Chapter 1

What is Personality Psychology?

Modified: 2022-07-05 10:37 am

Personality is a hypothetical construct. It is abstract not concrete. You cannot buy a pound of personality. Instead, personality is how people describe themselves and others. Psychologists have spent many years developing ways to understand and assess personality. Soon you will have a chance to assess your own personality using the Ten Item Personality Inventory. It is a quick paper and pencil test that measures five common personality dimensions from the trait perspective (see chapter 4).

• Learning Objectives:
  • 1.1 Identify three reasons for using the concept of personality
  • 1.2 Indicate the two functions that any theory of personality should serve
  • 1.3 Summarize the main themes of the 10 theoretical perspectives on personality to be discussed in this text
  • 1.4 Outline reasons as to why assessment of personality, behavioral problems, and behavior change are important
• 1.1 Defining Personality (p. 1)
  • You will learn to distinguish how the general public uses the word personality and how psychologists use it.
  • Psychologists, you will learn, use the word more abstractly
  • 1.1.1 Why Use the Word Personality as a Concept?
    • Consistency: across time, similar situations, different situations
    • Internal Causality: personality comes from within a person, helps predict behavior
    • Distinctiveness: it is possible to summarize the few qualities that make up a person's personality
  • 1.1.2 A Working Definition
    • Personality is:
      • Organized
      • Has processes
      • Psychological but linked to a physical body
      • Causal
      • Reveals itself as recurring and consistent patterns
      • Displayed in behavior, thoughts, and feelings
  • 1.1.3 Two Fundamental Themes in Personality Psychology
    • Individual Differences
      • Every personality is unique, even those of identical twins
    • Intrapersonal Functioning
      • Personality is dynamic and involves processes
      • Personality creates a sense of individual continuity
  • Nearly all theories of personality touch upon individual differences and interpersonal functioning and the processes behind it
• 1.2 Theory in Personality Psychology (p. 3)
  • 1.2.1 What Do Theories Do?
    • Explain phenomena
    • Predict new information
    • Personality theories tend to be ambiguous and complex
  • 1.2.2 The Role of Research in Evaluating Theories
    • Theories should be testable (meaning they should make accurate predictions
    • In psychology insightful statements about personality from non-psychologists usually fail the test of making accurate predictions
    • In personality psychology today theories are scientific and form the basis for interplay between explanation and the direction of future research
    • See Figure 1.1 to see a graphic (below) showing the interplay of theory and research

  

• 1.2.3 What Makes a Theory Good?
  • Does it explain and predict?
  • Where does it derive its information?
    • The more sources of information the better
  • Is it parsimonious?
    • Ockham's Razor
      • Ockham’s Razor is the modern interpretation of “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily” revolves around explanatory simplicity, sometimes called the “Law of Parsimony.” In modern science this means using the minimum amount of explanation necessary. So, if two theories each adequately explain a set of phenomena, modern scientists will accept the simpler theory.
  • Subjectivity
    • Scientists, being human, often select theories based upon their personal worldview
• 1.3 Perspectives on Personality (p. 5)
  • The text will examine a variety of personality theories
  • Their starting points vary but all can be understood as an effort to understand human nature
    • 1.3.1 Perspectives to Be Examined Here
      • Traits
      • Motives
      • Inheritance and Evolution
      • Biological Process
      • Psychoanalytic
      • Psychosocial
      • Learning
      • Self-Actualization/Self-Determination
      • Cognitive
      • Self-Regulation
    • 1.3.2 Perspectives Reconsidered
      • Grand Theories?
        • Will they return?
        • Should they return?
        • Most modern theories address aspects of personality instead
        • Table 1.1 (below) shows how modern theorists assess the importance of genetics, traits, motives, values, abilities, skills, and culture in personality theories

  

• 1.4 Organization within Chapters (p. 6)
  • Each chapter covers a personality perspective and how it relates to individual differences and intrapersonal functioning
  • Each chapter examines assessment and potential problems
    • 1.4.1 Assessment
      • Three reasons to study personality are:
        • To portray and measure personality
        • To research personality (cannot do that without assessment)
        • Apply research results to other, applied fields (e.g., organizational or clinical psychology)
    • 1.4.2 Problems in Behavior and Behavior Change
      • Text examines normal personality and problems in personality
      • Text notes how personality research contributes to understanding therapy for personality problems
• Summary (p. 7)
  • Hard to define personality
  • Shows a person's consistent and continous behaviors, thoughts, and emotions
  • Individual differences and interpersonal functioning are its two main themes
  • Personality theories explain it and show researchers where to find new information
  • Each of the following chapters will examine a particular personality theory and analyze it in terms of it parsimony and explanatory value
• Personality is a hard concept to define. Thinking about how people use the concept, however,
  suggests three reasons for its use.
  • People use it
    • to convey a sense of consistency or continuity within
      a person,
    • to convey the sense that the person is the origin of behavior,
    • and to convey the sense that the essence of a person can be summarized or captured in a few salient qualities.
• The field of personality addresses two fundamental themes.
  • One is the existence of differences among people.
  • The other is how best to conceptualize intrapersonal functioning—the processes that take place within all persons, giving form and continuity to behavior.
• Points to Remember
  • Much of this book deals with theories.
  • Theories are summary statements, sets of principles that pertain to certain classes of events.
  • Theories have two purposes:
    • to explain things that are known and to predict possibilities that haven’t yet been examined.
  • One way to evaluate the worth of a theory is to ask whether research supports its predictions. Scientific psychology has a continuing cycle between theory and research, as theories are tested, modified on the basis of results, and tested again.
  • Theories can be evaluated on grounds other than research, though.
  • For example, a theory shouldn’t be based on a single kind of information.
  • Theories benefit from being parsimonious—having relatively few fewer assumptions (or concepts).
  • People also tend to favor theories that fit well with their intuitions and personal world view.
  • The theories described in this book derive from several perspectives, or viewpoints, on human nature.
  • Each theory chapter focuses on assumptions about the nature of personality within a particular theoretical framework.
  • Also included are a discussion of assessment from the viewpoint of the theory under discussion, and a discussion of problems in behavior and how they can be remedied.

KEY TERMS

Individual differences: Differences in personality from one person to another.

Intrapersonal functioning: Psychological processes that take place within the person.

Parsimony: The quality of requiring few assumptions; simplicity.

Personality: A dynamic organization inside the person of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

Theory: A summary statement, a principle or set of principles about a class of events.

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