PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any image; any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Topics Covered Questions of Personality What Is the Personality System? What Is the Field of Personality Psychology? Why Study Personality? How Is this Course Organized?

What Are Your Questions? PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? What Are Your Questions? What Have You Wondered About Yourself? What Have You Wondered About Others? What Is Personality to You?

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Three Big Questions These inter-related questions (and others) tie ancient philosophy to contemporary personality psychology

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Who Am I? Origins Temple at Delphi… “Know Thyself” Socrates…Interested only in self-knowledge Secondary Realization It is hard to know oneself! Unconscious influences Today Implicit personality theory Personality psychology

How and Why are People Different? PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? How and Why are People Different? Origins Characterology: The literary study of different personalities Theophrastus: “The flatterer is a person who will say as he walks with another, “Do you observe how others are looking at you? This happens to no man in Athens but you.”’ Theophrastus (again): “The Garrulous man is one that will sit down close beside somebody he does not know, and begin talk with a eulogy of his own life, and then relate a dream he had the night before, and after that tell dish by dish what he had for supper. As he warms to his work he will remark that we are by no means the men we were, and there is a new ship in town, and…(description continues in orig.)”

How and Why are People Different? (Cont.) PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? How and Why are People Different? (Cont.) Origins (Continued) Humoural Theory: The attempt to find biological bases for individual differences Developed by Hippocrates; Galen Four Types Sanguine (even-tempered; blood) Choleric (irritable; yellow-bile Melancholic (depressed; black bile) Phlegmatic (low energy; phlegm).

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? How and Why are People Different? (Cont.) Contemporary Assessment of personality Mental measurement The study of individual differences

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? What Will My Future Be? Origins Since the ancient oracle at Delphi, people have wondered about their futures Contemporary Personality psychology tells us given characteristic, x how will x influence life outcomes?

Wundt’s Views: Psychology’s Job PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Wundt’s Views: Psychology’s Job Wilhelm Wundt: Founder of experimental psychology The discipline of psychology studies various mental systems one by one Sensation Perception Memory Etc.

Wundt’s Views: Personality’s Job PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Wundt’s Views: Personality’s Job ...to organize...

Analyzing Wundt’s Conception PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Analyzing Wundt’s Conception Personality is a system A system is a set of interrelated parts. Examples of systems: The jewelry organizer (top, right) A boiler (to right) Personality

Definition of Personality PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Definition of Personality Personality is the organized, developing, system within the individual that represents the collective action of that individual’s major psychological subsystems.

The Molecular Molar Continuum PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? The Molecular Molar Continuum Molar Sociology Psychology Biology Chemistry Molecular Physics

Personality Amidst Its Subsystems PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Personality Amidst Its Subsystems   Socio- logical Level  Groups Including or Interacting with Personality Psycho-logical/ Sym- bolic Internal Personality External Situation Bio-logical Nervous System Situational Elements

Occupations contributing to personality psychology PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Occupations contributing to personality psychology

Most Common Training Programs PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Most Common Training Programs Central Training Ph.D. programs in Personality Ph.D. programs in Personality and Social Psychology Related Training Ph.D. programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology M.B.A. & Ph.D. programs in Organizational Behavior M.D. programs in Psychiatry Ed.D. programs in Educational Psychology

Rationale for Studying Personality Psychology PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Rationale for Studying Personality Psychology Knowledge for knowledge’s sake Applications to assessment Applications to prediction and selection Applications to change

Early Field-Wide Personality Frameworks PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Early Field-Wide Personality Frameworks Field-wide frameworks provide an outline of a discipline and what it studies Earlier frameworks in personality psychology: 1958-1968: Theory by Theory approach Freud Jung Sullivan Cattell Rogers Maslow 1968-1998, Theoretical Perspective by Perspective approach Psychodynamic Humanistic Trait Social-Cognitive Problems with these approaches: Different theorists (or perspectives) conflicted An emphasis on theory often overlooked relevant research which didn’t fit neatly into a theory

New Field-Wide Frameworks of Personality PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? New Field-Wide Frameworks of Personality The Systems Framework for Personality Psychology (e.g., Mayer, 1997) What is personality? What are its parts? How is it organized? How does it develop? McAdams’ (1996) Levels of Knowing What are a person’s traits? (the psychology of the stranger) What are a person’s current concerns? What is a person’s life story? (the most personal knowledge)

The Four Topics of this Course PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? The Four Topics of this Course The four topics follow the systems framework for personality psychology The four topics: Identifying the personality system Introduction Theory and research Parts of personality Here, you may feel interested…but frustrated by fragmentation Many small parts to cover Personality organization We will pull the parts together by examining structure Look at dynamics Personality development Provides a second way to pull together what we have learned Speaks to a person’s past and future

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? ~Enjoy the Course!~