Personality Psychology Exam 1
Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Things Personality Psychologists Study - ✔✔-Psychological triad
--Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. (It's not enough just to look at behavior).
-The whole person
--Not just one trait or characteristic (also needs consistency).
Personality (Definition) - ✔✔An individual's unique and relatively consistent patterns
of thinking, feeling, and behaving
Goals of Personality Psychology - ✔✔-Explain the whole person in his or her daily
environment
-Mission: Impossible
Trait Approach - ✔✔How people differ psychologically (e.g., extraversion - introversion
= we categorize into more or less introverted)
Biological Approach - ✔✔Understand the mind in terms of the body
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,Psychoanalytic Approach - ✔✔Understand irrationality (why we forget, slips),
fantasies, dreams, conscious and unconscious conflicts.
Humanistic Approach - ✔✔-How conscious awareness produces uniquely human
attributes; meaning and happiness
-How we choose to see the world
Cross-Cultural Approach - ✔✔How the experience of reality is shaped by culture
Self and Self-Concept - ✔✔Beliefs about himself or herself, including the person's
attributes and who and what the self is
Personality Processes - ✔✔Perception, emotion, memory, motivation
Psychopathological Approach - ✔✔Mental health, personality disorders
Approaches to Personality Address Key Questions - ✔✔-How do our personalities
develop?
-What are the core driving forces in our personalities, or more informally, what makes
us tick?
-What accounts for individual differences?
Why are There so Many Approaches to Personality? - ✔✔-Focus on different questions
/ aspects of a question
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,-Focus on different phenomena
--E.g., trait approaches say nothing about dreams; psychoanalysis barely mentions
learning; humanistic psychology does not even acknowledge biology, etc.
-Other areas of psychology treat all people as if they were the same
-Personality psychologists emphasize individual differences
The Scientific Method - ✔✔-The systematic procedure of observation and measurement
--Systematic Study: Has rules. An example would be seeing how many people smile at
you when they leave.
The Scientific Method: Answers Questions to... - ✔✔- To describe what happens
- To predict when it happens
- To explain why it happens
- To control what causes it to happen
Clues to Personality - ✔✔-All parts of the psychological triad matter! (thoughts,
feelings, behaviors)
--But, this can't just be measured = "There are no perfect indicators of personality; there
are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous"
--Psychologist's job: put together the clues
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, -"Something beats nothing"
Funder's BLIS - ✔✔-B Data = Behavioral Observations
-L Data = Life Outcomes
-I Data = Informants' Reports
-S Data = Self-Reports
S Data - ✔✔-Rationale = The world's best expert about your personality is very
probably you!
-Usually questionnaires
-Most frequent data source
--Ex: Big Five Inventory:
--I see myself as someone who...
---- ...is talkative.
---- ...tends to find fault with others.
---- ...does a thorough job.
S Data: Advantages - ✔✔-Based on a large amount of information
--You are always with yourself
--People are usually their own best expert
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Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Things Personality Psychologists Study - ✔✔-Psychological triad
--Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. (It's not enough just to look at behavior).
-The whole person
--Not just one trait or characteristic (also needs consistency).
Personality (Definition) - ✔✔An individual's unique and relatively consistent patterns
of thinking, feeling, and behaving
Goals of Personality Psychology - ✔✔-Explain the whole person in his or her daily
environment
-Mission: Impossible
Trait Approach - ✔✔How people differ psychologically (e.g., extraversion - introversion
= we categorize into more or less introverted)
Biological Approach - ✔✔Understand the mind in terms of the body
100% Pass Guarantee Olivia West, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,Psychoanalytic Approach - ✔✔Understand irrationality (why we forget, slips),
fantasies, dreams, conscious and unconscious conflicts.
Humanistic Approach - ✔✔-How conscious awareness produces uniquely human
attributes; meaning and happiness
-How we choose to see the world
Cross-Cultural Approach - ✔✔How the experience of reality is shaped by culture
Self and Self-Concept - ✔✔Beliefs about himself or herself, including the person's
attributes and who and what the self is
Personality Processes - ✔✔Perception, emotion, memory, motivation
Psychopathological Approach - ✔✔Mental health, personality disorders
Approaches to Personality Address Key Questions - ✔✔-How do our personalities
develop?
-What are the core driving forces in our personalities, or more informally, what makes
us tick?
-What accounts for individual differences?
Why are There so Many Approaches to Personality? - ✔✔-Focus on different questions
/ aspects of a question
100% Pass Guarantee Olivia West, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
,-Focus on different phenomena
--E.g., trait approaches say nothing about dreams; psychoanalysis barely mentions
learning; humanistic psychology does not even acknowledge biology, etc.
-Other areas of psychology treat all people as if they were the same
-Personality psychologists emphasize individual differences
The Scientific Method - ✔✔-The systematic procedure of observation and measurement
--Systematic Study: Has rules. An example would be seeing how many people smile at
you when they leave.
The Scientific Method: Answers Questions to... - ✔✔- To describe what happens
- To predict when it happens
- To explain why it happens
- To control what causes it to happen
Clues to Personality - ✔✔-All parts of the psychological triad matter! (thoughts,
feelings, behaviors)
--But, this can't just be measured = "There are no perfect indicators of personality; there
are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous"
--Psychologist's job: put together the clues
100% Pass Guarantee Olivia West, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
, -"Something beats nothing"
Funder's BLIS - ✔✔-B Data = Behavioral Observations
-L Data = Life Outcomes
-I Data = Informants' Reports
-S Data = Self-Reports
S Data - ✔✔-Rationale = The world's best expert about your personality is very
probably you!
-Usually questionnaires
-Most frequent data source
--Ex: Big Five Inventory:
--I see myself as someone who...
---- ...is talkative.
---- ...tends to find fault with others.
---- ...does a thorough job.
S Data: Advantages - ✔✔-Based on a large amount of information
--You are always with yourself
--People are usually their own best expert
100% Pass Guarantee Olivia West, All Rights Reserved © 2025 4
