PSYCH101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Big Five Personality Traits, Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Paul Wehr

Document Summary

Personality: as a characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that is unique to each individual, and remains relatively consistent over time and situations. Idiographic approach: (cid:272)(cid:396)eati(cid:374)g detailed des(cid:272)(cid:396)iptio(cid:374)s of a spe(cid:272)ifi(cid:272) pe(cid:396)so(cid:374)"s u(cid:374)i(cid:395)ue personality characteristics. : ex) trying to understand a specific person ex: why your cousin is so weird. : helpful for understanding yourself and your social world. : can be applied to the full range of human experience. : ex) criminal profilers may focus on a detailed study of a serial killer in order to help police in their investigation. Nomothetic approach: examine personality in large groups of people, with the aim of making generalizations about personality structure. : trying to understand the factors that predict certain behaviours across people in general. : allows psychologists to examine what types of people are more or less likely to engage in certain behaviours which is an important step toward being able to change behaviours of societal importance.