Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayers Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? What is Personality?

PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach

What is Personality?

This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any image;• any rental, lease, or lending of the program.



Purpose

• To provide a first look at personality and its study

• To introduce the plan of the course



Three Big Questions1. Who Am I?

3. What is My Future?2. How Do People Differ?

These inter-related questions (and others) tie ancientphilosophy to contemporary personality psychology



Definition of Personality Personality is the

organized, developing, system within the individual that represents the collective action of that individual’s major psychological subsystems.

Self Control

ActionImplementation

Motives andEmotions

KnowledgeGuidance

Some Psychological Systems…



Most Common Training Programs

• Central Training– Ph.D. programs in Personality– Ph.D. programs in Personality and Social Psychology

• Related Training– Ph.D. programs in Clinical and Counseling

Psychology– M.B.A. & Ph.D. programs in Organizational Behavior– M.D. programs in Psychiatry – Ed.D. programs in Educational Psychology



Rationale for Studying Personality Psychology

• Knowledge for knowledge’s sake

• Applications to assessment

• Applications to prediction and selection

• Applications to change



The Four Topics of this Course

• The four topics follow the systems framework for personality psychology

• The four topics:1. Identifying the personality system

2. Parts of personality

3. Personality organization

4. Personality development



~ end ~

Documents

Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayers Personality: A Systems Approach PART 1: EXPLORING PERSONALITYCHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PERSONALITY? What is Personality?