Getting Started Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? What is Personality? Focus on What – and Where – 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.

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Wundt’s Views: Psychology’s Job Wilhelm Wundt –Founder of experimental psychology –Believed that the discipline of psychology studies various mental systems one by one Sensation Perception Memory Etc. Wundt saw personality as the system of those individual parts

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Wundt’s Views: Personality’s Job

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 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

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 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. Some Psychological Systems…

Getting Started Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Where is Personality? “One of the most crucial questions of personality is, “Where is it?”… (Monte)

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? The Molecular Molar Continuum MolarSociology Psychology Biology Chemistry MolecularPhysics

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? The Internal-External Continuum Inside the solar systemOutside the solar system Inside the earthOutside the earth Inside the bodyOutside the body Inside Outside

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Personality Amidst Its Subsystems

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Personality Amidst Its Subsystems Socio- logical Level Groups Including or Interacting with Personality Psycho- logical/ Sym- bolic Level Internal Personality External Situation Bio- logical Level Nervous SystemSituational Elements

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Another Key Dimension: Time

What Is the Personality System? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Where it is…and What it is Given where it is, what are its tasks? How does it carry out these tasks? –To answer this, we must describe how it works