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.
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
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,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
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,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
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, 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
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