PSYB30H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: 16Pf Questionnaire, Psychoticism, Nomothetic
Document Summary
Chapter 2 personality traits: a good theory. Behavioural residue: when people live in an environment, they leave behind traces that hint at the personality of the person. : describe a person s typical style of thinking, feeling, acting in different kinds of situations and at different times. Temporary states (emotions), attitudes, physical attributes are not considered traits. Traits are measured over a continuum a continuous stretch from low to high. They can t be directly measured (like height/weight) so psychologists view them as hypothetical concepts. Two approaches to the study of personality traits. Idiographic: goal is to understand personality of a single individual with all of the idiosyncrasies/characteristics that make them unique. Nomothetic: goal is to discover universals concepts that can apply to everyone by identifying traits that describe all people or can be applied to any person. Eysenck found that both approaches could be used to study a single person and develop a theory of personality from there.
