Psychology 1010N – York University – 2007 to 2010
RSS:
Publications
Comments

April 15, 2008

Reading:

  • Moghaddam: Chapter 13
  • Richards: none

Audio Links:

Lecture Outline:

Meaning of “personality”

    The quality of being a person

“Trait” as a descriptive construct

    Consistencies in behaviour that characterize an individual
    Set of stable characteristics that distinguish a person

Trait as an explanatory construct

    Are traits causes or effects?
    Do traits limit one’s degrees of freedom?

How many traits?

      Reserved/Outgoing
      Affected by feelings/Emotionally stable
      Trusting/Suspicious
      Introversion/Extroversion
      Stability/Neuroticism
      Impulse-control/Psychoticism
    The Big Five
      O penness to experience
      C onscientiousness
      E xtroversion/Introversion
      A greeableness
      N euroticism
    Enough to account for individual differences?
    Group, cultural differences
      Interpersonal relatedness

Psychometrics

    Measurement of traits
    Self reports – 16PF, EPQ, MMPI
    Reports of familiar others

Idiographic (vs. nomothetic) approaches to personality study

    Henry Murray
    Gordon Allport

Can traits change, be changed?

    Theories of personality
    Meaning of “self”
    Alternatives to trait approaches