PSYC 2740 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Psychoanalytic Theory, Psychophysiology, Nomothetic

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2740
• Professor: Stephen Lewis

Document Summary

Personality - the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments. Psychological mechanisms - like traits, except the term mechanisms refers more to processes or personality. Adaptations - a central feature of personality concerns adaptive functioning (goals, coping, adjusting) Environment - poses a challenge for people often: direct threats to survival (food shortages, heights, spiders, social environment - many people competing for the same high prestige job. Intrapsychic environment (in the mind) - private experiences, dreams, desires, fantasies: affects self-esteem. Three levels of personality analysis: like all others (the human nature level), human nature - the traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and are possessed by everyone or nearly everyone. Fissure - most contemporary research occurs in the levels below: like some others (the level of individual and group differences); and.