PSC 162 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Unconscious Mind, Personality Psychology, Personality Disorder
Document Summary
Psychology is about the precise manipulation of independent variables for the furtherance of compelling theoretical accounts of well-specified phenomena. Inconsistencies between feelings, thoughts, & behaviors are common. Personality & clinical psychology are different, but also both overlap. Combine for the study of personality disorders. Both types of psychology are looking to understand people as a whole. Personality - an individual"s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, & behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms - hidden or not - behind those patterns. Personality psychologists mission = explain whole persons. Put together pieces of the puzzle which include other subfields of psychology. Basic approach (paradigm) - systematic, self - imposed limitation. Trait approach - focus on ways people differ psychologically & how these differences might be conceptualized, measured, & followed over time. Biological approach - try to understand the mind in terms of the body. Address biological mechanisms (anatomy, physiology, genetics, evolution) & their relevance for personality.
