Personality 3/28/11

What is personality? Dictionary: One’s character impression on others Embodiment of a collection of qualities Personal identity, existence as a self-conscious human being The essential character of a person Psychology: The characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors that are relatively stable in an individual over time and across circumstances

How have psychologists studied personality? From the psychodynamic perspective From the humanistic or person-centered perspective From a perspective that emphasizes types or traits From a perspective that emphasizes learning and cognition

Humanistic Approaches Emphasize personal experience and belief systems; people seek personal growth to fulfill human potential Positive psychology: new area that focuses on study of positive traits, characteristics, and happiness Example: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Type approaches to personality Based on the assumption that certain personality characteristics go together Personality types: Discrete categories based on global personality characteristics Examples: Introverts vs. extroverts, jocks, nerds, etc. Implicit personality theory: Our tendency to assume that certain characteristics go together and to therefore make predictions about people based on minimal evidence

Trait approaches to personality Emphasize individual traits and how those traits endure over time and across situations Emphasize that traits exist on a continuum, most people near the middle, few people on the extremes Trait theories have evolved over time Number of traits can range from 5 to 18,000 Five-factor theory = most prominent current theory

Five-factor theory The idea that personality can be described using five factors (“The Big Five”):