Summary by Femke van Rijn
April 2021
Personality Psychology
Larsen, Buss, Wismeijer, Song
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Personality Psychology
Trait-descriptive adjectives are adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people (for
example: lazy, optimistic, anxious). They can refer to different aspects of personality.
Definition of personality: the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that
are organized and relatively enduring, and that influence their interactions with and adaptations to
the intrapsychic, physical and social environments.
Psychological traits are characteristics that describe differences or similarities between people, and
they describe average tendencies. They can also help explain and predict behavior. Research
questions on personality traits: how many traits are there, how are they organized, what are the
origins and what are the correlations and consequences of traits?
Psychological mechanisms refer to the processes of personality and consist of inputs, decision rules
and outputs. Not all of our traits and mechanisms are activated all of the time, some are only
activated under certain conditions.
Our personality is organized, which means that traits and mechanisms are linked to each other in a
coherent fashion. Personality traits are relatively enduring (consistent over situations), particularly in
adulthood. Influential forces = personality influences how people act, think, feel, etc.
There is a person-environment interaction. Interactions with situations include perceptions
(interpreting situations), selections (choosing situations), evocations (producing reactions in others)
and manipulations (intentionally influencing others).
Adaptation = a central feature of personality concerning adaptive coping (accomplishing goals,
dealing with challenges, adjusting, etc.). Behavior is goal-directed, functional and purposeful, even
when it does not appear so, and there can be deficits and disorders. Our environment often poses
adaptive challenges. The environment can be physical, social or intrapsychic (within the mind).
Personality can be analyzed on 3 different levels:
- The human nature level: the traits and mechanisms that are typical to everyone of our
species
- The level of individual differences and group differences: how we are like some
people/groups but not like others
- The individual uniqueness level: personal qualities that are not shared by anyone else
Nomothetic research = statistical comparisons of individuals or groups. Idiographic research =
studying single, unique cases.
, 6 domains of knowledge (specialty areas of science):
- The dispositional domain: personality is influenced by the traits a person is born with or
develops
o This domain focuses on individual differences
- The biological domain: personality is influenced by biological events
o 3 main areas of research: genetics, psychophysiology and evolution
o Psychophysiology = nervous system functioning
- The intrapsychic domain: personality is influenced by conflicts within the person’s mind
o Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis is the predominant theory of this domain
- The cognitive-experiental domain: personality is influenced by personal and private
thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs and other subjective experiences
o Important elements of this domain are the self and self-concept, intelligence, goals
and emotions
- The social and cultural domain: personality is influenced by social, cultural and gendered
positions in the world
o Different cultures and social groups bring out different facets of our personalities in
manifest behavior
- The adjustment domain: personality is influenced by the adjustments a person must make to
the inevitable challenges of life
o Coping, adapting and adjusting to events
o Personality disorders and poor adjustments
Good theories fulfill 3 purposes:
- They provide a guide for researchers
- They organize known findings
- They make predictions
Theories are tested by systematic observations that can be repeated by others and yield similar
conclusions.
5 scientific standards for evaluating theories:
- Comprehensiveness = explaining all facts and observations within its domain
- Heuristic values = providing a guide to important new discoveries
- Testability = rendering precise enough predictions to test them empirically
- Parsimony = containing few premises and assumptions
- Compatibility and integration across domains and levels = not violating principles of other
domains
Chapter 2 – Personality Assessment, Measurement and Research Design
Self-report data (S-data) = information a person reveals about themselves. It is not always accurate
because they want to present themselves positively or have little self-knowledge. But people can
report more information about themselves than others would about them, because they know
themselves the best. Self-report can be unstructured (open-ended) or structured (for example a
Likert scale on adjectives or statements). Experience sampling = reporting (for example symptoms or
moods) every day for a period of time.
