Chapter 1 | INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY THEORY
• Freud developed a “grand theory”
o Attempted to explain all personality for all people
What is personality?
• Originated from Latin “persona”
o Refers to a theatrical mask worn by Roman actors in
Greek dramas
o Project a role or false appearance
• Pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics; give consistency and individuality to a
person’s behavior
• Traits: contribute to individual differences in behavior, its
consistency, and stability across situations
o May be unique, common to a group, or shared by entire
species; but a pattern is different for each individual
• Characteristics: unique qualities
o Temperament, physique, and intelligence
What is a theory?
• Set of related assumptions that allow scientists to use logical
deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
• Tenets of theory must be stated with sufficient precision and
logical consistency
• General theory – (deductive reasoning) à particular hypothesis
Theory and its relatives
• Philosophy
o Theory is most closely related to epistemology, nature of
knowledge
o Theory does not deal with “oughts” and “shoulds”
o Theories are built on scientific evidence
§ Unbiased
• Speculation
o Speculation and empirical observation: cornerstones of
theory building
• Hypothesis
o Educated guess/prediction
o Hypotheses are more specific than theories
o Deductive reasoning (general à specific)
§ Theory à hypothesis
o Inductive reasoning (specific à general)
§ Alters theory to reflect results
• Taxonomy
o Classification of things according to natural relationships
o Mere classification -/-> theory
o Taxonomies à theories
o Taxonomies generate hypotheses and explain research
findings
Why different theories?
• Objective observations; assumptions are subject to
individual interpretation
• Usefulness of theory depends on its ability to generate
research and explain data
Perspectives in TOP
• Psychodynamic
o Importance of early childhood experience
o Relationship with parents
o Unconscious mind and motives are powerful
• Humanistic-existential
o People strive toward meaning, growth, well-being,
happiness, and psychological health
o Positive emotion and happiness
o Personality is shaped by freedom of choice
o Negative experiences can also foster growth
• Dispositional
o Predisposed to behave in unique and particular ways
o 5 main trait dimensions
• Biological-evolutionary
o Based on genotype and central nervous system
o Shaped by forces of evolution
o Interaction between nature and nurture
• Learning – (social cognitive)
o Learning occurs through association and consequences
of our behavior (reinforcement)
o Personality is shaped by how we think and perceive the
world
Theorist’s personalities and their theories
• Psychology of science: looks at personal traits of scientists
• Impact of individual’s psychological processes and personal
characteristics on the development of his/her theories and
research
• Personality differences influence one’s theoretical
orientation
• Scientific process is influence by personal characteristics
• Usefulness of the product: evaluated independently of the
process
What makes a theory useful?
Generates research
• Mutual and dynamic interaction with research data
(generates research)
o Theory generates hypotheses à research à data à
theory...
• Descriptive research: measurement, labelling, and
categorization of units employed in theory building
• Hypothesis testing: indirect verification of the usefulness of
the theory
Falsifiable
• Ability to be confirmed or disconfirmed
• Theory must be precise to suggest research that can
support/fail to support it
• Should not be vague
• A theory that can explain everything explains nothing
Organizes data
• Organizes data into a meaningful structure
o Provides explanation for results of scientific research
• Shape information into a meaningful arrangement
Guides action
• Guide over the course of day-to-day problems
• Stimulates thought and action in other disciplines
Internally consistent
• Logically compatible components
• Limitations of scopes defined
• Consistent language
• Concepts and terms are clearly and operationally defined
Parsimonious
• Simple and straightforward

Dimensions for a concept of humanity

• Determinism vs. free choice
• Pessimism vs. optimism
o Determinism – pessimistic
o Free choice – optimistic
• Causality vs. teleology
o Causality: behavior as function of past experiences
o Teleology: future goals/plans
• Conscious vs. unconscious determinants of behavior
• Biological vs. social influences
• Uniqueness vs. similarities

Research in personality theory

• Assessment techniques: personality inventories
• Reliability: consistent results
• Validity: instrument measures what it is supposed to
measure
o Construct validity: instrument measures some
hypothetical construct à should relate to observable
behavior
§ Convergent validity: scores on instrument correlate
highly with scores on valid measures of the same
construct
§ Divergent validity: low/insignificant correlations with
inventories that do not measure the construct
§ Discriminant validity: discriminate between 2 groups
of people
o Predictive validity: predicts future behavior