PSYB30H3 Lecture Notes - Personality Psychology, Learned Helplessness, Big Five Personality Traits
PSYB30 - Introduction to Personality
Lecture 1 - Personality Psychology
Readings: Chapter 1
Lecture 1 - Personality Psychology
What is Personality?
● Word stems from “persona”
○ Latin for “mask”
Personality Defined
● Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is
organized and relatively enduring and that influences his or her interactions with, and
adaptations to, the environment (including the intrapsychic, physical, and social
environment)
○ Long lasting
○ Inherent (permanent) to the individual
● How consistent or stable is personality based on your personal experience with friends,
family members, and your knowledge about yourself?
○ Based on the context
● Is personality basically consistent or stable over time, or is personality basically
changeable over time
○ Biological approach: personality is influenced by your genes and genes are
stable
■ E.g., if you were an easy going baby you will be easy going throughout
life
○ If you do not experience stressors your personality will not change but if you are
exposed/experience stressors then it will affect your personality
○ Core enduring traits that are adaptable
3 Levels of Personality Analysis
1. Human Nature
○ How we are “like all others”
■ Everyone is alike/how we are like others
■ Typical to all species/commonalities between everyone
○ Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and
possessed by nearly everyone
2. Individual and Group Differences
○ How we are “like some others”
○ Individual differences refer to ways in which each person is like some other
people (e.g., extraverts, sensations-seekers, high self-esteem persons)
○ Group differences refer to ways in which the people of one group differ from
people in another group (e.g., cultural differences, age differences)
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■ Making comparisons
3. Individual Uniqueness
○ How we are “like no others”
○ Individual uniqueness refers to the fact that every individual has personal and
unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world
○ Individuals can be studied nomothetically or ideographically
■ Nomothetic research involves statistical comparisons of individuals or
groups, requiring samples of participants on which to conduct research;
applied to identify and learn more about universal human characteristics
or dimensions of individual or group differences
■ Idiographic research focuses on a single person, to identify general
principles that are manifest in a single life over time; often results in case
studies or psychological biography of a single person
● Freud’s work used an idiographic approach by using case studies
A Fissure in the Field
● The gap between the human natural level of analysis, and the analysis of individual and
group differences has not yet been resolved
● This translates into a gap between grand theories of personality (human nature level of
analysis) and contemporary research in personality (individual and group differences
level of analysis)
Grand Theories of Personality
● Attempt to provide universal account of the fundamental psychological processes and
characteristics of our species
● Statements about the universal core of human nature lie at the center of grand theories
of personality, such as Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Contemporary Research in Personality
● Most current personality research addresses ways in which individuals and groups differ,
not human universals
● Personality psychologists specialize in a particular domain, such as biological aspects of
personality or how culture impacts personality
Bridging the Fissure: The Notion of Domains of Knowledge
● One way to make sense of the vast amount of research in many different areas of
personality is to appreciate that this research occurs along several key domains of
knowledge
Domains of Knowledge
● Domain of knowledge is specialty area of science and scholarship, where psychologists
have focused on learning about specific and limited aspects of human nature
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Document Summary
Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organized and relatively enduring and that influences his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the environment (including the intrapsychic, physical, and social environment) Is personality basically consistent or stable over time, or is personality basically changeable over time. Biological approach: personality is influenced by your genes and genes are stable. E. g. , if you were an easy going baby you will be easy going throughout life. If you do not experience stressors your personality will not change but if you are exposed/experience stressors then it will affect your personality. 3 levels of personality analysis: human nature. Everyone is alike/how we are like others. Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and possessed by nearly everyone. Individual differences refer to ways in which each person is like some other people (e. g. , extraverts, sensations-seekers, high self-esteem persons)
