AP Psychology: Personality Notes

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Key Takeaways: Personality

  1. Personality theories are ways of describing the qualities of people that make them unique individuals. Type and trait theories seek to classify people or specific parts of their personality. The behavioral perspective says that people are a product of their environment, while the biopsychological perspective says that people are a product of their genes. The social cognitive perspective says that personality and environment influence each other, and the humanistic perspective focuses on the positive and healthy aspects of personality.
  2. The psychoanalytic perspective is a controversial theory of personality that has evolved over time. Psychoanalysts use unconscious instincts and desires to explain thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
  3. Psychologists use objective and projective tests to study personality. Objective tests are questionnaires that reveal personality traits, but care must be taken to ensure their internal and external validity. Projective tests seek to reveal unconscious thoughts through the use of ambiguous images, but critics feel these tests reveal more about recent experiences or conscious thoughts than unconscious feelings.
  4. Culture has an impact on the way personality develops. In particular, collectivist and individualistic cultures differently affect personal thoughts, behaviors, and values.


Key Takeaways: Personality


Personality Theories

  • Personality: The set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of a person and consistent over time and in different situations.
  • Type theory: A kind of personality theory that organizes people into different sorts of individuals.
  • Trait theory: A kind of personality theory that lists classifiable characteristics that add together in different combinations and to different degrees to make a unique personality.
  • Type-A: An ambitious and competitive personality, according to one type theory.
  • Type-B: A laid-back and relaxed personality, according to one type theory.
  • PEN model: Trait theory that focuses on placing people on a continuum for each of three personality traits: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism.
  • Psychoticism: PEN trait that corresponds to aggression and non-conformity.
  • Extraversion: PEN trait that corresponds to thriving on external stimulation; also a member of the Big Five.
  • Neuroticism: PEN trait that corresponds to anxiety and fight-or-flight stress response; also a member of the Big Five.
  • Big Five: Trait theory that reorganizes and builds on the PEN traits, keeping extraversion and neuroticism, and adding openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Can be remembered using the mnemonic OCEAN.
  • Openness to experience: Big Five trait that corresponds to curiosity vs. caution.
  • Conscientiousness: Big Five trait that corresponds to organization vs. carelessness.
  • Agreeableness: Big Five trait that corresponds to friendliness vs. detachment.
  • Biopsychological approach: Theory that maintains that personality is heavily influenced by genes.
  • Behaviorist approach: Theory that maintains that personality is heavily influenced by environment and experience.
  • Social cognitive perspective: Theory that maintains personality both shapes and is shaped by environment.
  • Reciprocal determinism: The idea from the social cognitive perspective that thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and environment all influence each other in determining a person’s actions in a given situation.
  • Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective: Personality theory that explains behaviors by looking at unconscious drives and feelings.
  • Structural model: Divides the conscious and unconscious mind into the id, ego, and superego.

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Full Notes

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