Introduction: Evaluating Personality Theories

Chapter 1

Personality Opinion Survey

Define Personality What are some characteristics of people you know that give them their personality Define Normal Behavior Give the characteristics of a healthy personality When you first meet people, how do you characterize them and decide how to act around them? What gives a persons life meaning? What motivates our behavior? Do we have an unconscious? Is our behavior guided by it? Our we a product of our environment, or are we born different? What does a person have to do or be in order for you to believe he or she is abnormal, sick, or crazy?

What is Personality?
Personality is not a readily defined concept There is little common agreement among personality theorists

What is Theory?
A set of abstract concepts developed about a group of facts or events in order to explain them A theory of personality is an organized system of beliefs that helps us to understand human nature Macro theories versus Micro theories

Academic Vs Clinical Approaches to the Study of Personality

Evaluating Personality Theories

As philosophers, personality theorists seek to explore what it means to be a person As scientists, personality theorists hope to develop theories that will help us understand human behavior As artists, personality theorists apply what is known about people and behavior to actually helping them

Philosophical Assumptions
Freedom Heredity Uniqueness Proactive Optimistic Determinism Environmental Universality Reactive Pessimistic

Scientific Statements
Statements about the world based on observations arising from currently accepted paradigms Empirical observations based on objective or subjective data When observations coincide, a scientist may make a generalization Operational Definitions Scientific Constructs
trait

Thinking Critically
Evaluating Personality Theories Do our philosophical assumptions fulfill the criteria of philosophy? Coherence, relevance, comprehensiveness, compellingness Do our scientific statements fulfill the criteria of science? Verifiability, compatibility, usefulness predictive power, simplicity

Applying Personality Theories

Research The clinical approach The psychometric approach Correlation (+, -) Experiment Outcomes of research Assessment valid, reliable Psychometric tests Projective tests Psychotherapy

Projective Tests

See you next Personality week! Theory

Dr. Kerri Michalica Welcome to