WHY WE ARE WHAT WE ARE

Read the title of the text and guess the main topic. What do you expect to read about in this text? What are the most remarkable personal characteristics of you? What adjectives would you use to describe yourself? If you were asked to classify people in terms of their personality, how would you categorize them?

Two Major Personality Dimensions 1- being introverted or extraverted (reserved or outgoing) 2- being stable or unstable (fixed or changeable) These can also be called as supertraits.

Traits (Characteristics) moody: temperamental rigid: inflexible, stiff, strict sober: serious, controlled, restrained sociable: outgoing reserved: silent, quiet, unsociable touchy: sensitive, easily offended restless: moving about, nervous impulsive: who acts without thought even-tempered: easygoing, unruffled responsive: quick to react, active

In Eysenck’s model there are two levels of behaviors: specific response level habitual response level Can you find the examples for each in the text?

Physiological differences of extraverts and introverts cerebral cortex arousal: related with language, memory and thinking Extraverts  have a lower level of cortical arousal Introverts  have an above-optimal cortical arousal How do they behave differently regarding this physiological makeup?

Target Vocabulary hierarchy (n) arrangement of people in a group in order of rank, importance hierarchical (adj) ranked, graded, ordered hierarchically (adv) a hierarchical structure, organisation

a hierarchical structure -

dimension (n) the length, height, width, depth of something We'll need to know the exact dimensions of the room.

impulsive (adj) motivated by emotion, rather than thought

uninhibited (adj) free and easy, relaxed, unrestrained an uninhibited laughter

retiring (adj) one who doesn’t want to be with other people As a child, Elizabeth was very shy and retiring.

introspective (adj) Inward-looking, intraverted, contemplative, self-examining He is very introspective and shy.

stimulation (n) encouraging someone by making them excited about and interested in something Children need variety and stimulation.

aversive (adj) causing avoidance of a thing, sth that you dislike In psychology, aversive conditioning is the use of something unpleasant, or a punishment, to stop an unwanted behavior.

ample (adj) more than necessary, plentiful

subtle (adj) not easy to notice The pictures are similar, but there are subtle differences between them. The warning signs of the disease are so subtle that they are often ignored.

in- inoffensiveindecisive inflexibleinelegant indiscreetinjudicious infallible inefficient insincere inconsistent incorruptable

ir- irreproachable irrational irresponsible

im- impractical impatient impersonal

un- unenlightened unbending unpretentious