PSYCH 2750 Midterm: Prelim 1 Review

• School: Cornell University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 2750
• Professor: Jennifer Schwade

Document Summary

Differences between lay theory and scienti c theory of personality. Lay theory: people use vague and big characterization to make sense of complex, ambiguous and unknown behavior. It usually comes from speci c beliefs (self, signi cant others), general beliefs, preferences, roles and life outcomes. Scienti c theory: it starts with creating a language to describe phenomena in a way that allows single common understanding to emerge. It explicitly describes assumption and beliefs; it is a systematic investigation that is relatively objective. De nition of personality stable and coherent individual differences that can be described or predicted. Individual differences (ways in which we vary, how and why) The person (what makes a particular person unique; case studies and interviews ) Approches interviews, tests and self-reports, naturalistic observation and behavioral sampling, physiological functioning and brain imaging . What are level of analysis provides an overview of the many complex and diverse aspects of human personality, each addresses an individual aspect.