100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Previously searched by you
Previously searched by you
logo
Psychology of Personality - Summary CA$8.20   Add to cart
Quickly navigate to
Preview
  2.  
  3. Tilburg University (UVT)
  4.  
  5. Psychology Of Personality

Summary

Psychology of Personality - Summary
 12 views  0 purchase
  • Course
  • Psychology Of Personality
  • Institution
  • Tilburg University (UVT)
  • Book
  • Personality Psychology 2e ed

This is an extensive summary of chapters 1, 3 - 7, 11, 13-16, 18 of the book Personality Psychology by Randy J. Larsen, David M. Buss for the course Psychology of Personality.

Preview 4 out of 43  pages

Document information

  • No
  • 1, 3-7, 11, 13-16, 18
  • January 2, 2022
  • 43
  • 2020/2021
  • Summary

Subjects

  • psychology
  • personality
  • psychology of personality
  • tiu
  • tilburg university
  • summary

Connected book

book image

Book Title:

Author(s):

  • Edition:
  • ISBN:
  • Edition:

More summaries for

  • Samenvatting Personality Psychology, ISBN: 9780077145644 Psychologie Van Het Persoonlijke (TPP07)
  • Psychology of Personality - Summary, Tilburg University (9)
  • Samenvatting Persoonlijkheidsleer en -Onderzoek Jaar 1.5 Psychologie
All for this textbook (7)

Written for

  • Tilburg University (UVT)
  • Psychology [EN]
  • Psychology Of Personality
All documents for this subject (9)

Seller

avatar-seller
carmennicoli

Reviews received

Content preview

Summary Psychology of Personality


Table of content


Chapter 1: Introduction to Personality Psychology 2

Chapter 3: Traits and Trait Taxonomies 4

Chapter 4: Theoretical and measurement issues in trait psychology 8

Chapter 5: Personality Dispositions Over Time: Stability, Coherence, and

Change 12

Chapter 6: Genetics and Personality 16

Chapter 7: Physiological Approaches to Personality 19

Chapter 11: Motives and Personality 22

Chapter 13: Emotion and Personality 26

Chapter 14: Approaches to the Self 29

Chapter 15: Personality and Social Interaction 32

Chapter 16: Sex, Gender, and Personality 35

Chapter 18: Stress, Coping, Adjustment, and Health 41




1 of 43

,Summary Psychology of Personality

Chapter 1: Introduction to Personality Psychology

Trait-descriptive adjectives = Adjectives the can be used to describe characteristics of people

Personality = The set of psychological traits* and mechanisms* within the individual* that are
organized and relatively enduring* and that influence* his or her interactions* with, and adaptations*
to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments*.


*Psychological traits Mechanisms* Within the individual* Organized and relatively
enduring*
• describe way in • the process of personality • important sources of • Organized:
which people are • three essential personality reside • mechanisms and
different/similar ingredients: within the individual traits are linked to
• traits describe the • inputs (danger) • somewhat stable one another in a
average tendencies • decision rules (if over time coherent fashion
of a person cowardly, run from • somewhat consistent • e.g. your desire for
danger) over situations food when hungry
• outputs (run from might override your
source of danger) desire for intimacy
• not all mechanisms are • Enduring:
activated at all times • consistency over
situations
Influence* Interactions* Adaptation* Environment*

• personality traits as • most difficult feature • i.e. accomplishing • Physical environment
forces the influence • the nature of person- goals, coping, • e.g. food shortages
how we think, act, environment interaction is adjusting, dealing • some are direct
and feel complex! with challenges in life threats to survival
• interactions with • Social environment
situations include • e.g. desire of
perceptions, selections, emotional closeness
evocations, • the ways in which we
manipulations cope with it is central
• more on that later! to an understanding
of personality
• Intrapsychic
• „within the mind“
• e.g. memories


Three Levels of Personality Analysis
Human Nature • like all others
• „universals"
• e.g. Need to belong
• most of the grand theories of psychology address the human nature level of
analysis (e.g. the theory of evolution by Darwin)

Individual and Group • like some others
Differences • „particulars“
• e.g. Variation in need to belong (individual difference)
• Most of the empirical research in contemporary personality addresses the
ways in which individuals and groups differ




2 of 43

,Summary Psychology of Personality
Individual Uniqueness • like no others
• not even identical twins raised by the same parents
• „uniqueness“
• e.g. Anna’s unique way of expressing her love


Debate on how individuals should be studied:
Nomothetic research Idiographic research

• individuals instances of general characteristics • single, unique cases
that are distributed in the population • literally „the description of one“
• statistical comparisons of individuals or groups • Focus on one single subject
• requires samples of subjects on which to conduct • trying to observe general principles that are
research manifest in a single life over time
• Goal: identifying universal human characteristics • often results in case studies or the psychological
and dimensions of individual or group differences biography of a single person


Six Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature
Dispositional Domain • Influence by traits the person is born with or develops
• Identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals
differ from one another

Biological Domain • Influence of biological events
• three areas of research: genetics; psychophysiology; evolution

Intrapsychic Domain • Influence of conflicts within the person’s own mind
• mental mechanisms, many operate outside of conscious awareness
• e.g. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis

Cognitive - Experiential Domain • Influence of personal and private thoughts; feelings; desires
• important element of our experience entails the self and self-concept

Social and Cultural Domain • Influence of social, cultural, and gendered positions in the world
• groups differ tremendously from one another

Adjustment Domain • Influence of adjustments that the person must make to the inevitable
challenges of life
• personality plays a key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to
events in our everyday life

A good theory:
• provides a guide for researchers
• organizes known findings
• makes predictions
Standards for Evaluating Personality Theories
Comprehensiveness Explains most or all known facts

Heuristic values Guides researchers to important new discoveries

Testability Makes precise predictions that can be empirically tested

Parsimony • Contains few premises or assumptions
• Does not mean that simple theories are always better than complex theories

Compatibility & • Consistent with what is known in other domains
integration • Can be coordinated with other branches of scientific knowledge



3 of 43

, Summary Psychology of Personality
Focus on four kinds of questions:
1. How many traits are there?
2. How are the traits organized?
3. What are the origins of traits?
4. What are the correlations and consequences of traits?

The Dispositional Domain
Chapter 3: Traits and Trait Taxonomies
Three fundamental questions:
• How should we conceptualize traits?
• How can we identify which traits are the most important traits from among the thousands of ways
in which individuals differ?
• How can we formulate a comprehensive taxonomy of traits?
What is a trait? Two basic (and different) formulations

Traits as internal causal properties • individuals carry desire and needs
• causal in the sense that they explain the behavior of
the individual
• internal desire influences external behavior
• Internal dispositions do NOT equate traits with the
external behavior!
• e.g. Harry wants to have a coke but also to lose
weight. Hence, he refrains from expressing his desire.

Traits as purely descriptive summaries • trait attribution (e.g. jealousy) merely describes
expressed behavior
• No assumptions are made about what causes
behavior!


The Act Frequency Formulation of Traits (Illustration of the descriptive summary formulation)
• Act frequency approach = Traits are categories of acts
• e.g. Trait category = dominance; Act = deciding which program to watch on TV
• → a dominant person is someone who performs many dominant acts relative to other persons
Three key elements

Act nomination: identify which acts belong in which trait categories

Prototypicality judgment: identifying which acts are most central, or prototypical of,
each trait category

Recording of act performance: securing information on the actual performance of
individuals (e.g. self-reports)

Evaluation of the Act Frequency Formulation:

limitations • the technical implementation of the approach (e.g. how much context
needed)
• questionable whether it can capture complex traits or acts that are not
directly observable




4 of 43

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller carmennicoli. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for CA$8.20. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

60904 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
CA$8.20
  • (0)
  Add to cart