Introduction to Personality

Question 1

What are 3 elements used in defining personality?

Answer 1

1. Conveys a sense of consistency or continuity, stability across time/situations.
2. Internal Causality is behaviour that originates from within the person.
3. Distinctiveness are qualities that summarize what an individual is like in essence

Question 2

What does a sense of consistency or continuity across time/situations mean in defining personality?

Answer 2

• If someone acts the same across similar and different situations then we are more likely to assume its apart of their personality.

Question 3

What does Distinctiveness are qualities that summarize what an individual is like in essence mean in defining personality?

Answer 3

their most prominent qualities, traits, and attributes that stand out and make them unique

Question 4

What do the element of Allports personality definition mean: Personality is a dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychological systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

Answer 4

1. Organized: Patterns and hierarchies direct activity/behaviour
2. Has Processes and Forces: its deterministic, personality helps a person relate to and interact with the world.
3. Is Psychophysical: Personality is neither exclusively mental nor neural, but depends on both. The interaction of the two is important.
4. Is Individualized Patterns: Personality is consistent and reoccurring meaning that a specific trait should manifest a specific reaction across domains

Question 5

What are two themes of Personality Psychology? Why are they important?

Answer 5

1. Individual Differences: No two people are the same.

We care about variation when we study personality.

2. Intrapersonal Functioning: There are deterministic tendencies that exist within the individual, which are elicited from situational factors.

Question 6

What does it mean that personality is a process that is dynamic and organized?

Answer 6

Behaviours become more pronounced given a specific situations or environmental cues (e.g. becoming competitive in a competition).

• There is an interaction between the trait/personality of an individuals and the situation the individual finds themselves in to best predict their behaviour.