Unit 1.1

Question 1

What are psychological traits and what do they do?

Answer 1

Characteristics that describe ways people are different from each other
Describe average trends

Question 2

Why are traits useful?

Answer 2

to describe, explain and predict behaviour

Question 3

What are psychological mechanisms?

Answer 3

Processes of personality

Question 4

What are the key ingredients of psychological mechanisms?

Answer 4

Input: makes people more sensitive to certain types of environmental information
Decision rule: makes people think about concrete options
Output: guides behaviour toward certain actions

Question 5

Psychological traits and mechanisms are within the individual. What does “within the individual” mean and what does that imply?

Answer 5

It’s something the person carries withing him/herself over time and situations
-> very influenced by environment, however somewhat stable over time and consistent across situations
-> we typically feel as the same person despite change

Question 6

What are psychological traits not?

Answer 6

Random set of elements
-> organized

Question 7

Trait vs State

Answer 7

Main difference: consistency between situations
Trait as tendency to act a certain way

Question 8

What do traits have, allowing them to affect people’s lives?

Answer 8

Influential strength

Question 9

What does the interaction between person and environment include?

Answer 9

Perceptions: how situations are interpreted
Selection: choosing situations to get involved in
Evocations: Reactions we generate in others
Manipulations: intentionally influencing others

Question 10

What is human behaviour and what kind of function can we thus assign to personality?

Answer 10

Functional, purpose driven (including seemingly maladaptive and non-functional behaviours)
-> adaptive function/adjustment

Question 11

Intrapsychic, Physical and social environments

Answer 11

Intrapsychic: memories, dreams, fantasies
->own inner reality
Physical: can pose challanges for people
-> generates adaptions
Social: builds personality determining whats important to us

Question 12

Human nature

Answer 12

traits and mechanisms typical of human species

Question 13

Individual and group differences

Answer 13

traits and mechanisms differentiate people from others or make them similar
e.g. individual: variance in extroversion
e.g. group: men more physically aggressive than women

Question 14

Uniqueness of individuals

Answer 14

personal qualities we dont share with others

Question 15

Where is a large gap in research concerning personality?

Answer 15

Grand theories of personality (analysis of human nature)
Contemporary research in personality (analysis of group and individual differences)

Question 16

What do grand theories of personality try to do?

Answer 16

give universal explanations to psychological processes and characteristics from specific approach

Question 17

What is contemporary research in personality often criticized for?

Answer 17

hosting many independent areas of research

Question 18

What will a good theory of personality do?

Answer 18

Provide guidance for researchers
Organize and explain results
Make predictions

Question 19

What are the standards for evalutating personality theories?

Answer 19

Comprehensiveness: does it explain all/ many facts and observations (the more the better)
Heuristic value: does it provide a guide to new discoveries
Testability: does it provide predictions that can be tested empirically
Parsimony: does it contain few assumptions and premises (ockhams razor)
Compatibility and integration across domains and levels: does it violate laws in other domains and levels