1. INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY

2. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE…. – A distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual. (Wade, C. & Tavris, C. (2011) Psychology. 10 th Ed. Prentice Hall.) – The reasonable stable patterns of emotions, motives, and behavior that distinguish one person from another. (Rathus, S. A. (2012) Psychology: Concepts and Connections. 10 th Ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.) – The unique collection of attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits, impulses, and behaviors that define how a person typically behaves across situations. (Pastorino, E & Doyle- Portillo, S. (2012) What is Psychology? 3 rd Ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning).

3. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE…. – Our own conceptions about people, and about ourselves, may be similarly bound up with our own perspectives and initial beliefs. – Some think of personality as consisting of the person’s most striking traits, as in “This person has an outgoing personality” or “That person has an agreeable personality.” But many psychological theorists look deeper. – Those schooled in the Freudian tradition look at personality as consisting of underlying mental structures that jockey for supremacy outside the range of our ordinary awareness. – Other theorists focus on how personality is shaped by learning. And to the humanistic theorists, personality is not something people have but rather something they create to give their lives meaning and direction. – Then, too, sociocultural theorists remind us that we must always consider the influences of culture, race, and ethnicity on personality.

4. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE…. – The Islamic theologian taught his pupils the legend of the blind men and the elephant to foster tolerance and to illustrate that no person can have a complete view of the truth; therefore we need to be flexible in our thinking and open to new ideas. – It is also possible that none of the views of personality presented in this lecture offer the one true portrait of human personality, but each may have something to contribute to our understanding of personality. – In this lecture, we lay the foundations for the understanding of personality. We also discuss personality test – the methods used to touch the untouchable. In the chapter 13, we extend our discussion to gender differences in personality and their origins. In chapter 14, wee see how various personality factors help us or hinder us in our efforts to cope with stress. In chapter ??, we consider the connections between personality and psychological disorders.

5. – Psychodynamic Perspective – Trait Perspective – Learning-Theory Perspective – Humanistic-Existential Perspective

6. – Psychodynamic – Genetic – Cultural – Humanist – Narrative