PSC 162 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Twin, Longitudinal Study, Living Brain
Document Summary
The main objective of personality psychology is to understand and explain the whole person in his or her daily environment. There are overlaps with personality psychology and clinical psychology. The differences between personality psychology and other areas of psychology is that other areas of psychology treat all people as if they were the same, whereas personality psychology emphasizes individual differences. The major basic approaches to personality the trait approach, biological approach, psychoanalytic approach, humanistic approach, cross-cultural approach and learning & cognitive process approach. Biological approach: understanding the mind in terms of the body (anatomy, physiology, genetics and even evolution) Psychoanalytic approach: understand irrationality, fantasies, dreams, conscious and unconscious conflicts (concerned primarily with the unconscious mind) Humanistic approach (phenomenological approach): how conscious awareness produces unique human attributes; people"s conscious experiences of the world; meaning and basis of happiness. Cross-cultural approach: the experience of reality is shaped by culture.
