PSYC 2130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: C. Robert Cloninger, Neurology, Projective Test
8 Jan 2020
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There"s no one right answer to a problem. Multiple competing theories used to answer the same questions. Have a hard time defining the phenomena that we"re interested in. When you ask a psychologist what do you mean exactly by personality , it"s harder to define. There"s no consensus on what the field is all about, about what personality is. Organic chemistry can be defined the same in every textbook. Mirrors what"s happening in psychology in general. People have occupied their own niches; psychology has branched. Each and every psychology professor inhabits their own area of expertise. Natural sciences have vertical growth; not true in the psychological sciences. Most broad and sweeping theories in all of psychology. Better thought of as philosophies of the person. The way freud conceptualized the person is much different from skinner. All the models we talk about are formal attempts to explain personality, why people are different, why no two individuals are exactly alike.
