PSYC 332 Chapter 1-5: The Art and Science of Personality Development

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 332
• Professor: Richard Koestner

Document Summary

There is a sense in which every human life is a work of art: the product of the artist"s labor is a unique form. Every human life is profoundly shaped by forces beyond the artist"s creative purview, from forces of history to genetics, from gender to race to social class to the vagaries of chance. Everyday observations suggest to us that there are certain kinds of people out there, certain kinds of lives: science seems to confirm those observations. In recognizing the broad contours of our psychological individuality, we see how we are similar to and different from others: ex: i am kind of like my mother because we both worry a lot. From the systematizing perspective of psychological science, therefore, similarities and differences may be noted in: the kinds of persons we are, the paths we follow as we move through time.