When written in decimal notation, the number 1.776 * 103

Personality Defined - The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organized and relatively enduring and influences interactions with, and adaptions to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environment Definitions - Psychological Traits: Characteristics that describe the ways in which people are similar and different from each other • ‘Average’ tendencies of a person, across situations - Psychological mechanisms: Process by which a person turns information inputs into behavioral outputs • See someone charging you —> decision/rule process —> fight/run - Adaptation: heritable characteristics that exist because it solves ‘a problem’ • Being cooperative and agreeable with non-related others solves the problem of living and surviving in large groups Three Levels of Personality - Human nature • How we are ‘like others’ • Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and possessed by nearly everyone - Individual and Group difference • How we are ‘like some others’ • Individual differences - ways each person is like some others • Group differences - ways people of one group differ from people in another group - Individual Uniqueness • How we are like no others Every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the • world • Individuals can be studied together using - Nomothetic strategies • Recruiting samples of participants on which to conduct research • Statistical methods used to learn more about universal characteristics - Ideographic stratagies • Study of a single person to identify general principles that are manifested in a single life over time A Fissure in the Field - Current state of field • Gap within personality psychology hasn't been bridged • Human nature level of analysis vs. analysis of group and individual differences - This translates to the gap between grand theories of personality and contemporary research in personality Grand theories of Personality - Attempt to provide universal account of the fundamental psychological process and characteristics of our species - Statement about universal core of human nature lie at the center of grand theories of personality, such as Freud’s psychoanalytic theory Contemporary Research in Personality - Most current research dresses ways in which individuals and grouper differ, not human universals • Study of ‘Individual Differences’ - Personality psychologists tend to be ‘narrow’ • Specializing in a particular domain, such as biological aspects of personality or how culture impacts personality Domains of Knowledge - One way to make sense of the vast amount of research in many different areas of personality is to appreciate that this research occurs along several domains of knowledge - Domain of knowledge — a specialty area of science and scholarship, where psychologists have focused on learning about specific and limited aspects of human nature - This specialization is reasonable, but we must strive to integrate diverse domains of knowledge to get the ‘big picture’ of personality - The six Domains • Dispositional - Deals with ways individuals differ from one another and cuts across all other domains - Focuses on number and nature of fundamental dispositions • ‘Trait’ theories of personality • Trait taxonomies differ greatly • Often statistically driven - Goal is to identify and measure the most important way people differ - Also interested in origin of individual differences and how they develop over time Biological • - Core assumption of biological approaches to personality is that humans are collections of biological system, and these systems provide building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion - Behavioral genetics - Psychophysiology - Evolutionary personality • Intrapsychic - Deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside conscious awareness - Classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory, work on repression, denial, projection, and motives for power, achievement, and affiliation Cognitive-Experiential • - Focus on cognition and subject experience • Self and self-concept • Goals er set and strive to meet • Emotional experiences • Social and cultural - Assumption that personality affects, and is affected by, culture and social contexts - Much recent work on cultural differences between groups - Much work on differences within culture—how personality p;ays out in social spheres • Less work on way these difference differences - At human nature level, all humans have a common set of concerns that struggle they struggle with in the social sphere Adjustment • - Personality plays a key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to events in daily life - Personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping and adjustment Interim Summary - Six domains • Dispositional • Biological • Intrapsychic • Cognitive • Social/cultural • Adjustment - Although a certain domain may be more important in specific cases, a complete understandi of personality requires all 6