PSY 202 Chapter 14: PERSONALITY-CHAPTER14.docx
Document Summary
People"s typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality: what is it and how we study it. Social influence changes context in persons fundamental attribution error: tendency to attribute too much of others behaviour to their dispositions including personalities and not enough to situations that confront. Trait: relatively enduring predispositions that influence our behaviour across many situations. Nomothetic approach: approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behaviour of all individuals. (most modern research) Attempts to derive principles that explain thinking, emotions and behaviours of all people. Idiographic approach: approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person. (history of a person) (most case studies). Genetic factors: regardless of how and by whom we are raised (learning experiences) our personalities have been linked to biological parents make up. Shared environmental factors: experiences that make individuals within the same family more alike.
