PSYC 100 Lecture 14: Chapter 14

• School: University of Illinois
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: M O' Brien

Document Summary

Personality: individual"s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Traits: stable and relatively enduring predispositions that influence our behavior across many situations. Nomothetic approach: approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behavior of all individuals, general. Idiographic approach: approach to personality that focuses on identifying unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person. Experiences that make individuals within same family alike. Experiences that make individuals within same family less alike. Twin studies show that numerous personality traits influenced by genetics. Evidence suggests that environment plays little to no role in adult personality. Adoption studies support relative influence of genetic factors on personality. Children more similar to biological parents over adopted parents. Important to remember that genes do not code for specific behaviors. Genes have indirect influence on traits, while environment influences how trails displayed in lives. All lacked two key criteria - reliability and validity.