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Psychology 213 Notes (Chapter 1 to 5)
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Page 1 of 36, Chapter 1: Personology
Outcomes
• Be able to answer the following questions:
o Why is personology an extension of our everyday human nature knowledge?
o Why are there so many personality theories?
o Define the following: person, personality, character, temperament, self, personism,
situationism and interactionalism
Personology
• Personology can be regarded as a kind of extension of our everyday knowledge about
human nature.
• Ways we use language, and project our ideals are
Personology: The branch of
profoundly influenced by psychology
psychology that focuses on
• Therefore, psychology is not separate from everyday the study of the individual’s
knowledge about human nature but it also affects it characteristics and of
• Peoples level of understanding depends on four differences between people
information sources:
o Cultural tradition
o Direct communications from others
o Observation of others’ behaviour Everyday knowledge of human
o Self-observation nature: the ability to judge,
• Cultural tradition = rich source of information understand, explain, and predict
(novels, dramas, songs expressions and idioms,
behaviour of fellow human beings
contain a lot of information about people’s
nature)
• Our observations of others’ behaviour as well as of our own are also incomplete,
unsystematic and often inaccurate, especially as they are heavily coloured by our own
subjective judgement and bias
• Our reactions are mediated by assumptions we have of people, whether they are introverts
or extroverts
• Personologists aim at improving such everyday knowledge about people basing their theories
on scientific methods
• The most comprehensive elements of personology are to be found in the form of
personality theories
Personality theory; Outcome of a purposeful, sustained effort to develop a logically
consistent conceptual system for describing, explaining and/or predicting human
behaviour
• Details including in several theories:A closer look at personality theories
o Underlying view of the person
o Proposals of personality structures and how it functions
o Ideas about motivators of human behaviour
o Human development descriptions and ideal human development propositions
o Reflections on the nature and causes of behavioural problems or psychopathology
o An explanation of how human behaviour might be controlled and possibly changed
o Ideas about how to study, measure and predict behaviour
Page 2 of 36
,The reasons why there are so many personality
• These theories provide dfferent concepts of how we can understand/describe ourselves
The complexity of humans and their behaviour
• Human behaviour is a highly complex phenomenon that is determined various
interdependent factors:
o biological factors
o environmental circumstances
o social factors such as other people’s expectations
o social milieu
o culture
o psychological and spiritual factors (emotions, religious convictions)
o values and goals
• Options of personhood/selfhood, changed once psychology become a discipline
• A particular theory cannot provide the whole ‘truth’, but can contribute towards a
better understanding of human functioning as a whole.
• Theories all emerged in particular times, as they responded to societal contradiction
and needs that existed at that time
• Psychology never emerges in a vacuum, it is not persuade as a knowledge for its own
sake
• Psychology is always a response to relevant practical concerns in that context
Practical and ethical problems in research
• Even when controlled research studies occur, they are still subject to limitations
such:
o size and representativeness of the sample
o the duration of the study
o and the variety of behavioural phenomena
The large variety of assumptions concerning the person and scientific
research
• There are many pre-scientific convictions about what humans are and about what
science is, and the various personality theories are based on different assumptions
concerning these matters
• Assumptions are convictions that are not based on scientific facts, therefore its
extremely difficult to change them, especially in this field where it is already so
difficult to find concrete evidence for anything.
• To understand various theories and gain insight it is important to understand the
assumptions about said theories
Definitions of key concepts
Person
• Modern usage: person refers to an individual human being
• Person also implies the idea of independence of behaviour Person: an individual
• Everyday language a new-born would not be referred to as human being who can
a person, though they would be referred to as a human act independently
being
• Legal terminology, a legal person refers to an individual or group of individuals which
can function independently
Page 3 of 36
, • Psychological jargon, person is used in the same way it is colloquially, which is why it
is defined as such
• The definition clearly implies an acknowledgment of the capacity for free decision-
making
• A non-deterministic view of the person such as this is not shared by all personologists
• It is interesting to note that deterministic personologists avoided using the word
‘person’ and described people as ‘organisms
Personality
Personality: the constantly changing but nevertheless relatively stable organisation
of all physical, psychological and spiritual characteristics of the individual that
determine their behaviour in interaction with the context
• Everyday language: personality describes the individuals social dimension
• Colloquial language: referring to someone’s general behaviour patterns or his or her
nature
• Predictions are therefore sometimes made about someone’s behaviour based on their
personality
• In personology, the word ‘personality’ refers to whatever it is that makes people who
they are
• Therefore personality can be said to be a combination of physical, psychological and
spiritual characteristics that determine an individuals behaviour
Some related concepts
Characters
Character: those aspects of the personality involving the person’s values
• Character and personality are confused with each other
• Past psychological terminology: characterology was the name for personology
• Current psychological terminology: aspects of persons values and their ability to behave
consistently in congruence with their values
• Behaviour that does not fit personality is out of character
Temperament and nature
temperament/nature: emotional aspects of the personality
• Temperament/ nature can also describe people using expressions (He is a temperamental
actor)
• Both these words refer more specifically to people’s emotions and the way in which they
express them and deal with them
• Meaning = narrower than personality because they focus more on emotion than biological
and psychological dimensions
Self
• Frequently used term, which often creates confusion
• Does not have a single definition because of the various ways its used
• Self:
o Used to refer to people’s views of themselves
o Used as a synonym for personality
o Used referring to the core of personality
Page 4 of 36
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