PSYC 2740 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Psychophysiology, Timothy Leary, Psychoticism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2740
• Professor: Alexis Arbuthnott

Document Summary

Traits as internal causal properties- some personality psychologists believe that desires can be considered causal. This is because internal desires influence external behaviour. Others psychologist believe that desires are independent from behaviour because sometimes we do not act on our desires. Traits exist even in even in the absences of observable behaviour. Traits as purely descriptive summaries-some psychologists define traits as descriptive summaries of attributes of persons. There might be many reasons for a trait instead of just an internal cause. The act frequency of formulation of traits an illustration of the descriptive summary. The act frequency approach starts with the notion that traits are categories of acts. Act frequency research program-the act frequency approach to traits involves 3 key elements act nomination prototypicality judgment and the recording of act performance. Act nomination-is a procedure designed to identify which acts belong in which traits categories. Prototypicality judgment-involves identifying which acts are most central to or prototypical of each category.