Ch. 1 - What is Personality?

Question 1

superficial aspect of the psyche that a person displays publicly; it includes the various roles one must play to function in a society

Answer 1

Persona

Question 2

contention that the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind (the mind and body are causally related)

Answer 2

Interactionism

Question 3

directing one’s thoughts inward to discover the truth about one’s self

Answer 3

Introspection

Question 4

variables in the environment that provide the setting in which person variables manifest themselves

Answer 4

Situation Variables

Question 5

that portion of the phenomenological field that becomes differentiated because of experiences involving terms such as I, me, and mine

Answer 5

Self

Question 6

belief that knowledge can be gained only by exercising the mind, for example, by thinking, deducing, or inferring

Answer 6

Rationalism

Question 7

combination of the philosophical schools of rationalism and empiricism, with two major functions: (1) to explain many observations and (2) to generation new information

Answer 7

Scientific Theory

Question 8

those qualities that characterize all humans

Answer 8

Human Nature

Question 9

theory’s ability to generate new information

Answer 9

Heuristic Function

Question 10

contention that the major motive in life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain

Answer 10

Hedonism

Question 11

contention that an attribute is determined by experience rather than by genetics; the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience

Answer 11

Empiricism

Question 12

contention that mental events are the by-products of bodily events, therefore mental events can be ignored in the analysis of human behavior

Answer 12

Epiphenomenalism

Question 13

study of groups of individuals

Answer 13

Nomothetic Research

Question 14

intense study of a single person

Answer 14

Idiographic Research

Question 15

study of the nature of human knowledge

Answer 15

Epistemology

Question 16

contention that an environmental event causes both mental and bodily reactions at the same time; bodily and mental phenomena run parallel to each other and are therefore not causally related

Answer 16

Parallelism

Question 17

goal-directed or future-oriented behavior

Answer 17

Teleological Behavior

Question 18

predictions that run the risk of being incorrect

Answer 18

Risky Predictions

Question 19

term used by Kuhn to describe a theoretical viewpoint shared by many researchers

Answer 19

Paradigm

Question 20

a scientific theory must make predictions that could conceivably be false and, if so, would refute the theory

Answer 20

Principle of Falsifiability

Question 21

epistemological pursuit that combines the philosophical schools of empiricism and rationalism

Answer 21

Science

Question 22

contention that no mind-body problem exists because no mind exists; no mental events occur, only physical events

Answer 22

Physical Monism/Materialism

Question 23

important ways in which humans differ from one another

Answer 23

Individual Differences

Question 24

the stipulation that scientific propositions must be capable of objective, empirical testing that is available to any interested person

Answer 24

Principle of Verification

Question 25

a theory’s ability to organize and explain several otherwise disjointed observations

Answer 25

Synthesizing Function

Question 26

highest level in the hierarchy of needs, which can be reached only if the preceding need levels have been adequately satisfied

Answer 26

Self-Actualization

Question 27

variables contained within the person that determine how they respond to a situation

Answer 27

Person Variables

Question 28

belief that the determinants of behavior are found in the environment instead of in the person

Answer 28

Environmentalism

Question 29

argument concerning the extent to which an attribute, such as intelligence, is influenced by inheritance as opposed to experience

Answer 29

Nativism-Empiricism Controversy

Question 30

belief that behavior is a function of a finite number of variables, and if those variable were completely known, behavior could be predicted with complete accuracy

Answer 30

Determinism