PSYC10004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Personality Psychology
Personality
• Once referred to capacities – such as consciousness and rational thought – that were believe
give humans a special place in creation; referred to shared humanity
• Then came to refer more to characteristics that give individuality
• "persona" French mask worn by actor – n this sense, personality is a matter of roles or
characters that he or she assumes
• Was then referred to vivacity or charisma
"Personality" in Psychology
• difficult to define
• Fundamentally a matter of human individuality or 'individual differences'
• Only psychological differences between people; differences having to do with thought,
emotion, motivation and behaviour
• Psychologists argue mood and emotions are not aspects of personality
• Only characteristics that are stable and consistent can be thought of as lasting dispositions of
a person; personality
• Peoples emotional states may reflect enduring emotional dispositions (eg. You may be
anger-prone)
• Emotions are too short-lived to be considered as aspects of personality
• Attitudes, beliefs, tastes, habits are not part of personality; quite narrow and restricted in
their psychological relevance
o Attitudes and beliefs concern specific propositions, tastes concern specific
experiences, habits concern specific actions
o Personality characteristics have relatively broad relevance; generalised patterns of
psychological functioning
• therefore, personality is (1) psychological in nature, (2) fall outside intellectual domain, (3)
are enduring dispositions rather than transient states and, (4) form relatively broad or
generalised patterns
• Some propose that definition should not only refer to individual differences in dispositions
but also to underlying psychological mechanisms and processes that give rise to them
• Not only a set of characteristics but also dynamics that account for these characteristics
• Funder: an individual's characteristic pattern of thought, emotion, and behaviour, together
with the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not – behind those patterns
Related Concepts
• 'temperament' and 'character' often used interchangeably with personality
• Temperament: those aspects of psychological individuality that are present are birth or at
least early in child development
o Related to emotional expression; presumed to have biological basis
• Character: personal attributes that are relevant to moral conduct, self-mastery, will-power
and integrity
o 'poor character' might be deceitful, impulsive and shiftless; result of socialisation
• Psychologists tend to think of them as referring to different sorts of personality
characteristics
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