Important Vocab.

Traits: Aspect of personality that are relatively consistent

Personality: An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Social Cognitive Perspective: Perspective stating that understanding involves considering how people are affected by a particular situation, by what they have learned, by how they think, and by how they interact socially.

Important People

Gordon Allport American psychologist and trait theorist who

researched the idea that individual personalities are unique

This trait theorist's research identified more than 18,000 ways to describe people.

Psychologist Gordon Allport described cardinal traits as those that dominated an individual's life to the point where that person is known and often identified specifically by that trait. These traits are considered rare, however. In many cases, people become so known for these traits that their very names become synonymous with that type of personality.

Raymond Cattell

English psychologist

He believed that there are 16 human traits

Contribution to trait perspective flowed from his interests in knowing whether some traits predicted others.

Hans Eysenck

The researcher coined the terms introvert and extravert to help describe personality

He searched for personality dimensions in biology and his model of genetically influenced dimensions has broad research support

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura's social learning theory stressed

the importance of observational learning, imitation and modeling.

His theory integrates a continuous interaction between behaviors, cognitions and the environment.

His most famous experiment was the 1961 "Bobo Doll" study. In the experiment, he made a film in which a woman was shown beating up a bobo doll and shouting aggressive words. The film was then shown to a group of children. Afterwards, the children were allowed to play in a room that held a bobo doll. The children immediately began to beat the doll, imitating the actions and words of the woman in the film.

The study was significant because it departed from behaviorism’s insistence that all behavior is directed by reinforcement or rewards. They were simply imitating the behavior they had observed.

Four Ancient Personality Traits

The ancient Greeks classified personalities as sanguine (cheerful), melancholic (depresses), choleric (irritable), and phlegmatic (unemotional).

They were “humors”.

Inaccurate

cheerful unemotional

irritable depressed

The Big Five Traits

Testing Personality

Objective personality tests are administered using a uniform standardized procedure fro scoring the assessment instruments.

MMPI NEO Five-Factor Inventory

NEO Five-Factor Inventory Contains 240 items that measure five

factors of the Big Five theory. It is self-report inventory that requires

individuals to indicate whether certain statements characterize them.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Scales of the test are empirically derived Consists of 550 items ranging in topics Reflects on abnormal behavior It contains 4 validity scales and 10 clinical

scales Useful: understanding personality disorders

and making predictions about health and welfare

Strengths: objectively scored and has been widely used

Faults: hard to know how to interpret responses

Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes the social origin of thinking and behavior as well

as active cognitive processes and conscious self-regulated behavior, rather than unconscious motives and drives.

The person is an active participant in their environment.

People do not simply react to the social environment, but they actively create their own environment and acts to change them.

Personality is shaped by through reciprocal determinism.

Our social environment affects our thoughts and actions, our thoughtsand actions affect the social environment we choose, ouractions influences our thoughts and social environment wechoose

Fun Facts About Personality1. Birth Order Can Influence Your Personality A few recent empirical studies have found that

such things as birth order and family size may indeed have an impact on personality. One study even found that birth order can influence your choices of friends and romantic partners.

2. Your Personality Is Relatively Stable throughout Life

According to researcher Paul T. Costa Jr., there is no evidence our overall personalities change as we grow older. "What changes as you go through life are your roles and the issues that matter most to you. People may think their personality has changed as they age, but it is their habits that change, their vigor and health, their responsibilities and circumstances - not their basic personality," he suggested in a New York Times article.

3. Personality Traits Are Linked to Certain Illnesses Recently, researchers have used a statistical technique known

as meta-analysis to reevaluate previous research on the connection between personality and disease. What they discovered were some previously unnoticed connections between neurotic personality traits and five illnesses; headaches, asthma, arthritis, peptic ulcers and heart disease.

4. Personality Influences Personal Preferences Personality can have a profound effect on your personal

preferences, from your choice of friends to your taste in music. EX: while you might pride yourself on carefully considering the issues before choosing a candidate to support, research suggests that personality may play a strong role in political preferences. One study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto found that individuals who identified themselves as conservatives were higher in a personality trait called orderliness, while those who self-identified as liberal were higher in empathy.

5. People Can Accurately Judge Your Personality Based on Your Facebook Profile

Numerous Factors Can Contribute to Personality Disorders

An estimated 10 to 15% of adults in the United States experience symptoms of at least one personality disorder. Researchers have identified a number of factors that may contribute to the onset of different personality disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and borderline-personality disorder.

These factors include: Genetics Relationships with peers High sensitivity Verbal abuse Childhood trauma

SOURCES PHYSCHOLOGY 4E BOOK PSYCHOLOGY TEXT BOOK http://psychology.about.com/od/overvie

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