PSYC 361 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Absenteeism, Extraversion And Introversion, Big Five Personality Traits
23 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Some types of differences prove very useful for helping us predict and understand human behavior. Individual differences (id) dissimilarities between or among two or more people: goal of early psychology was to discover general principles of human behavior (this is still important today) Quickly became apparent that people differ in capacities, proficiency, and capabilities. Differential psychology scientific study of differences among people: james cattell developed methods for measuring and quantifying intelligence. Developed mental tests (first intelligence tests: psychometrics practice of measuring an unobservable characteristic and placing it on a scale or metric. Approaches: experimental vs. differential: experimental generalizes people as a whole, differential is centered on person as an individual, experimental approach - all people share common, fundamental similarities. Are people more nervous when talking to attractive people: differential psychology identifies useful characteristics (id) of an individual that help explain a person"s behavior.
