HPS 791 - Personality

Revision flashcards for Deakin psychology unit HPS 791

155 cards   |   Total Attempts: 188
  

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Cards In This Set

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What is the definition of personality, and why is understanding personality useful?
Personality = enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Useful to understand behaviour (so that we can change it).
What is personality theory and how is it useful?
Used to understand the processes and structure underlying behaviour. If we understand these, we have a better chance to change the behaviour.
How is personality studied?
Evidence based scientific approach. If evidence supports a theory, it's strengthened. If not, it's not.
"Taste based" versus "reality-based"
Taste = preference for wine - can't be scientifically investigated as to right and wrong Reality = can be answered by experiments (i.e. can be disproven)
Three types of consistency in behaviour
  1. Cross-situation consistency
  2. Within-situation consistency (i.e. behaviour varies by type of situation)
  3. Longitudinal consistency (across time)
Why are there so many theories of personality? (4 reasons)
  1. They might work well in some contexts and not others
  2. Evidence can be contradictory or mixed
  3. Some people may prefer one kind of evidence over another
  4. Some people are biased towards a certain theory
Three elements of any personality theory
  1. Structure (the psychological entities)
  2. Process (how the parts of the structure interact with each other)
  3. Development over time (e.g. in childhood)
Strengths and weaknesses of case studies
  1. Deep information
  2. Hard to figure out what caused what
  3. Hard to know if it can generalise
  4. Therapist bias is an issue
Strengths and weaknesses of correlational study
  1. Large amounts of data
  2. Can't show causation
  3. High external validity
Strengths and weaknesses of experimental studies
  1. Can show causation
  2. Can be artificial
  3. Can have low external validity
Basic definition of trait theory
  1. Consistent thoughts/feelings/behaviour across time and situations
  2. Internally defined (i.e. not dependant on the situation)
  3. People differ in levels of a trait, but everyone "has" every trait
Basic definition of trait theory
  1. Consistent thoughts/feelings/behaviour across time and situations
  2. Internally defined (i.e. not dependant on the situation)
  3. People differ in levels of a trait, but everyone "has" every trait
Basic definition of trait theory
  1. Consistent thoughts/feelings/behaviour across time and situations
  2. Internally defined (i.e. not dependant on the situation)
  3. People differ in levels of a trait, but everyone "has" every trait
Basic definition of trait theory
  1. Consistent thoughts/feelings/behaviour across time and situations
  2. Internally defined (i.e. not dependant on the situation)
  3. People differ in levels of a trait, but everyone "has" every trait
Using traits to explain behaviour
  1. Put forward by Costa & McCrae
  2. Not extraverted because they like parties, they like parties because they are extraverted (ie. trait explains behaviour)
  3. This = circular reasoning, so Costa & McCrae added genes to the explanation: Genetic makeup > Extraversion > Likes parties