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What Have We Learned CH18
Psychology Of Personality (PSYC2054)
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Where Psychology Comes Together
For a complete account of what people think, feel, and do
What do I now know about people that I didn’t know before? Think, feel, and do: the psychological triad What do I now know about people that I didn’t know before? This is an important question to ask after learning about theories and empirical findings.
Which Approach Is Right?
We can’t account for everything about a whole person at the same time.
Each approach focuses on a few key concerns and ignores everything else.
- Trait
- Biological
- Psychoanalytic
- Humanistic
- Learning and cognitive Trait: individual differences that make individuals unique Biological: nervous system, heritability, and evolutionary history of behavior Psychoanalytic: unconscious mind, effects of motivations and conflicts of which we are not aware Humanistic: conscious awareness, free will and ability to choose how we see things, cultural differences, construals of reality Learning and cognitive: focus on personality processes, how rewards and punishments in the environment shape behavior, how motivation, emotion, and the self contribute to personality
Which Approach Is Right? Cont’d
The approaches cannot be compared in this way.
- They pose different questions.
Better criteria for the approaches
- Does the approach offer a way to seek an answer to a question you feel is worthwhile? The approaches pose different questions: rather than different answers to the same questions, which is what would be needed to determine which approach is right Worthwhile questions: Individual differences (trait) Unconscious processes (psychoanalytic) Physical mechanisms (biological) Consciousness, free will, individual and cultural level construals of reality (humanistic) Behavior change, processes of thinking and feeling that underlie behavioral coherence (learning and cognitive)
Discussion Question: Have students identify their favorite and least favorite theory or theories, and have them explain why. What can be done to integrate the least and most favorite theories together? Can they be integrated? What questions do the students have about personality, and how do they relate to the theories they have chosen?
What Have We Learned?
Research methods are useful.
Cross-situational consistency and aggregation
Personality growth and change
The biological roots of personality
The unconscious mind
Free will and responsibility Major themes that are likely to be remembered: Research methods are useful: enables you to answer important questions; these skills are also useful in the business world.
Cross-situational consistency and aggregation: people remain who they are across situations; consistency is limited because behavior does change across situations (although people who are high on a trait in one situation are also high on the trait in other situations) and personality cannot predict single acts very well (but aggregate behavior can be predicted well).
Personality growth and change: There are clear patterns of personality change from childhood to old age; it is possible but not easy to change your personality.
The biological roots of personality: Consistent patterns of behavior are rooted in anatomical structures of the brain, neurotransmitters, and hormones, but there is still a lot to learn.
The unconscious mind: This concept is now a mainstream belief.
Free will and responsibility: Behavior is determined (by genetics or past experience) only up to a point, after which the person has to make a choice.
Activity: Research Methods in Everyday Life
What Have We Learned? Cont’d
The nature of happiness
Culture and personality
Choosing and changing situations
Construals
Determine correctness by trying to explain and predict behavior.
- “Personality psychology is, in the final analysis, a quest for mutual understanding” (p. 669). To learn about someone, watch and listen to what they do and say because we cannot directly know their thoughts and feelings.
Activity: Change in Thinking or Behavior
Discussion Question: Have students discuss how this course has changed or reinforced the way that they think and feel about themselves and other people. Also have them identify a topic that has changed their behavior, or that might change their behavior in the future (such as how they think, choose, or act in a specific situation). In addition, how will what they have learned change how they relate to other people and the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others?
Question 1: Answer
Which approach(es) to personality is(are) correct?
a) social learning
b) humanistic
c) psychoanalytic and behavioral
d) It is not possible to answer this question. (correct answer)
Question 2: Answer
Personality psychology
a) focuses on one way of explaining what people think and do.
b) tries to give a complete account of what people think and do. (correct answer)
c) is only concerned with what people think.
d) is only concerned with what people do.
Question 3: Answer
In order to understand another person, you
a) should collect as much of different kinds of information as possible. (correct answer)
b) should collect as much of one kind of information as possible.
c) have to ask the person to tell you about himself.
d) have to observe the person’s behavior.
For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton/puzzle8.
What Have We Learned CH18
Course: Psychology Of Personality (PSYC2054)
