What is Personality?

Personality Lab
January 14, 2011
 Three Levels of
“Knowing Another Person”
Dan McAdams
• Personality Traits – psychology of the stranger
 The Five Factor Model
aka The Big 5

• Neurotic vs. Emotionally Stable

• Extraversion vs. Introversion
• Openness to Experience vs. Traditional
• Agreeableness vs. Disagreeableness
• Conscientiousness vs. Impulsive
 Three Levels of
“Knowing Another Person”
Dan McAdams
• Personality Traits – psychology of the stranger
• Life Tasks – what’s happening now
• Self-History – personal life story
 What is Personality?
• Definition according to Funder – Personality is
an individual’s characteristic patterns of
thought, emotion, and behavior, together with
the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not –
behind those patterns.
• The ABCs of Personality – Affect, Behavior,
Cognition, and Motivation