What is personality psychology?
The individual characteristic patterns of thought, emotions, and behaviour together with the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not – behind those patterns
When thinking of personality, we tend to think of it as:
Psychological triad
how people feel, think, and behave
Goals of Personality Psychology
Basic approaches in Personality Psychology
S Data
Self-report
Advantages of S data
Disadvantages of S data
I Data
Informant-Report
Advantages of I Data
Disadvantages of I Data
L Data
Life Outcomes
Advantages of L Data
Disadvantages of L Data
- possible lack of psychological relevance
B Data
Behavioural Observations
Natural B Data
Laboratory B Data
Distinction between B and S Data (with regards to personality tests)
S data - want to know the answer; direct
B data - want to know how you will answer; must be interpreted
Advantages and Disadvantage of B Data
Advantage:
Disadvantage:
- uncertain interpretation
Behaviouroid
- a measure that has participants report what they think they would do under various circumstances
Implicit assessments
measuring associations between the sense of self and aspects of personality that are implicit
Subjective vs Objective
**There is some sort of interpretation in every data; 80 000$ objective yes but we can label as low, average, or high
Studying a particular phenomenon or individual in depth both to understand the particular case and in hopes of discovering general lessons or scientific laws
Case study
- provided foundation for many psychologists (especially personality psych)
Advantages of Case Study