PSYB30H3 Chapter 1: Chapter 1 Notes
Document Summary
Personality psychology is the scientific study of the whole person. The ultimate goal of personality psychology is to construct a scientifically credible account of psychological individuality. Personality psychologists often study individual differences in people. Most common procedure for quantifying individual differences in dispositional traits is by using self- report questionnaires. The big five trait categories are: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Trait attributions are useful because they tell us about trends in behaviour over time and across different situations, settings, and contexts. Characteristic adaptations are contextualized facets of psychological individuality that speak to motivational, cognitive, and developmental concerns in personality. Theories of human motivation, which essentially speak to the question of what people fundamentally want or desire in life. Theories of cognition and personality underscore the role of cognitive factors values, beliefs, expectancies, schemas, plans, personal constructs, cognitive styles in human individuality.
