Personality Learning Objectives In this section of the course, students explore major theories of how humans develop enduring patterns of behavior and personal characteristics that influence how others relate to them. The unit also addresses research methods used to assess personality. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following: Compare and contrast the major theories and approaches to explaining personality (e.g., psychoanalytic, humanist, cognitive, trait, social cognition, behavioral). Describe and compare research methods (e.g., case studies and surveys) that psychologists use to investigate personality.

Personality Learning Objectives Identify frequently used assessment strategies (e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI], the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT]), and evaluate relative test quality based on reliability and validity of the instruments. Speculate how cultural context can facilitate or constrain personality development, especially as it relates to self-concept (e.g., collectivistic versus individualistic cultures). Identify key contributors to personality theory (e.g., Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers).

What makes you the way you are! Personality What makes you the way you are!

What is Personality? Hippocrates suggested 4 types of personality based on body fluid types. Choleric Depressed Sanguine Phlegmatic

Many modern pop-psychology writers and consultants use this model. What is Personality? Many modern pop-psychology writers and consultants use this model.

But wait!!!!! There’s more …. What is Personality? There are an unlimited number of ideas about personality. Let’s see what’s behind all this.

What is Personality? Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Cognition (Thoughts) Affect (Feelings) Behavior (Actions)

What is Personality? Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Thinking example: Do people tend to focus on the positive (optimists) or on the negative (pessimist).

What is Personality? Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Feeling example: Do people tend to experience intense emotions or not? Do they get angry easily? Are they especially sensitive to rejection?

What is Personality? Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Acting example: Do they tend to talk a lot? Do they usually go along with what other people want or do they insist on their own way? Are they neat or sloppy?

What is Personality? Personality does not refer to skills, abilities, or temporary states. Example: Just because someone can be an excellent musician, athlete or scholar, that doesn’t mean it is part of his/her personality.

What is Personality? Personality doesn’t include fleeting states like hunger, arousal, or mood. Just because a person happens to be happy at a given moment doesn’t mean it is part of his/her personality. That is why the definition says “relatively stable pattern.”

What is Personality? But do people’s personality change? Can you change your personality? In different situations? Over time?

What is Personality? The research suggests that when people go through major life changes—personality still remains relatively stable. There is mean-level change in personality during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, but not much rank order change.

What is Personality? No one would expect perfect stability from birth to death, but there is rank-order consistency over decades. The people who are the most extroverted, friendly, or emotional in their childhood also tend to be pretty extroverted, friendly, or emotional in middle and late adulthood.

Personality: An individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.