■ Does heredity influence talkativeness?
■ What sorts of cultural and child-rearing practices affect the development
of traits such as talkativeness?
○ What are the correlations and consequences of traits?
■ Correlations and consequences of traits in terms of experience,
behaviour, and life outcomes
■ Do talkative persons have many friends? Do they gave a more extended
social network to draw upon in times of trouble? Do they annoy people
who are trying to study?
● Why Psychological Traits Are Useful
○ They help describe people and help understand the dimensions of difference
among people
○ They help explain behaviour
○ They can help predict the future
○ Personality is useful in describing, explaining, and predicting differences among
individuals
■ Personality traits describe, explain, and predict differences among
persons
Personality is the Set of Mechanisms
● Personality Mechanisms - like traits, except that the term mechanisms refers to the
processes of personality
○ Most psychological mechanisms involve an information-processing activity
○ E.g., someone who is extraverted may look for and notice opportunities to
interact with other people
● 3 Essential Ingredients of Personality Mechanisms: Inputs, Decision Rules, and Outputs
○ A psychological mechanism may make people more sensitive to certain kinds of
information from the environment (input), may make them more likely to think
about specific options (decision rules), and may guide their behaviour toward
certain categories of action (outputs)
■ An extraverted person may look for opportunities to be with other people,
may consider in each situation the possibilities for human contact and
interaction, and may encourage others to interact with him or her
● Not all of our traits and psychological mechanisms are activated at all times
● At any point in time, only a few are activated (e.g., courageousness, only
activated under particular situations)
Personality is Within the Individual
● Within the Individual - personality is something a person carries with him- or herself over
time and from one situation to the next
● We carry with us the same personalities from situation to situation in our lives
● Important sources of personality reside within the individual and, hence, are at least
somewhat stable over time and somewhat consistent over situations
Document Summary
Trait-descriptive adjectives - adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people. Personality - the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments. Psychological traits - characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other or are similar to each other. A talkative person is that way from day to day, from week to week, and from year to year. Overtime those with the trait of talkativeness tend to emit verbal behaviour with greater frequency than those who are low on talkativeness. 4 questions research on personality traits asks. Concerns the origins of traits - where do they come from and how they develop. Correlations and consequences of traits in terms of experience, behaviour, and life outcomes. They help describe people and help understand the dimensions of difference among people.
