Psychology 2035A/B Chapter 2: Theories of Personality

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

What is personality? (1) the stability in a person"s behavior over time and across situations (consistency) (2) the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness) A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. L some traits arc more basic than others. A small number of fundamental traits determine other, For example, a person"s tendency to be impulsive, restless, irritable, boisterous, and impatient might all derive from a more basic tendency to be excitable. For example, raymond cattell (1950, 1966) used the statistical procedure of factor analysis to reduce a list of 171 personality traits compiled by gordon allport (1937) to just. In factor analysis, correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables. People who score high in extraversion are characterized as outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious.