PS101 Lecture Notes - Theophrastus, Twin, Extraversion And Introversion
Personality (Chapter 12)
Personality types: what does the science say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZs86o1Q3eE
● Introvert / Extrovert
● Pessimist / Optimist → personality has dimensions
We are different
● Throughout time people have been intuitively aware of individual differences
We like some…
● That they like some people and not others
Historical Knowledge of Individual Differences
● Theophrastus wrote about different “characters” to try to describe individual differences
● Attempting to characterize people - their personalities
Definition
● Personality
○ Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that
characterize a person’s response to situations → consistency and distinctiveness
■ A collection of stable traits and characteristics
■ Varies from one individual to another
○ Comes from word persona - actors mask
How do we Measure Personality?
● Ask them? Ask others? Results of a test? Observe them?
Personality Assessment
● Interviews
○ Structured set of standardized questions
○ Note other behaviours - appearance, speech, patterns, etc
○ Drawbacks
■ Characteristics of interviewer can affect answers
■ Dependence on co-operation, honesty of interviewee
● Behavioural Assessment
○ Need explicit coding system
○ Aim is not solely to describe behaviour
■ Specific behaviour, frequency, specific situations, under what conditions
○ Interjudge reliability
■ High level of agreement among observers
● Personality Scales (Questionnaires)
○ Objective measures
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Personality types: what does the science say? https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=azs86o1q3ee. Pessimist / optimist personality has dimensions. Throughout time people have been intuitively aware of individual differences. That they like some people and not others. Theophrastus wrote about different characters to try to describe individual differences. Attempting to characterize people - their personalities. Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person"s response to situations consistency and distinctiveness. A collection of stable traits and characteristics. Comes from word persona - actors mask. Note other behaviours - appearance, speech, patterns, etc. Aim is not solely to describe behaviour. Specific behaviour, frequency, specific situations, under what conditions. Use standard questions and agreed upon scoring key. Advantage collect large amounts of data. Disadvantage validity of answers, validity of scales. Concern: have to identify what are the underlying traits that describe people. Trait has to be distinctive and consistent across situations. Numbers of traits measured varies by test.
