1. Personality Theories Chapter 11

2. Features of Personality Characteristic: must be seen in many or all people to be of interest or use Shyness – seen in some degree in all humans Consistent: must occur repeatedly Generally shy everywhere Unique: characteristic combine in an unmatched manner No two personalities are the same

3. Goals of Personality Theorists

4. Goal #1: Discover patterns in the way people behave Personality Traits: general ways of behaving that characterize an individual PT try to determine: What traits go together Why some traits are present and others not Why traits appear when they do

5. Goal #2: Explain the differences between individuals Behaviors may be explained in terms of motives What causes people to want to succeed?

6. Goal #3: Explore how people conduct their lives Most personality theorists began as psychotherapists Worked with people who had difficulty coping with everyday problems Developed ideas about living happily Try to explain why problems arise Why some struggle more than others

7. Goal #4: Determining how life can be improved People are not always 100% satisfied with their lives What are the proper goals of growth and change?

8. Personality theories try to make ideas about why people act in certain ways.

9. Personality Theories Psychoanalytic Behaviorists Humanistic Trait

10. Personality Test Link http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp Write 2 additional paragraphs 1 explaining how the test differs or is similar to what you wrote about yourself 1 answering the question: How might this explain why we study psychology?