Overview of Personality Psychology Goals for Today 1.Broadly understand what personality psychology is about 2.Define “Personality” 3.Consider the relevance of personality for the study of behavior more broadly 4.Overview of Approaches/Paradigms of Personality 5.Provide a general framework for understanding personality in context. 6.Overview of personality science “in action”

Definition(s) of Personality (from textbook) “An individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms—hidden or not—behind those patterns” (p. 5) An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving Often focused on differences between people, or “individual differences”

Is personality even relevant to the study of “why people do what they do”? Does personality even really matter? Eg, Obedience to authority

Is personality even relevant to the study of “why people do what they do”? “The disposition a person brings to the experiment is probably less important a cause of his behavior than most readers assume….. Often, it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.” (Milgram, 1974, p. 205) “The obedience effect is due to situational variables and not personality variables. ….. These findings enable us to rule out the role of personality in obedient behavior.” (Zimbardo & Weber, 1994, p )

Approach/ParadigmSummary of focusBig Names Trait Broad individual differences, personality assessment, predicting differences in behavior Allport, Cattell Biological Tendencies and limits imposed by biological forces such as anatomy, chemistry, and genetics Eysenck, Buss Learning How external, observable stimuli affect behavior. Downplays the particular importance of internal characteristics and early experiences Skinner, Pavlov Psychoanalytic Unconscious influences on behavior, sex and aggression as motivations. Emphasize early experiences. Freud Neo-analytic Self as it negotiates internal and external influences. Needs and motivations Jung, Adler, Horney, Erikson Humanist/Existential Potential, meaning, growth, fulfillment, free will, happiness, dignity. Needs and motivations Rogers, Kelly, Maslow, Fromm, CognitiveBehavior as a function of thinking and situational forces. Predicting differences in behavior Rotter, Bandura, Mischel Basic Domains/ Paradigms in Personality Psychology Where does your personality come from? Interesting but primarily historical. Not directly relevant to most contemporary personality theory and research Somewhat oversimplified categorization of two major contemporary paradigms for Personality Psychology Trait and Cognitive

Objective Environmental Properties Occurrent Cognitions Occurrent Emotions Social and Behavioral Events Perceived Environmental Properties Latent/Enduring Dispositions Life Events and Broad Social Contexts Biology “In the Moment” A General Framework for Personality Psychology