PSYB30H3 Midterm: Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality Psychology
Document Summary
Trait-descriptive adjectives adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people. Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaption to, the intrapsychic, physical and social environments. The term personality comes from the latin word persona, meaning the mask people wear or the role they play in life. However, most psychologists use the term to refer to much more than the face or facade people show to others. Psychological traits are characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other. Also define ways in which people are similar to some others. Useful for 3 reasons: 1) describe people and help understand the dimensions of difference among people 2) traits are useful because they help explain behaviour and 3) help predict future behaviour.