Personality Psychology

The biopsychosocial model is a framework for understanding human behavior and personality. It consists of three components: biological (genetic and physiological), psychological (affective, behavioral, and cognitive), and social (socio-economic, socio-environmental, and cultural) factors.

Traits refer to relatively stable patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that distinguish an individual, whereas states are transient and context-dependent. Traits are enduring, while states are influenced by the situation.

The power of the situation refers to the idea that an individual's behavior is often determined more by the situation they are in than by their traits, leading to low trait consistency across situations.

<p>Self-monitoring refers to the ability to adjust one's behavior to fit the situation. High self-monitors tend to be less consistent across situations, whereas low self-monitors tend to be more consistent.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Psycho-metry, or the science of psychological measurement, aims to develop and use standardized methods to measure personality, enabling researchers to quantify and compare individual differences.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The lexical hypothesis is the assumption that significant individual differences, such as personality traits, are encoded in the language. This means that by reviewing dictionaries, we can find a list of traits people use to describe each other.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The Big Five dimensions of personality are Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. They represent independent traits of personality that can be measured universally.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Introverts are inward-looking and tend to avoid extra stimuli, while extroverts are outgoing and seek extra stimuli. This is related to the Reticular Activating System, which modulates the sleep-wake cycle and controls saliva, and is influenced by the lemon test, which shows that introverts produce more saliva and are more easily excited.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Genetics play a significant role in personality, with some characteristics having been shown to be 40-60% heritable. Twin studies, which compare children raised together or not, support this by showing that identical twins are more similar in personality than fraternal twins.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The psychoanalytic perspective, developed by Sigmund Freud, sees personality as rooted in childhood experiences and unconscious conflicts. Defense mechanisms, such as repression, displacement, and rationalization, are used to buffer against conflict and anxiety, and understanding these mechanisms can help us uncover the underlying motives and desires that shape personality.</p> Signup and view all the answers